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What's your AW calorie goal? How are you achieving it?

U

Uppercut05

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 19, 2015
104
4
I have had my Apple Watch for a week and a half now and I love it. The fitness side of things is brilliant. I use it when I run and it works great for me.

I am wondering, what do people have as their calorie goal setting? Because of my running I nominated my goal to be "medium" activity level, and based on my other factors it recommended 710 calories per day.

I've kept it at that level because on days I run (anywhere between 5 and 35km) I easily make it. But I am finding on days I don't run I am really struggling to get there. I work in an office job, and it's brilliant for getting me up and moving.

But take today for example. I have gone on 3 separate walks between 1.5k and 2.5k, and I still have only managed to get abour 3/4 of the way to my required goal. That's on top of making a conscious effort to get up from my seat and walk around as I talk on the phone.

I feel like a complete loser, but I've dialed the goal back to 600 calories just now. With everything I've done today I've managed so far (at 4:30pm) to get to 517 calories. So I tend to think that even 600 is going to be a stretch to achieve every single day, including running rest days, and I need the goal to be achievable.

So I'd be really interested in knowing what other people have set as their calorie goal and how they are going about making it, and what they are doing or have changed to ensure they hit it?
 
Uppercut05 said:
I have had my Apple Watch for a week and a half now and I love it. The fitness side of things is brilliant. I use it when I run and it works great for me.

I am wondering, what do people have as their calorie goal setting? Because of my running I nominated my goal to be "medium" activity level, and based on my other factors it recommended 710 calories per day.

I've kept it at that level because on days I run (anywhere between 5 and 35km) I easily make it. But I am finding on days I don't run I am really struggling to get there. I work in an office job, and it's brilliant for getting me up and moving.

But take today for example. I have gone on 3 separate walks between 1.5k and 2.5k, and I still have only managed to get abour 3/4 of the way to my required goal. That's on top of making a conscious effort to get up from my seat and walk around as I talk on the phone.

I feel like a complete loser, but I've dialed the goal back to 600 calories just now. With everything I've done today I've managed so far (at 4:30pm) to get to 517 calories. So I tend to think that even 600 is going to be a stretch to achieve every single day, including running rest days, and I need the goal to be achievable.

So I'd be really interested in knowing what other people have set as their calorie goal and how they are going about making it, and what they are doing or have changed to ensure they hit it?
Click to expand...

I have mine at 1000 and hit it today and didn't even workout :confused:
 
Walking is exercise for the lazy. You ever seen a beautiful fitness model where all they did was walk? Even lardo hamplanets can walk. Do something that forces you to exert yourself.
 
LiemTa said:
Walking is exercise for the lazy. You ever seen a beautiful fitness model where all they did was walk? Even lardo hamplanets can walk. Do something that forces you to exert yourself.
Click to expand...

Basically this, i do hard walks and jogging a lot and it works just to slim down and hit calorie goals.....now if i could just stop my sushi addiction :rolleyes: haha
 
jk4lebron23 said:
Basically this, i do hard walks and jogging a lot and it works just to slim down and hit calorie goals.....now if i could just stop my sushi addiction :rolleyes: haha
Click to expand...

Raw fish isn't bad for you in moderation, relative to mercury levels. It's the sake, Japanese beer, copious amounts of rice, and desserts you have with your meal that make a sushi restaurant contribute to your waistline.
 
jk4lebron23 said:
Absolutely nothing active haha

Studio engineer, walk back and forth some around the place and have to move some equipment around but nothing real heavy or anything.
Click to expand...

maybe it just goes to show how disastrously sedentary an office job can be then.

I'm going to keep track of it and see how I go on non-running days.

Perhaps you should consider upping your goal if you are getting there so easily? It seems to me you aren't getting the most out of it if you don't use it to alter behaviour (although you might be quite happy with it of course, which is cool).

I'd still be really interested to hear what people's goals are and if they have changed their behaviour to achieve it.

