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In the past, Apple’s Fitness app needed an Apple Watch to monitor, track, and display your workouts and fitness routines. Your watch recorded the calories you burn (Move), the length of your workouts (Exercise), and how many hours you spend standing (Stand) as rings. However, iPhone owners can now monitor their workouts without need of the watch.
Using its own built-in motion sensors, the iPhone will track your physical activity throughout the day and any workouts performed via supported third-party apps. Your phone can then show calories burned, steps taken, flights of steps climbed, and total distance walked each day, week, and month. Plus, you can add activities from an Apple Fitness+ subscription, which means your workouts, meditation sessions, and other programs can be tracked and recorded.
Set Up Apple Fitness
In order to use the Fitness app on your iPhone, you’ll need iOS 16 or higher. Next, open the Fitness app on your phone and tap Continue at the Welcome screen. If you’ve never used the app, you’ll be asked to enter certain key data, such as your date of birth, sex, height, and weight. Fill in the information, tap Done, and then tap Continue.
Next, set how active you want to be each day. Use the plus (+) and minus (–) buttons to set a specific number of calories you wish to burn. Tap Change Move Goal to finalize your choice.
The app will then ask you to enable notifications, explaining that this will help you close your rings, see your trends, and cheer on your friends as they work out. Tap Continue and then select Allow to let the Fitness app send you notifications. You’re then deposited at the Summary screen. Any of these details can be changed by tapping your account profile
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View Your Metrics
Now, as you exert yourself throughout the day, simply keep your iPhone in your pocket, and it will record your activity. To view the metrics for the current day, open the Fitness app on your phone. The Activity section on the Summary screen displays the following items:
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Move: The number of calories you’ve burned out of how many calories you wish to burn as your goal for the day.
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Exercise: The amount of time spent exercising.
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Stand: The amount of time spent standing.
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Step Count: The number of steps you’ve taken so far.
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Step Distance: How far you’ve walked so far for the day.
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Sessions: The number of exercise sessions you’ve completed recently.
Tap the Activity Rings section at the top to drill down further and see the Move, Exercise, and Stand rings with a graph for each one showing how much you’ve achieved for the day related to your overall goal. The numbers below the graph display the steps, distance, and flights climbed so far.
Tap Change Goals if you wish to modify the number of calories you want to burn each day. After revising the number, tap Change Move Goal. At the next screen, change the number of minutes you aim to exercise each day and then tap Change Exercise Goal. Next, modify the number of hours you plan to stand each day. Tap Change Stand Goal.
Tap the Pause Rings button if you wish to pause the activity recording. Choose the duration for pausing the rings. When you’re ready to get back to tracking, tap the Resume Rings button to resume.
At the Rings summary screen, you can travel back in time to see your stats for previous days. Swipe the screen to the right to go back one day. Tap a specific date at the top to view the results for that day or choose the calendar icon at the top to select the date.
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Back at the summary screen, tap the Step Count entry to see the total number of steps. Tap the View All Step Metrics button to see the count and distance. Tap Step Distance to view the distance you’ve walked. From there, you can also view the count and distance.
View Trends and Awards
If you need extra motivation to close your ring each day, swipe down to the Trends section on the Summary screen. Tap Get Started and then tap OK. After you’ve generated 180 days worth of activity, you’ll start receiving notifications about your trends. The goal is to see how you fare over the long haul so you can be proud of the progress you’ve made or strive to do better.
Once trends begin populating, you should see data for different rings and activities. Tap a specific trend, such as the one for Move, Distance, Walking Pace, or Running Pace. The app will display a graph showing you the daily average results so you can see your progress in that activity.
As you meet (or beat) your fitness goals, the app will present you with different awards to acknowledge your accomplishments. In the Awards section, tap a specific award to see it. Tap the Show All link to see all the awards you’ve received.
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Share Your Activities
You can share your activity with other people and invite them to join you on your fitness journey. Tap the Sharing icon at the bottom and then tap Get Started. Choose the People icon at the top of the next screen, then hit the plus (+) icon to add a contact. You can type the name, phone number, or email address of the person you wish to invite. Tap Send to send the invitation.
The invited person will then receive a notification in the Fitness app. They must select the notification and then tap Accept to accept your invitation. From that point, the fitness stats and results will appear on the Sharing screen for both you and the other person.
Set Up Apple Fitness+ From Your iPhone
To add your Apple Fitness+ workouts to the Fitness app on your iPhone, tap the Fitness+ icon at the bottom, then tap Continue and choose the Start Working Out button. Now pay for the subscription. After you’ve kicked off the subscription, you can explore the different workouts and other activities, and add specific ones to your library.