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If you want to get the most out of you Apple Watch fitness tracking features, is there a way to calibrate it for stride length and other factors. Here’s how to do it.
The Apple Watch is a fantastic tool to track and improve your health. However, in order to do its job properly, your Apple Watch must have the correct permissions and be properly calibrated.
The first step is to make sure the Apple Watch has permission to track your location for motion calibration and distance purposes.
Enable motion calibration and distance for Apple Watch
- Open on your iPhone Settings
- Tap Privacy
- Tap Location Services
- Make sure that Location Services is enabled
- Scroll down, tap System Services
- Switch on Motion Calibration and Distance
Once you have completed the steps above, you can work on calibrating your Apple Watch. The Apple Watch automatically calibrates each time you do a specific activity for 20 minutes, such as walking or running outdoors. So, one of the easiest and most consistent ways to calibrate your Apple Watch is with a quick 20-minute Outdoor Walk workout.
How to calibrate your Apple Watch for workout accuracy
- Wear your Apple Watch outdoors in a flat, open space
- Open the training app
- Tap Outdoor walk
- Walk at a normal pace for 20 minutes
If you don’t have time to complete a 20-minute workout, you can complete it over several sessions. However, you should try to keep your pace as constant as possible – don’t jog through one part of the 20-minute workout and walk through the other.
It’s important that you keep your health data up to date, as your Apple Watch uses the data to calculate your fitness levels, calorie burn, stride distance, and more. You can check if your details are correct as follows:
View your health data on your Apple Watch
- On your iPhone: Open the Watch app
- Scroll down and tap Health
- Tap Health Details
- Please check your details to make sure they are correct
If not, you can edit them by following the steps below.
How to update your health data on your iPhone
- On your iPhone: Open the Watch app
- Scroll down and tap Health
- Tap View my health data
- Tap Dimensions
- Edit your details if necessary