This weekend, I was looking at some Apple watch data with my dad, who just got his first ever Apple watch (series 7), since his old Fitbit finally bit the dust.
He specifically was interested in some of the more sophisticated Health trackers that Apple has. As we were exploring the “Browse” category in the “Health” app, I realized there were a lot of options I didn’t even know about!!
I tend to use the Fitness app to track my workouts and steps, and I sometimes look at the Sleep data. But I don’t really routinely check in on too many other data points.
There’s actually some pretty cool stuff in there!! I know it’s not necessarily 100% accurate, but I feel like for general trending, it’s probably better than nothing.
So, just for fun, here are a few snaps from my Health app. I especially like zooming out to the “Yearly” view to really see overall averages.
Heart Rate Variability:
Apparently mine is 63, which I guess is normal.
Here’s a little snip about what this all means, thanks to the AI Overview in Google:
Walking and Running Distance:
I didn’t actually know this one was in there like this. I don’t know if this only tracks when you actually start a “walk” or a “run” on your watch? Like, formal walks/ runs, not just wandering around your house?
I do not run these days, so this is all from walking. Apparently averaged 3.1 miles this past month.
And interestingly, my YEARLY average (from Dec 2023- Dec 2024) is pretty close.
Sleep:
Ahh this one… not so great.
Here’s data from last night. The time in bed I think started at 10:00 when my “Sleep” setting goes on, but I didn’t actually go to bed until after 11 last night. We were watching a movie on the couch, so it might have thought I was “in bed” earlier. The asleep time seems accurate.
Some averages…. also not very good!! SUPER interesting to me that when you look at the Yearly Highlights, my averages are within 10 minutes of each other.
I think the issue here is that my “bedtime” is 10:30 pm. And my “wake up time” is 5:15 a.m. That’s not even quite 7 hours, though I think in my head I’m always like, oh, that’s about 7 hours, so that’s good.
But then factor in that I’m often just getting reading for bed at 10:30, not necessarily like, asleep at 10:30…. and I can see how that number drifts down quickly. Especially factoring in weekends and other later nights that will pull average down too.
I should really work on this.
Cardio Fitness:
Haha…. nice downward trend there! lol. This is my supposed VO2 max, though I am not sure how accurate it is on an Apple watch. I supposedly still am in the “high” range, so I guess I’m okay, but I’d rather see an upward trend on cardio fitness, not a steady downtrend!!
Okay, okay…. I’ll do more cardio…. sigh.
Time in Daylight:
Another one I didn’t know existed!! This is kinda cool.
If that’s accurate, I think I’m pretty satisfied with almost 80 minutes a day of average daylight time, considering I have a desk job and live in Wisconsin.
Exercise Minutes:
I feel like this is about right. My typical gym sessions are probably 45-60 minutes on average.
Does this average in days when I exercise 0 minutes, though? Or just an average of the workouts I’ve recorded? Not sure.
Steps:
Have not been focusing on a step count much, as I was doing well this summer with pretty long 2x/ daily walks with Charlie.
This has pretty suddenly dropped off these last few weeks though. Some poor weather, some darkness, some laziness…. I used to jot my daily steps on my time log tracker, but I stopped. I should maybe keep watching this.
Active Energy:
This one I had never looked at before either. These are ACTIVE calories only, so should be what I burn from exercise. Not counting the “calories you burn while just sitting still like a living blob”.
I feel like this is not… awesome? But, at least it’s consistent? Should I make it a goal to make it 500/day in 2025?!
Resting Heart Rate:
Hmm, sort of an upward trend here too. Coincides perhaps with my decreasing cardio fitness?!? 😆 My less than stellar sleep and increased work stress probably aren’t doing me favors here either.
Well, went over my word count today, but oh well.
Maybe this inspires you to peek in on your own data if you have a fitness tracker!
What stats do you like to keep an eye on, if any?
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my Apple watch! We’ll stay on trend today, lol.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I don’t look too closely at my watch data but I will look at it occasionally. My MIL got the Apple Watch as it can detect aFib. But…. She has not been wearing it and finds it super overwhelming. She’s 81 so I get it. She asked for my help but I use it for such different reasons. Some of the ladies in her book club have got an Apple Watch for the aFib notification so I have tried to encourage her to ask them for help or go to the Apple Store.
I definitely get and need more sleep than you! I average around 7 hours and 40 minutes of sleep. But I am someone with higher sleep needs. I would be majorly struggling if I got less than 7 hours of sleep! My steps and miles are higher than yours but nearly all of my exercise comes from running right now until this flare resolves. But we are entering the off season for running for me so hopefully I will be able to do more strength training and other kinds of cardio besides running, like HIIT workouts. I would have a hard time doing burpees right now with the pain in my hand – but it’s good to have an excuse not to do them. Ha.
