Vo2 max on Apple Watch versus your perceived fitness

[Anonymous]

Curious for those of you with an Apple Watch or garmin that gives you a fitness score based on estimated VO2 max how well you think it tracks your actual fitness. Do you think you’re in shape but have a low score or vice versa? Or is it pretty spot on?

[Anonymous]

I don't know how accurate it is compared to say a laboratory test but seems to match where I think I am fitness wise.

[Anonymous]

Pretty close. Wrist based heart rate for running for me is ok. For some it isn’t great and you can get cadence lock. For cycling the watch is useless and you need a chest strap. Same with swimming. Garmin calculates one metric for running and one for cycling. Cycling for me is usually 2-4 higher when I’m peaking during a training cycle. I mostly ignore it.

Sometimes I know it’s going to downgrade me if it’s particularly hot or upgrade me if it’s particularly cold. HR is always responsive to that.

[Anonymous]

It gets thrown off if you're exercising in poor weather conditions because it only uses HR and pace. When I'm running in the summer my fitness is usually at a peak but my HR is high for the pace because it's hot and humid - then in the fall I get a spike in Vo2 but really it's just a lower HR because the weather is more tolerable, not better fitness.

[Anonymous]

My rating is in the “high” category which somewhat surprises me. Most of the year I exercise a few times a week but nothing special. I’ll occasionally train for an endurance event (tri, half marathon) but as a back-of-the-pack finisher. I do see increases when I’m at peak training but am kind of surprised in general V02max indicates my fitness is as high as it does as I don’t consider myself very fit. I have a naturally pretty low heart-rate - maybe that influences it?

[Anonymous]

Apple Watch only tracks your VO2Max when outdoor running or outdoor walking. So I think for most it's not that accurate.

That said mine is at 29. I'm 57F. That is considered high very high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty close. Wrist based heart rate for running for me is ok. For some it isn’t great and you can get cadence lock. For cycling the watch is useless and you need a chest strap. Same with swimming. Garmin calculates one metric for running and one for cycling. Cycling for me is usually 2-4 higher when I’m peaking during a training cycle. I mostly ignore it.

Sometimes I know it’s going to downgrade me if it’s particularly hot or upgrade me if it’s particularly cold. HR is always responsive to that.

It doesn’t register vo2 when swimming? I swim daily in the summer and I find it very accurate in terms of distance swam, given I know how long the pool is and how many laps I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty close. Wrist based heart rate for running for me is ok. For some it isn’t great and you can get cadence lock. For cycling the watch is useless and you need a chest strap. Same with swimming. Garmin calculates one metric for running and one for cycling. Cycling for me is usually 2-4 higher when I’m peaking during a training cycle. I mostly ignore it.

Sometimes I know it’s going to downgrade me if it’s particularly hot or upgrade me if it’s particularly cold. HR is always responsive to that.

It doesn’t register vo2 when swimming? I swim daily in the summer and I find it very accurate in terms of distance swam, given I know how long the pool is and how many laps I do.

Watches cheat with swimming because they also know how long pools are and it’s easy for them to tell when you turn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apple Watch only tracks your VO2Max when outdoor running or outdoor walking. So I think for most it's not that accurate.

That said mine is at 29. I'm 57F. That is considered high very high.

That's average to above average. Not 'very high.'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty close. Wrist based heart rate for running for me is ok. For some it isn’t great and you can get cadence lock. For cycling the watch is useless and you need a chest strap. Same with swimming. Garmin calculates one metric for running and one for cycling. Cycling for me is usually 2-4 higher when I’m peaking during a training cycle. I mostly ignore it.

Sometimes I know it’s going to downgrade me if it’s particularly hot or upgrade me if it’s particularly cold. HR is always responsive to that.

It doesn’t register vo2 when swimming? I swim daily in the summer and I find it very accurate in terms of distance swam, given I know how long the pool is and how many laps I do.

Garmin doesn’t calculate one for swimming. I suspect apple doesn’t either. I’m not sure why. One reason could be that the HR watch sensors measure in the pool may be even more useless than what they measure when biking. And because it’s so incredibly firm based that it wouldn’t be normalizable. It’s counting the laps using gyroscopes and movement like the other poster mentioned.

I’m stuck swimming while I rehab an injury, and it’s my least favorite sport. I’m actually enjoying it though. They finally got workouts to automatically download from my training software to Garmin. Great workout if you have good form and a pool where you can consistently get a lane!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apple Watch only tracks your VO2Max when outdoor running or outdoor walking. So I think for most it's not that accurate.

That said mine is at 29. I'm 57F. That is considered high very high.

That's average to above average. Not 'very high.'

I actually said "high very high" So you are partly correct its not "very high", but for my age and gender it is considered 'high' - just on the edge, but still "high". But even if it's actually "above average", I'm still proud of myself.

Appreciate the correction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apple Watch only tracks your VO2Max when outdoor running or outdoor walking. So I think for most it's not that accurate.

That said mine is at 29. I'm 57F. That is considered high very high.

How did you figure that out? I’ve been wondering why my VO2Max is slightly lower this year even though I’m in slightly better shape. Last year I was running outside and this year I’m doing Orangetheory, so what you’re saying aligns with my experience. Just didn’t know the watch made the indoor/outdoor distinction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apple Watch only tracks your VO2Max when outdoor running or outdoor walking. So I think for most it's not that accurate.

That said mine is at 29. I'm 57F. That is considered high very high.

How did you figure that out? I’ve been wondering why my VO2Max is slightly lower this year even though I’m in slightly better shape. Last year I was running outside and this year I’m doing Orangetheory, so what you’re saying aligns with my experience. Just didn’t know the watch made the indoor/outdoor distinction.

The apple watch "Fitness" app gives you the breakdown. If you click on it another window opens up, and at the bottom there's a "learn more" tab. that actually shows you your graph and where you fall on that graph. I'm at 29.6 which is labeled as 'HIGH' on my graph.

This is what I read on the apple forum in response to a question re: the VO2max reading: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253860204
"....If you can’t find any VO2 max readings in the Health app, that is probably because you have not yet logged the right kind of workouts with your watch. Only two workout types can produce an estimated VO2 max on Apple Watch: Outdoor Walk and Outdoor Run. (However, I believe Hiking also works.). VO2 max relates to maximal exertion. So you’ll need to log a pretty intensive workout to generate a reading. And you’ll need to sustain it for at least 20 minutes."

[Anonymous]

I can’t get mine up update reliably. I’ve recorded outdoor walks and it hasn’t shown up. And I have two random times where it has registered that don’t coincide with any workout. It’s a total mystery to me! My readings are high (39.2) I’m just not sure how to trust them when I don’t know where they are coming from.