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Move goal technical query?
- Thread starter WinSoft
- Start date
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Every Monday you’ll get a summary of the previous week’s activity coupled with a suggestion for the move goal. (At least, with default notification, etc., settings).
I don’t know the logic used to determine the suggested move goal. It seems to lean heavily on the current move goal unless you’ve significantly changed your activity patterns — and, even then, just a single active week doesn’t seem to trigger a different suggestion. My guess is that it’s based on at least the previous month’s average, with a suggestion that’ll have you beating your activity target 70%-80% of days, and only if that means a change by some threshold (probably in the range of 20 Kcal, by eyeball).
Whether or not the auto-suggested move goal next Monday considers your mid-week manual adjustment … I’ve no clue.
I would add, though … the suggestions seem perfect for the stated (and only reasonable) purpose of getting you to be active. I would strongly recommend against manually setting a lower goal, unless you have a physician telling you to limit your activity. If you’re looking to set a higher goal, if it’s for some specific training purpose … that specific training purpose is guaranteed to be better served by something other than Apple’s rings system. In which case I’d suggest going with Apple’s suggestions for the rings and using some other system for tracking your training.
Cheers,
b&
I don’t know the logic used to determine the suggested move goal. It seems to lean heavily on the current move goal unless you’ve significantly changed your activity patterns — and, even then, just a single active week doesn’t seem to trigger a different suggestion. My guess is that it’s based on at least the previous month’s average, with a suggestion that’ll have you beating your activity target 70%-80% of days, and only if that means a change by some threshold (probably in the range of 20 Kcal, by eyeball).
Whether or not the auto-suggested move goal next Monday considers your mid-week manual adjustment … I’ve no clue.
I would add, though … the suggestions seem perfect for the stated (and only reasonable) purpose of getting you to be active. I would strongly recommend against manually setting a lower goal, unless you have a physician telling you to limit your activity. If you’re looking to set a higher goal, if it’s for some specific training purpose … that specific training purpose is guaranteed to be better served by something other than Apple’s rings system. In which case I’d suggest going with Apple’s suggestions for the rings and using some other system for tracking your training.
Cheers,
b&
Thank you for your help. Do you know how to go back to the default move goal setting?
Should I reset my Apple Watch?
I wanted to adjust my move goal manually so that it would persuade me to walk a bit more as it was set incredibly low by the system.
The default comes from the initial setup questions and is based on your responses to the questions about your age and activity level (etc.). It’s intended as a not-miserable starting point, but there’s nothing magical (and certainly nothing intelligent) about it.
How long have you had the watch?
If you’ve only had it a week or three, go ahead and set it to something that your instinct tells you you’re likely to hit more days than not, but not every day. Or, think back to a day in the past week or so when you were as active as you want (that you can think of as a reasonable minimum baseline) and use that day’s calorie count (see the Health app on your phone) for the figure.
If you’ve had it a while, look in the Health app for your activity for the past month and eyeball a line that covers 80% of the days and set it to that.
If either or both of those agree with what the watch itself has already suggested to you … leave the goal where it is, but give yourself a new goal: a perfect month. And then another perfect month, if necessary. Won’t be long before the watch is suggesting a new goal — and that one will be pretty realistic for keeping you at that elevated activity level.
Eventually, you’ll reach a point where it’s just not realistic to keep up perfect months with the watch’s suggested activity levels … and congratulations! You’re now moving at your optimum rate.
b&
How long have you had the watch?
If you’ve only had it a week or three, go ahead and set it to something that your instinct tells you you’re likely to hit more days than not, but not every day. Or, think back to a day in the past week or so when you were as active as you want (that you can think of as a reasonable minimum baseline) and use that day’s calorie count (see the Health app on your phone) for the figure.
If you’ve had it a while, look in the Health app for your activity for the past month and eyeball a line that covers 80% of the days and set it to that.
If either or both of those agree with what the watch itself has already suggested to you … leave the goal where it is, but give yourself a new goal: a perfect month. And then another perfect month, if necessary. Won’t be long before the watch is suggesting a new goal — and that one will be pretty realistic for keeping you at that elevated activity level.
Eventually, you’ll reach a point where it’s just not realistic to keep up perfect months with the watch’s suggested activity levels … and congratulations! You’re now moving at your optimum rate.
b&
Thank you, I changed the goal manually as it was way off. I hope I continue to receive coaching reminders and weekly reminders suggesting new appropriate goals moving forwards. Thanks for your help.
