Movement Goals

One of the biggest benefits personally from the Apple Watch is the Activity app which encourages me to move more each day.

I set a modest goal, the app suggests readjustments when you beat/fail goals. Right now it’s at around 200 calories. That doesn’t seem like much but the watch does not measure the calories you burn by just living. They take into account your body, movement and heart rate to figure out active calories for the movement app. 220 is a modest amount because on days where I’m super lazy I embarrassingly don’t make it. It’s encouraged me to do more walking and taking stairs instead of escalators.

Another part to it is this Exercise ring. It tracks any strenuous activity (again based on heart rate I think). I don’t always exercise but I do a lot of fast walking that happens to fill this ring. On days where I feel like I have some movement to catch up on I do the 7 minute workout.

One thing we often don’t take into account is how much time we spent sitting each day. The activity app has goals for how many hours you’ve stood at least a minute. It seems like an easy goal to make but I often get reminded at the 50 minute mark that I’ve been siting for too long.

I don’t think these small changes will shed any visible weight (not that I need to) but it’s always healthy to find ways to encourage movement and I love that I have these little goals and reminders.