How to calibrate an Apple Watch for accurate fitness tracking

If you’re looking to get the most of your Apple Watch fitness tracking features, there’s a way to calibrate it for step length and other factors. Here’s how to do it. The Apple Watch is a fantastic tool for tracking and improving your health. However, in order to do its job correctly, your Apple Watch needs to have the proper permissions and be appropriately calibrated.

The first step is ensuring that the Apple Watch has permission to track your location for motion calibration and distance purposes.

How to enable Motion Calibration & Distance for Apple Watch

On your iPhone, open Settings
Tap Privacy
Tap Location Services
Make sure Location Services is toggled on
Scroll down, tap System Services
Toggle on Motion Calibration & Distance

Once you have done the above steps, you can work on calibrating your Apple Watch. The Apple Watch automatically calibrates any time you do 20 minutes of a specific activity, 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 outside in a flat, open area
Open the Workout app
Tap Outdoor Walk
Walk at a normal pace for 20 minutes

If you do not have time to complete a 20-minute workout, you may complete it over multiple sessions. However, you should try to keep your pace as consistent as possible — do not jog through one portion of the 20-minute workout and walk through another.
It is important that you keep your health data up to date, as your Apple Watch will use the data to calculate your fitness levels, caloric burn, stride distance, and more. You can check to see that your data is accurate by doing the following:

How to view your Health Details on your Apple Watch