Apple exercise targets arbitary - are they configurable??

[Tulipone]

So I have had my Apple Watch almost a year and it has helped me loose some weight by motivating me to actually get moving. Each month the targets increase to a stage where they, for me, are no longer achievable. I just don't have the time the latest target required (average of 77 minutes per day) and it is slipping by without my even trying to achieve it.

What I am doing instead is a 'Couch to 5k' minimum of 30 minutes with a view of getting my 10x5k T Shirt and moving to 5k to 10k. So I guess my question is, how can I affect the targets set by Apple to reflect something actually useful? I enjoyed making them every month until now.

 

[Significant1]

What targets are you talking about. The monthly challenge?

Since afaik the default exercise Target is fixed to 30 minutes.

 

[Wando64]

So I have had my Apple Watch almost a year and it has helped me loose some weight by motivating me to actually get moving. Each month the targets increase to a stage where they, for me, are no longer achievable. I just don't have the time the latest target required (average of 77 minutes per day) and it is slipping by without my even trying to achieve it.

What I am doing instead is a 'Couch to 5k' minimum of 30 minutes with a view of getting my 10x5k T Shirt and moving to 5k to 10k. So I guess my question is, how can I affect the targets set by Apple to reflect something actually useful? I enjoyed making them every month until now.

The activity target is reviewed and re-set every week.
The watch will suggest what it think is the most appropriate target, depending of your actual activity during the previous week.
However, at that point, if you don't like the suggested target you can change it to whatever you want.

You can also do this at any other time by following these instructions:

Track daily activity with Apple Watch

Use Activity on your Apple Watch to track how often you stand up, how much you move, and the amount of time you exercise.

support.apple.com

EDIT:
Scrap all that. Do you mean the monthly Challenges?
If so, I don't think you can change them.

 

[Tulipone]

Sorry you are both right - Monthly Challenges. It is a shame that you cannot decide your longer term goals and it help you to achieve those rather than just increasing each target. Surely that is just setting you up to fail?

 

[millerj123]

Sorry you are both right - Monthly Challenges. It is a shame that you cannot decide your longer term goals and it help you to achieve those rather than just increasing each target. Surely that is just setting you up to fail?

At some point, yes. As long as you are just generally trying to get healthy, they work. If you train for a particular event or activity, it may be problematic.

 

[mollyc]

I don't worry too much about the monthly challenges. Sometimes they are a nice normal challenge, just a bit out of reach but attainable. Sometimes they are crazy pants. If you complete them month after month they get especially brutal because it's all just a learning algorithm. If you can do X, you can do X+Y. If you can do that, you can do X+Y+Z.....ad infinitum. No thank you. I keep my calorie goal where I want and close my rings every day. I do probably 8/12 of the monthly challenges. If you miss a month or two, then the monthly challenges become reasonable again.

 

[Tulipone]

I am waiting to see what happens when you really fail to make the monthly challenge. Apple Watch revenge with an electric shock? I would prefer to be able to set a useful goal and hope that Apple come to realise this.

 

[mollyc]

I am waiting to see what happens when you really fail to make the monthly challenge. Apple Watch revenge with an electric shock? I would prefer to be able to set a useful goal and hope that Apple come to realise this.

You'll just get super easy targets until you start hitting them again. 🙂 Then they will increase again each month till you can't make them.

It would be handy to have your own targets, but I think that is what the Move goal is for - you can set that one yourself. I don't go with Apple's suggestion on that one anymore and keep it where I want it.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

We're each different, but I find that most of the monthly challenges don't push that far beyond whatever my current "normal" happens to be. I've completed 18 Monthly challenges since December 2017, which means I've missed 7. I'm ahead of pace to finish this month's. It's a bit more of a push than some others, but still fits within my time constraints.

I have resisted the "encouragement" to increase my Move goal by as much as suggested. My goal is 25% higher than it was last year at this time, but I'd rather succeed daily than risk falling short on occasion and deciding to allow myself frequent failures or breaks.

 

[iamasmith]

Sorry you are both right - Monthly Challenges. It is a shame that you cannot decide your longer term goals and it help you to achieve those rather than just increasing each target. Surely that is just setting you up to fail?

I'm in the same boat. I had, I admit, started to be somewhat guarded about extra exercise once I'd met my monthly challenge for fear that it would up the trend for the monthly challenge and make it impossible. I'd kept doing monthly challnges and doing some pretty respectable walk/run distance monthly's that really made me try and stretched me.

Then, it seemed there was a bug in December that hit me when I was challanged to close all 3 rings 29 days in the month and it stuck at 25 days (even though I did it) and I failed the challenge. After that, for the month, I just coasted and did my move goal (partly because I was sick with a cold).

I'm taking the view now that the 3 standard goals ARE probably worth doing but the monthly challenge? - I think that given the way it continues to extend unless you manipulate it by slacking it's hardly a good thing because there _will_ come a point irrespective of how active you are that you can't take more. For the first time now I think I'll start looking for good apps and plan my progress rather than let Apple ecosystem do it but I will say that it's a great motivator to get you into that area of training where you probably want to control it yourself better

 

[Tulipone]

I'm taking the view now that the 3 standard goals ARE probably worth doing but the monthly challenge? - I think that given the way it continues to extend unless you manipulate it by slacking it's hardly a good thing because there _will_ come a point irrespective of how active you are that you can't take more. For the first time now I think I'll start looking for good apps and plan my progress rather than let Apple ecosystem do it but I will say that it's a great motivator to get you into that area of training where you probably want to control it yourself better

Exactly this. But I do wish that Apple would make life easier by allowing us to set our own targets and goals.

 

[millerj123]

I’ve completed 23 monthly challenges back to December 2017. It seems like they level off at some point, which for me is doubling my move goal every day, or an hour of moderate activity a day.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I might also note that a challenge, by its nature, is optional. We don't have to take every dare that comes our way.

I expect Apple performs statistical analysis on the entire challenges system. They ought to know when particular challenge types and goals (which I'm sure are percentages-based according to the individual's historic activity performance) turn out to be unusually difficult or easy to meet and can then adjust future challenges accordingly.

 

[millerj123]

I might also note that a challenge, by its nature, is optional. We don't have to take every dare that comes our way.

I expect Apple performs statistical analysis on the entire challenges system. They ought to know when particular challenge types and goals (which I'm sure are percentages-based according to the individual's historic activity performance) turn out to be unusually difficult or easy to meet and can then adjust future challenges accordingly.

I wish I could agree with this. It's just like when someone says "hold my beer and watch this!" You have to do it.