NEAT stands for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and refers to the energy your body uses during everyday movement outside of planned exercise. In the app, NEAT calories are based on Active Energy data received from Apple Health.
This may include calories associated with everyday movement such as walking, moving around, climbing stairs, and other activity recorded by your iPhone, Apple Watch, or connected apps and devices. Apple Health can receive activity data from multiple sources, including your iPhone, Apple Watch, and third party apps or Bluetooth devices.
Why might my NEAT calories look different?
Sometimes, you may notice differences in Active Energy data when multiple devices or apps contribute information to Apple Health. Apple Health keeps data from each source separate and uses a priority system when the same type of data comes from more than one source. Since each device or app may calculate activity and calories in its own way, the numbers can vary a bit.
Additionally, your iPhone and Apple Watch use different sensors and personal information to estimate activity and calories, so these numbers are estimates rather than exact measurements. Because of this, itâs normal to see small differences between the values shown in Apple Health, your devices, and the app.
What if my NEAT calories show 0?
If NEAT shows 0, first check whether Apple Health has any Active Energy data for the current day:
Open Apple Health.
Tap the search icon đ and search for Active Energy.
Select Active Energy and check whether there are any records for today.
Scroll down to Data Sources & Access and make sure the Calorie Counter app has permission to read Active Energy data:
If Apple Health doesn't have Active Energy records, or our app doesn't have permission to read them, there may be no data available for the app to display. You can check and enable the permission for Active Energy in Apple Health â Sharing tab â Apps â Calorie Counter â turn on the Active Energy toggle both for writing and reading data:
How to fix incorrect or duplicate NEAT calories
If your NEAT calories look incorrect, or workout calories appear both under your workout activity and in NEAT, the same activity may be recorded as Active Energy in Apple Health. This can happen when multiple apps or devices contribute Active Energy data.
To check and manage these records:
Open Apple Health â Active Energy â Data Sources & Access and review which apps and devices are contributing data.
If another app or device is also contributing Active Energy, it may provide additional or different records that affect the data available to the app. You can disable its permission to write Active Energy or tap Edit in the top right and press and hold the source to uncheck it and make it inactive.
Go back to Active Energy â Show All Data and review the individual records. Delete any incorrect or duplicate entries, including workout related records that shouldn't be there.
Refresh the app after making changes
After making any changes in Apple Health, close the Calorie Counter app completely and reopen it to make sure the updated Apple Health data is displayed correctly.
đĄ Tip: If you use multiple fitness apps or devices, checking Active Energy â Data Sources & Access is a good first step whenever your NEAT calories look unexpectedly high, low, or different from the values shown elsewhere.