How often do you increase your goal?

[cwbcpa]

I'm just wondering how often people increase their move goal. I've only had my watch about 10 days or so. I bumped mine up quite a bit last Monday and since I worked out everyday this past week the watch is suggesting a much higher goal. I bumped it up a little. Obviously, the higher it is the more challenging it will be to get the 2x, 3x and 4x move achievements. I don't want that to be the reason that I set my goal lower, but it's already high enough to where I am not sure how I would get to 3x goal. I would have to be running a marathon I think. Lol.

 

[rangerdeyo]

I increased mine almost every week at first. Basically I just took what it recommended and went with that. My activity has been pretty standard week to week for a while now. I dont concern myself with the 2x, 3x. If I get those, great.

 

[Mac Guy]

I'm in no hurry to move it up. I use the various achievement awards as incentives. Took a walk yesterday and inadvertently scored a 4X badge.

It sounds silly to some, but those badges are really nice looking. I need to learn how to use my photo editing software to put the badges on a horizontal black background to be desktop pictures (aka wallpaper).

I'd like a Tiffany-stlye lamp made with them!

 

[cwbcpa]

I increased mine almost every week at first. Basically I just took what it recommended and went with that. My activity has been pretty standard week to week for a while now. I dont concern myself with the 2x, 3x. If I get those, great.

Agreed. I want to push myself more than I want some achievement. I guess if I do get it at some point it really will be an achievement. lol.

 

[doogald]

The first week that I used it, it defaulted to 660 active calories. The second week, it wanted to bump up to 1010 calories, which seemed ridiculous to me.

I set mine to 600 calories on week two and have increased by 10 calories on the first week of the month, so I'm now up to 630 calories. Every week it wants to bump it up, but I set it back to where I want it. 10 calories extra every 4-5 weeks seems like a pretty doable increase for somebody who already exercises an average of 1:15 per day. If I was just starting out an exercise program, I might go up 10 calories per week instead, going down by 10 calories the first week of every month (as every exercise program should probably incorporate the equivalent of an easy week every month.)

 

[rangerdeyo]

It seems to look at your average day for the week and gives you an estimate based on that. So if you have one really ridiculous day (a long hike), you get an big increase.

My average in a week is around 600/day like doogald. Most of that is the 3 days a week I run. The other 4 are split between walking and yoga. So I keep my daily set to what I usually do in my lower days which is around 500.

 

[mark-d]

I've had my Apple Watch since December. I've not changed the goal from 400.

The reason I've not changed it is because I don't understand it. Coming from a jawbone I want to achieve my 10,000 steps goal but I can't work out what to set my Apple goal in calories at to get it to 10,000 steps!

 

[cwbcpa]

I've had my Apple Watch since December. I've not changed the goal from 400.

The reason I've not changed it is because I don't understand it. Coming from a jawbone I want to achieve my 10,000 steps goal but I can't work out what to set my Apple goal in calories at to get it to 10,000 steps!

Most people are used to tracking steps from other trackers. The move goal is tracking or at least estimating calories burned. So you may burn a certain number of calories taking 10,000 steps all day and someone else may burn that much by doing one hour of strength and cardio training.

My suggestion would be to look at what the Watch is suggesting each week. It's basing that suggestion on your average activity each day. The downside to that is if you have a day that you are extremely active, it will skew your average up higher than what you get in a normal day. Take a look at what you are getting daily for calories burned in you move goal and then decide if you want to bump that up and be more active to reach a higher goal.

 

[tcuprof]

I changed mine several times the first few months I had the watch. Now, I feel it's a reasonable goal and only change it twice a year - higher in summer and lower during the school year.

 

[mark-d]

Most people are used to tracking steps from other trackers. The move goal is tracking or at least estimating calories burned. So you may burn a certain number of calories taking 10,000 steps all day and someone else may burn that much by doing one hour of strength and cardio training.

My suggestion would be to look at what the Watch is suggesting each week. It's basing that suggestion on your average activity each day. The downside to that is if you have a day that you are extremely active, it will skew your average up higher than what you get in a normal day. Take a look at what you are getting daily for calories burned in you move goal and then decide if you want to bump that up and be more active to reach a higher goal.

See that's what's confused me, a friend has similar calories but more or less steps than me so I have no idea where I'm setting it!

 

[cwbcpa]

See that's what's confused me, a friend has similar calories but more or less steps than me so I have no idea where I'm setting it!

That's because the Apple Watch is measuring calories burned based off more than just steps. It is factoring in heart rate over the course of the day as well. The other fitness trackers do something similar but since you are setting a step goal, you don't notice. Now you are setting a calorie goal instead.

Don't worry about where your friends calories are at. That has nothing to do with your goal. Base your goal setting on your activity. Look at what you're burning on average and set a goal based on that.

 

[mumfoau]

I typically increase mine when Apple tells me it's time to do so because I've been constantly meeting the current goal.

 

[rangerdeyo]

That's because the Apple Watch is measuring calories burned based off more than just steps. It is factoring in heart rate over the course of the day as well. The other fitness trackers do something similar but since you are setting a step goal, you don't notice. Now you are setting a calorie goal instead.

Don't worry about where your friends calories are at. That has nothing to do with your goal. Base your goal setting on your activity. Look at what you're burning on average and set a goal based on that.

This. If you have all your info input into the health app (height, weight, age etc...) all of those things factor into your calorie burn.

 

[tcuprof]

This. If you have all your info input into the health app (height, weight, age etc...) all of those things factor into your calorie burn.

The better the condition you are in, the slower your burn rate for calories. That's why it's very difficult to compare active calories.

 

[cwbcpa]

The better the condition you are in, the slower your burn rate for calories. That's why it's very difficult to compare active calories.

Exactly. I've noticed that now that I've had my watch for a couple weeks. The first week I would get credit for exercising if I walked the dog outside to take a . Now I actually have to get my heart rate up to get credit. I like that. I don't want credit for casually walking around. I was closing my exercise ring before I actually worked out on some days.

 

[rangerdeyo]

Exactly. I've noticed that now that I've had my watch for a couple weeks. The first week I would get credit for exercising if I walked the dog outside to take a . Now I actually have to get my heart rate up to get credit. I like that. I don't want credit for casually walking around. I was closing my exercise ring before I actually worked out on some days.

Perhaps the health app is "learning" about your fitness level the more you do with the watch on.

 

[cwbcpa]

It absolutely is. I'm sure that's the way it's designed

 

[metllicamilitia]

I've settled on one and don't even check the weekly update. It keeps wanting to bump it up higher than my average day will allow me to complete, and I like completing the rings.

 

[tcuprof]

Perhaps the health app is "learning" about your fitness level the more you do with the watch on.

I wonder if it's truly learning, or if there is just some simple algorithm that says if increase/decrease = X%, then suggest increase/decrease of X%.

 

[cwbcpa]

I wonder if it's truly learning, or if there is just some simple algorithm that says if increase/decrease = X%, then suggest increase/decrease of X%.

I think the goal recommendation is probably an algorithm of some sort. I think that the way it determines what is exercise or not is learned based off your historical data from reading your heart rate at various activities and at rest.

I was definitely getting exercise credit for activity that wasn't really exercise early on. I don't get credit for those slow walks around the yard with the dog now, but if we go for a walk at a good pace I will get credit.