Another perspective. The built-in goal is too high for previously sedentary people. Better to drop it a bunch and then, as one gets into shape, manually set it higher.
Another reason and one that I subscribe to as well. I only wear my watch about 10 hours a day, so I set a lower move goal than that suggested.
I figure I’m comparably active the other hours and would rather get 3-4 days of use out of my watch.
Of course, the weakest link in all this is that the move algorithm dumbly gives you credit for hand motions such as typing, iPad scrolling, and knitting, so it's way off, anyway!
Do you continue to get the notifications on a Monday advising a new goal? Does the AI still work after changing the goal manually?
That’s what I thought about doing. It’s so low at 180 for a move goal that I’ve changed it to 400 as I’m hitting around 380 a day and then I can change it bit by bit as I get more active. Is that a good idea?
Cheers.
Calling it “AI” is rather a bit of a stretch. Dollars to donuts, the algorithm can be replicated in Excel with a formula much shorter than this paragraph.
Over the long run, this really is a good application of the “80/20” rule.
If your target is one that you’ll hit on 80% of your days … it works to your advantage in a number of ways.
First, it’s a realistic-enough target that you’ll hit it often enough to be encouraged (“I can do this!”), but not so often and easily that you’ll become complacent (“Meh, I’m closing that ring no matter what.”).
Then, it’s enough of a stretch to give you incentive to go for it (“I did it yesterday; I can do it again today.”) without being oppressive (“Meh, there’s no chance of me closing the ring, so why bother?”).
It’ll help keep you from backsliding, which is important in the short term to keep your spirits up and the long term to help combat the bad parts of aging.
And … it keeps the perfect month as a challenging-but-attainable goal.
If you want to increase your activity level, doing so in a big way is probably a big mistrake. It’s a good way to crash and burn.
But … with an “80/20” move goal, you’ve got enough slack that you can take an easy / rest day that still gets your ring (barely) closed, so you can keep the momentum going through the whole month. While you likely won’t be able to sustain that new level of activity for two perfect months in a row, you’ll still have “reset” your baseline to a slightly more active level that you’ll be able to sustain as a new slightly higher goal (which the Watch will automatically suggest) indefinitely at the 80/20 level.
The long-term goal shouldn’t be any particular number. It really should be to sustain at least the CDC guidelines:
Move More; Sit Less
Suggestions for how adults can get the recommended amounts of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity each week.
… and to consider anything above and beyond the 150 minutes per week as icing on the cake.
That really points to my own recommendation to what I think would benefit you the most … a 380 Kcal goal is as good a starting place as any if that’s where you’re winding up 80% of days. Let the watch fine-tune it as it sees fit. In the mean time … focus not on the Move ring, but the Exercise ring. Get in enough walking (or running or cycling or swimming, whatever’s your thing) every day to close it, and add on two (three at most) days a week of 15-30 minutes (no more, unless you’re a gym rat) of resistance / strength exercises.
If you like going to the gym, that’s a great place to work on the machines and / or with free weights for your strength training. But every bit as good for your body is bodyweight exercise. If you’re into pilates or yoga or the like, perfect. If not, you can easily enough build your own routine with pushups, squats, and the like. You can do great without any equipment at all, and just adding a towel and a door can get you everything you need. All the exercises can (and must!) be adjusted for your current condition … you probably can’t do one-handed pushups with your feet on a chair, but you can certainly do pushups against a wall and almost certainly against a table. Rotate between pushing, legs, pulling, and core with a minute or so of activity followed by half a minute or so of rest. Bonus points for additional variation between rounds … first close-grip pushups, then wide-grip, that sort of thing.
There are lots of great resources for bodyweight training, but Mark Lauren literally wrote the encyclopedia: You Are Your Own Gym.
Or … again … the local paid-for gym, barre … whatever boats your float.
Cheers,
b&
it appears to me that apple's recommendations for Move goals is very much long term; meaning it usually recommends different goals only looking at your longer term achieved Move data. and even at that, it doesn't seem to recommend new goals very often.
apple has twice recommended lower Move goals for me, when i was really struggling to meet the goal i had set.
in my case i chose to use my own more difficult Move goal. i did need to push myself to reach it though. but i was able to eventually meet it consistently.
i like the way apple makes it very easy to change goals almost on the fly. and whenever it does recommend more difficult goals, i always set it to that new goal.
in my case i haven't failed to meet the monthly targets to get the monthly badge since the time i got the watch.
for better or worse, maintaining that string of badges is one of the things i enjoy about the watch.
