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When you first open Realburn, iOS shows the Health permission screen. For the most accurate numbers, turn on everything Realburn asks for:

• Active and resting energy, steps and workouts: what you burn;
• Dietary energy: what you eat, from Quick Log or any food app;
• Weight and body fat: your weight trend, which shows your real balance;
• Height, date of birth and sex: your resting burn, when there is no watch data.

Realburn writes only one thing: the food you log with Quick Log, as Dietary Energy. Nothing leaves your iPhone. See the privacy policy.

On iOS 27, the Health permission screen also asks how much of your history an app may read. Choose All Recorded Data. Otherwise Realburn can see only the last 30 days, and has to calibrate from scratch instead of using the weight and food you’ve already logged.

If you’ve already chosen a shorter period, you can change it in the iOS Settings app, under Privacy & Security › Health › Realburn. Realburn picks up the older data the next time you open it.

iOS doesn’t tell apps when you refuse a permission: a refused type looks exactly like a type with no data. If something is missing, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Health › Realburn and check that the types are turned on.

Also check that the data is really in Apple Health: open the Health app and look for your weight, steps or calories there. Realburn can only use what another app or device has written to Health.

Health data can’t be read while your iPhone is locked, so numbers in widgets can lag until you next unlock it.

Anything that writes to Apple Health: Apple Watch and other watches or rings, smart scales, and food apps like MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, MacroFactor or Yazio. Check each app’s own settings to make sure it writes to Health.

If two sources record the same thing, like a watch and a ring both counting active energy, Health uses the order of your data sources, so Realburn doesn’t count the calories twice.

Every number Realburn shows comes with its precision, so you know how sure it is. It depends on the data you have:

Calibration needs about three weeks of logged food and regular weigh-ins. Realburn then works out your personal factor, for example that your watch counts 17% too much, or that your body burns 9% less than the formula says. After that you can stop logging: your burn stays calibrated, and your scale keeps checking it.

Logging doesn’t have to be exact, just consistent. If you always underestimate by about the same amount, calibration absorbs it.

No. Realburn works with just your iPhone. Without a watch, it estimates your burn from your age, sex, height and weight, plus the steps your iPhone counts, your workouts and digestion.

A watch or ring adds minute-by-minute activity, which makes the estimate finer. Realburn doesn’t take its number at face value, though: it checks it against your scale like any other source. On days you don’t wear it, Realburn uses its own model for that day.

No. With a scale, your weight trend already shows your real deficit and roughly how much you eat. Logging food, in any app or with Quick Log, is what gets you to a single, calibrated number, and three weeks of it is enough.

Quick Log is made to take a few seconds: type a number, add a meal you’ve saved, or pick small, medium or large. It is saved to Apple Health, so your other apps see it too.

Energy doesn’t disappear. Over a few weeks, the food you ate minus the change in your weight shows how much you really burned. Realburn compares that with what your watch reported for the same days and works out your watch’s personal factor, like ×0.83.