That Cardio Thing

With the Apple Watch, I’ve learned more about my level of fitness based on the biometrics it’s been collecting.   I’ve never had a fit bit but I have been tracking my exercise in an app on my phone for a long while now.  I knew how much I could run and how quickly I could do it.   I had an idea what my heart rate was because I had a heart rate monitor I wore for a while.   I got a good estimate on how many calories were burned from a particular exercise based on general statistics combined with what I had done in that specific workout.  

All that information was fairly close to the information I’m getting now, which goes to show all the statistical models for exercise are quite accurate these days.   What I didn’t have was a regular sampling of my heart rate combined with the movement (steps) I was doing throughout the day.  

With the Apple Watch on whenever I’m not submerged in water (pool, tub, waterfall, etc.) or sleeping, I now have confirmation that I really do burn just about 1700 resting calories per day.   This means if I lie in bed watching television or move calmly around, doing nothing exerting at all, I would need seventeen-hundred calories of nourishment each day to maintain my weight.

I’ve found out I generally move enough to get my hear rate to a level where I’m burning “active calories” as Apple calls it, meaning calories above and beyond the base metabolic rate I would burn otherwise.   This is nice because I like to eat and burning extra calories means I get to eat more junk, ahem, I mean healthy food.

What I’ve been surprised about is with the “exercise” calculation the Apple Watch is doing.   I don’t disagree with their calculations, I just didn’t think about it before.   The daily challenge is to do, “30 minutes of exercise.”   You don’t have to do any at all, but you get this green circle filled in if you do, which is gratifying, and you get a ding accompanied by a text message saying how great it is you made your daily exercise goal.  

The surprise for me was that unless I started exercising and did so with something like running or biking, my heart rate might not even get into the range that qualified for “exercise.”  I did a workout with the arms/chest machine one day and was surprised to find out that even though I was working hard, it wasn’t considered, “exercise.”

Again, I have no qualms with the way the calculations are being done by Apple.   I think it’s that I’ve done enough regular exercise now, sometimes for long periods of time, that it takes a bit to get into exercise mode for me.   When I stop exercising, my heart rate drops down very quickly—more quickly than I would have expected until I watched the heart rate on the watch.

So is this good or is this bad?   From a fitness level, I suppose it’s good.  This whole Apple Watch fitness component has been far more interesting than I imagined it would be.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is very social.  He can now get all around our neighborhood pool.   He will go over to anyone, adult or child, talk to them and possibly tell them what he thinks they should do.   He’s made a lot of friends.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was looking at our digital and picture-based weather station before bed tonight.   She said to me, “Mom, it’s cloud day.”  I looked over and she was right, the picture was of clouds.   She then said, “maybe tomorrow will be sun day.”

Fitness Update:  Two miles in ninety-five-ish weather today to get my blue (or is it green) whirly to go around on the watch.   I was doing some testing on what it took to get in and out of “exercise” levels.  As it turns out, when it’s that hot outside, it doesn’t take much.