Thank you again for your help.Calling it “AI” is rather a bit of a stretch. Dollars to donuts, the algorithm can be replicated in Excel with a formula much shorter than this paragraph.
Over the long run, this really is a good application of the “80/20” rule.
If your target is one that you’ll hit on 80% of your days … it works to your advantage in a number of ways.
First, it’s a realistic-enough target that you’ll hit it often enough to be encouraged (“I can do this!”), but not so often and easily that you’ll become complacent (“Meh, I’m closing that ring no matter what.”).
Then, it’s enough of a stretch to give you incentive to go for it (“I did it yesterday; I can do it again today.”) without being oppressive (“Meh, there’s no chance of me closing the ring, so why bother?”).
It’ll help keep you from backsliding, which is important in the short term to keep your spirits up and the long term to help combat the bad parts of aging.
And … it keeps the perfect month as a challenging-but-attainable goal.
If you want to increase your activity level, doing so in a big way is probably a big mistrake. It’s a good way to crash and burn.
But … with an “80/20” move goal, you’ve got enough slack that you can take an easy / rest day that still gets your ring (barely) closed, so you can keep the momentum going through the whole month. While you likely won’t be able to sustain that new level of activity for two perfect months in a row, you’ll still have “reset” your baseline to a slightly more active level that you’ll be able to sustain as a new slightly higher goal (which the Watch will automatically suggest) indefinitely at the 80/20 level.
The long-term goal shouldn’t be any particular number. It really should be to sustain at least the CDC guidelines:
Move More; Sit Less
Suggestions for how adults can get the recommended amounts of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity each week.www.cdc.gov
… and to consider anything above and beyond the 150 minutes per week as icing on the cake.
That really points to my own recommendation to what I think would benefit you the most … a 380 Kcal goal is as good a starting place as any if that’s where you’re winding up 80% of days. Let the watch fine-tune it as it sees fit. In the mean time … focus not on the Move ring, but the Exercise ring. Get in enough walking (or running or cycling or swimming, whatever’s your thing) every day to close it, and add on two (three at most) days a week of 15-30 minutes (no more, unless you’re a gym rat) of resistance / strength exercises.
If you like going to the gym, that’s a great place to work on the machines and / or with free weights for your strength training. But every bit as good for your body is bodyweight exercise. If you’re into pilates or yoga or the like, perfect. If not, you can easily enough build your own routine with pushups, squats, and the like. You can do great without any equipment at all, and just adding a towel and a door can get you everything you need. All the exercises can (and must!) be adjusted for your current condition … you probably can’t do one-handed pushups with your feet on a chair, but you can certainly do pushups against a wall and almost certainly against a table. Rotate between pushing, legs, pulling, and core with a minute or so of activity followed by half a minute or so of rest. Bonus points for additional variation between rounds … first close-grip pushups, then wide-grip, that sort of thing.
There are lots of great resources for bodyweight training, but Mark Lauren literally wrote the encyclopedia: You Are Your Own Gym.
Or … again … the local paid-for gym, barre … whatever boats your float.
Cheers,
b&
So you’ve changed your goal manually and it’s still recommended every now and again new goals? Thanks.
Right now I keep my usual move goal (500 kcals) quite low for my standards in order to reach it also on rest days with few routine exercises. When there is a suggestion of a higher move goal (usually every Monday) I lower it down manually to 500.
yes.
and, although i dont know how it is for others, in my case, apple only has recommended Move goals. never changes to my Exercise or Stand goals. i think this might be because im primarily a long distance walker. so i go for several hours at a time, but need to be aware of increasing my pace of walking or the exertion level of walking (like walking up hills) in order to meet the increased Move goals.
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I do get the weekly summary and the Set Move Goal prompt. It suggests a new amount based on my performance relative to the goal over the last week. You can accept the suggested new goal (which could be the same as it was) — or adjust it up or down manually with the left and right - and + buttons as you see fit.
Given that I haven't pushed myself — trying to exceed the Move goal — I’m typically prompted to leave the goal as it. That's fine by me, although now with warmer, sunnier weather, I may stretch myself.
I might also try wearing the watch more hours for a couple of days and see whether my assumption that I am active for the hours I don't wear the watch is true or not.