What is your Apple Watch setup for fitness/weight loss/sleep/activity tracking?

[captainserj]

I got myself an Apple Watch a couple of days ago - kind of wish I had bought a Fitbit Blaze instead, but it doesn’t look like I can return the Apple Watch, so I will be sticking with it. That said, I do like the Apple Watch, but boy is it complicated… for what I want to do with it anyway. I’ve been looking longingly at the Fitbit app with its weight loss goals and simple, clear step and calorie goals, sleep tracking, motivational notifications etc., all contained within the single Fitbit app itself, and I’d like to be able to do something similar with the Apple Watch. From what I can see, there is no single app on the Apple Watch the does all of this. Lots of apps plug in to Apple’s “Health Kit” and talk to each other, and then its kind of up to the user to compile all the data themselves or pick one app to do that for you… so I’m wondering what apps people use on the watch, preferably with complications/notifications, for the best experience.


I have so far downloaded Pedometer++, Sleep++, and Lose It!. But I’m wondering how best to use all of these and what should be the main app I use to compile all of the data from all of the apps together… the Apple Health app?


I would like to monitor steps, weight loss, sleep and fitness level predominantly, with notifications, prompts and motivation via the watch. I was wondering if anyone else is the same and what setup they have on the watch to do this.


Any suggestions and discussion welcomed!

 

[pedrowerner]

Hello Captain Serj, I will list the apps that I currently use for Health purposes and it's workflows.
First: the easiest way to navigate through the apps is using the Dock. So with a click of a button I can see my Heartbeat and turning the Digital Crown, it goes to the Activity app (which enlists the total of steps and calories if you scroll down).
Following by the Exercise app (which shows data from your last workout, including on complications!), then the Nike+ Run Club app, the SmartGym which is the best for gym exercises and weight lifting (counts your exercises and show the next, counts heartbeat). Then I use HeartWatch, it's an excellent app for health insights based on your daily activity, steps, velocity, heartbeats during exercises (including %zones), during sleep, and resting. And I use the brother app of HeartWatch which is AutoSleep, in my opinion the best sleep tracker since you only have to wear your Watch without the need of pressing any button to let you know that you'll sleep, the app runs only on iPhone but gets your heartbeats and etc from HealthKit Sync, and if you have to charge your watch it will try to recognize your sleep based on iPhone movement and charging patterns. Also you can train the app by customizing the sensibility, how many hours of sleep you need, and edit any misinterpretations. And all of those apps sync with the Health app, so they talk with each other and you can also see all those inputs on the Health.app.
I hope it is not too much complicated by the way I wrote but I find that using this way is the best for practical purposes.

 

[pedrowerner]

Also, Lifesum for tracking calories and weight.

 

[pedrowerner]

And you can customize your hourly updates, weekly digest and achievements on the Activity options, in the Apple Watch app.

 

[captainserj]

Hi pedrowerner, thanks for your suggestions

I will definitely look at Heartwatch and Autosleep. I tried Sleep++ for the first time lastnight and it doesn't seem particularly accurate or insightful. Autosleep sounds interesting.

I've worked out what would be my perfect setup and now I just need to work out how to achieve it (what apps to use):

1) An app to track weight loss and waist size, with goals and motivation (achievements/notifications/"well done"'s) for both, utilising the watch. I am doing Alternate Day Fasting so it needs to be really flexible, ie, one day my calorie budget is 500 and the next it is 2800. I would like to be able to track foods and have calories i have consumed that day as a complication. Is any of this possible in Lifesum? I've been experimenting with Lose It! and got half way there.

2) A motivational pedometer with goals... I'm sure I will come around to relying on Apple's activity rings, but for now, I would like a pedometer with a complication for steps taken that day. Also it would be nice to have achievements/notifications/things telling me "well done".

3) A motivational fitness app with prompts to work out and workouts on the watch. Not gym stuff, exercises you can do at home.

If I could get these three things sorted out, that would be awesome Then I just need to find the watch face with the most complication slots available

EDIT: Do Heartwatch and Autosleep drain the Watch battery due to constantly checking your heart rate? Can you put the watch in Airplane mode when using Autosleep to save battery?Thanks

EDIT 2: I'm also interested to know how Autosleep tracks your sleep when you don't wear the watch in bed!

EDIT 3 (sorry!): Out of interest, is there an app that tracks how fit you actually are? Ie, it is able to show your fitness level by some metric and shows how you have improved?

 

[matrix07]

On no. 3 you can try NIKE+ Training to see how you like it.

 

[captainserj]

On no. 3 you can try NIKE+ Training to see how you like it.

Thanks dude, I will have a look

 

[SDColorado]

On #2, have a look at Stepz: Pedometer & Step Counter for Tracking Steps. That does have achievement unlocking type goals.

 

[BarracksSi]

There's another home workout app called "7 Minute Workout" (or something like that; I think there's a dozen of them now).

I don't have a lot of advice to give, though. I still mostly use the P90X app on the phone to give me workout routines and schedules; and on the watch itself, I've used the basic Workout app probably 99% of the time for tracking.

When I want to actively cut weight, I've had good success with LoseIt, although its Watch app is pretty minimal (but really, do you want to struggle with entering all your meals' details on a smartwatch screen?). Another calorie tracker to try is Lark, which acts like a chat/messaging app -- but the "messages" made my wife suspicious, so I quit using it.

 

[pedrowerner]

1) Yes I think Lifesum will be able to do that, you can choose what kind of foods your diet is based on (no-carbs, high protein, etc..) and you can input all your bodily measures.

2) I use Pedometer++ for measuring my daily steps target as well.

3) Carrot Training, 7 Minute Workout, Nike Training Club are some excellent choices.

4) They don't drain that much battery since your Watch already checks your heart rate each 5 or 10 minutes, so they only push the data from the Health app. Yes you can use airplane and theater mode.

5) It uses your iPhone with sound and movement analysis to see if it was charging for the whole night, when you picked it up during night, etc..

6)Well, I guess you can see those informations on the Health app, looking the tables on weekly or monthly organization, HeartWatch has that too and other insights.

 

[captainserj]

Thanks everyone for all of your help! I've got a setup that I am really happy with now (although I might fine tune it in the future). For anyone who is interested, it is as follows:

Weight loss tracking and calories is handled by Lose It! which can display remaining available calories on the apple watch and you can also change the daily calorie limit. You need to go pro to track body measurements, so I use MY Weight to track body measurements for free.

Pedometer ++ for steps with Watch complication.

Heartwatch for fitness monitoring and workout analysis (this app is GREAT), with Watch complication for heart rate info.

Autosleep for sleep tracking.

I've also started really getting into Apple's own Activity stuff with the achievements.

I did try to get Seven - 7 minute workout, but it would not install on the watch, so I got the similarly titled 7 minute workout, which installed fine.

And then the Apple Health app as a nice overview of all the tracking that is going on.

I've also added in Streaks for some day to day motivation and habit forming.

Only problem now is none of the watch faces have enough slots for all the complications I need , so I have two set up next to each other.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions, which, as you can see, have helped greatly. I'm loving my Apple Watch now. I've been so impressed with how motivated and enthusiastic it has made me about fitness, that I'm hoping I can transpose that over to the other area of my life - uni work! I've posted another thread here https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-with-motivation-achievements-please.2042898/ looking for some apps that can help in the same way with assignment work.