How to Choose the Best Apple Watch Move Goal

This article will help you understand the daily move goal on your Apple Watch, and help you decide on the best move goal for you to use.

When you first set up your watch, it chooses a goal for you. This is a fine place to start—you don’t need to have the perfect move goal from day one. The watch will keep track of whether you meet that goal each day and suggest a new goal. You will notice whether the goals it offers help you be as active as you want to be or not, and we will use this insight to set a better goal.

But first, let’s understand what the “active calories” are that count toward the move goal.

Then, we’ll explore what makes the best move goal and how to use it to improve your health.

What Is the Apple Watch Move Goal?

You may be increasing your movement because you are looking to improve your physical fitness or lose weight (or both). Either way, the energy burned to power this movement is measured in calories. The Apple Watch calls these “active calories.”

It also takes energy just to keep the body alive. This energy is also measured in calories. The staying alive calories plus your active calories equals the “total calories” you will see on some screens of the watch.

The Apple Watch move goal is your target for how many active calories you want to burn each day.

How to Set the Best Apple Watch Move Goal

The best Apple Watch move goal is one that motivates you to move.

Whether it is the end of your first day with the watch, or you have been wearing it for some time, check how many active calories you had today and whether you closed the move ring. Ask yourself if that was a typical amount of movement for you.

If there was a big difference between the goal and your actual active calories, go ahead and change the goal to match your typical active calories (see How to Set the Move Goal on Your Apple Watch). If it was in the same ballpark, leave it there for a few days. This will give you a chance to see how you feel about meeting or not meeting the goal each day.

After awhile, I recommend a move goal that is slightly more that what you currently move to give you a target for improving your health, and I recommend increasing it every so often when you have achieved a new typical daily movement.

Although the watch awards you when you have long streaks of meeting the move goal, I suggest being okay with not meeting it every day. I appreciate looking back and saying, “That’s where I took care of my health by resting when I had a cold,” or “There’s the day I was tied up in meetings all day; what can I do to work around that in the future?” If I set my goal so that I always meet the goal, then I lose those opportunities.

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Note: For assistance updating your move goal on your watch, refer to How to Set the Move Goal on Your Apple Watch.

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