----------
LiemTa said:
Raw fish isn't bad for you in moderation, relative to mercury levels. It's the sake, Japanese beer, copious amounts of rice, and desserts you have with your meal that make a sushi restaurant contribute to your waistline.
Click to expand...

and that sweet, sweet kewpie mayo *drools*
 
This is interesting and I've been thinking about it too. I set mine up for light activity because, other than some push-ups and dumbbell work each night which is around 20 curls, presses and shoulder shrugs, I don't exercise much. I have a desk job and last week I just barely made my goal set at 350 each day. On a day when I'm home and just doing things around the house and running errands, I doubled it twice. This weekend I did a bunch of yard work and quadrupled it with more than 17k steps and 10+ miles of movement. So it seems like I have a few different tiers of activity, based on my schedule.
 
I originally set low, which it pulled as 450 for me. Obviously that was too easy.
Now I have it at 650 and I meat that at least 1/2 the days, BUT I don't do any exercise right now, I hope in a month I can start exercising again, with the watch, running, etc.

650 I get just from little tasks for work and chores around home, cleaning car, washing clothes, etc.

I *HATE* that once you set "low activity," you cannot get a recommendation for low, medium, or high again, you have to make your own goal. I like the pre-defined goals.
 
I got mine set at 400 #
Extremely easy to hit as I work out almost every day. Any non workout day it's a motivator to get off my ass #
 
I've also struggled to find a move goal that is stretching but not demoralising.

It sounds like I have a similar pattern of activity - on 3 or 4 days a week I do some 'proper' exercise (typically a 12-14k run, or 60 min cardio in the gym plus 30 min strength training). On these days I have no problem nailing my goal - for example yesterday I did 60 minutes cardio, 30 min strength, and plenty of walking (shopping etc.), totalling 862 active calories.

However I have an office job and while I do what I can to keep active (always take the stairs, walk everywhere) there's limited opportunity. Last week I had a fairly typical day at the office, and in the evening did a 30 minute abs workout, logged as 'other'. On that day I hit just over 300 active calories.

Before wearing the Apple Watch I had a Nike Fuelband, and whilst not perfect it was much more forgiving in allowing me days where I didn't need to do a load of cardio to hit a target. As it stands I'm setting a goal of 350 calories, which is trivial on workout days but will hopefully get me off my arse on days when not at the gym or running. It does feel very low though - to an extent that I'm wondering if it's tracking accurately.
 
LiemTa said:
Walking is exercise for the lazy. You ever seen a beautiful fitness model where all they did was walk? Even lardo hamplanets can walk. Do something that forces you to exert yourself.
Click to expand...

I don't know. some people like me are just naturally slim. no matter what I do, eat or how lazy I am I just can't gain a single kg. I already got it checked but nothing, so I am happy with "lazy" walks :p
 
Mine is set at 750 currently and I am hitting it consistently. I bike or walk wherever I am going which is really effective, but of course not possible for everyone due to climate or commute distance. I bike approximately 10 kilometres per day and walk an average of 7 km per day so far.
 
It seems to me to make sense to set goals that are stretching but achievable on your non exercise days, so that you will push yourself to do a little more on those days. It shouldn't matter that you lap the counter on your busier days. Apple have achievements for 2x and 3x your daily goal which acknowledges that some days you'll get exceed it. This seems better than having a stretching goal you simply won't get close to on your quiet days

I input low activity as I have a desk job, and it gave me 300 cals. That seemed too low so after a few days I upped it to 500. Most days I get this quite easily but occasionally find I'm 50 short and will head out for a walk which seems about right for now
 
180 lbs. 6'2".

730 calorie goal.

It was easy every weekday as I run after work, and hit that amount with my run alone.

Saturday was easy as I ran a half marathon and had 1,500+ just for the run.

Sunday was tough as it was mostly a day of rest after the race, but I did some random stuff here and there along with a 2 mile leisure walk to hit the 730 goal.
 
IF I had a watch I would do this:

I am wearing a FitBit Charge HR since January.
Looking at the data fed to health it tells me my daily average for the last month. I will put this into the Watch and then see what the Watch decides.
Apparently it will learn.

But this is all theoretical as I don't have a watch! :mad:
 
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