When I was pregnant with Paul, I had a Fitbit and it was interesting to go back and look at the data after I had my blood clot at 34 weeks. My resting heart rate shot up. I had other symptoms like extreme pain in my leg which made it tough to walk which i wrote off as round ligament pain. We were at a doctor appt a couple of days before they found my blood clot and I remember showing Phil how the veins in my hands were popping out like crazy. Had I thought to look at my resting HR data, maybe I would have gone to my OB sooner. It all worked out but it is cool that things like Apple Watches can give us data that can help diagnose things or at least point out that something is not right.
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I use a garmin watch and love the data. I worry about my active minutes over the course of the week – and aim for about 500. But it counts any activity over 10 minutes, with double points for strenuous, so a quick march through the train station adds to this. I don’t tend to wear it at night so don’t have sleep data, but feel like I’m 30 minutes short of where I should be at the moment. I really need 8 hours, and technically should get that but somehow it’s 10:15/10:30 before I know it, despite having gotten into bed at 8:45:
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Awww, that’s too bad about your MIL being overwhelmed! I can see how all the new technology would be overwhelming though. The Afib detector thing is cool…I hope she can figure it out!
I definitely should be sleeping more, sigh. I just don’t always do a great job of prioritizing it… in part I guess by I am probably better than some people at “getting by”, but we all know that’s really a myth! The body needs good sleep to thrive, full stop. I remember when the kids were littler and I worked in the hospital I sometimes would be so tired that I just literally felt like I could nod off at any moment. That was NOT good. Fortunately I generally don’t feel terribly tired during the day, although I still feel like I say, “yawn, I’m tired..” a lot. ha. And by later evening I definitely get pretty tired many days.
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I’m a stats obsessive! hahah.. I rely on oura as it’s the most accurate devise for sleep. It also tracks temperature (useful to know my cycle). Its readiness score is on point for most of the days. I also track my running stats beacuse I like to see my progress.
Your sleep is on the low side. What if you start winding down an hour earlier? If I want to be asleep by 8:30pm, I will do relaxing things by 6:30pm the latest. If not, I won’t feel rested even if I get the same number of total sleep.
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Well, winding now at 6:30 pm is impossible for most families in the U.S. with active high school aged kids, unfortunately. For example, it’s 8:46 pm right now-I just got home from the orientation to high school swim team meeting, which started at 7 pm and ended at 8:30. Every parent was there! It’s just how it is. HS varsity soccer games don’t even start until 7. etc. So, it’s just something that kind of has to be dealt with, unfortunately. It makes sense, since most parents aren’t done working until 5-6 pm, so of course activities have to be a little later if parents want to be there… But, your point is valid that I could start getting ready for bed much earlier than I do. If I want to be sleeping by 10:15/10:30, I should not be first heading into my room at like 10:20, hahaha.
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I am a huge data nerd and always track my miles, feet and time each year for activities. However, I love that these trackers have improved so much since my first one and have so much data available to us. My average sleep is about 6.5 hours too, and my steps are about the same as yours too! I think for the calories you should shoot for a round 500!! I think maybe that would only take 5 extra minutes of exercise a day!
I just listened to this <a href=”https://www.chrishutchins.com/casey-means-metabolic-health/“>All The Hacks podcast</a> about things you can do to be healthier, get more sleep and ways to boost your metabolism through foods and exercise. Anyway, I found it really interesting and if you get a chance to listen I would be interested in hearing what you think!
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Ooh thanks Kyria! That sounds super interesting. I am going to listen tomorrow.
And I also like the idea of boosting the active calories to 500!! nice round number. 😉
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I am only having an Apple Watch (series 3) so some of the more sophisticated data is not available for me but I look at it almost daily.
I may answer some of the questions: walking and running – at least for walking it track all walks so also when just walking your you home.
As for sleep it only tracks it when you are lying down. So if you chill on the couch and don’t move for an hour it could track it. But if you grab snacks, laugh or your heart rate is not steady it won’t track it.
I am struggling with my sleep and try to get those up for years. I am slightly getting better. Here I do lack the cool date as I only see sleep but not the phases. The main reason for me to update specially since the latest model can detect sleep apnea.
Also very much working on my cardio fitness. If I ever get your numbers I’ll be celebrating.
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Yeah, sleep has always been an ongoing issue for me, too. I somewhat blame the fact that my husband has always had a later starting job than I have. If he also had to be up super early, I feel like it would be easier for us to both turn in early. But because he is a night owl by nature, AND he doesn’t have to get up as early, he stays up…. and then I’m always sort of either tempted to stay up a little bit too late, or our nights just naturally shift a little later somehow.
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this was very interesting thank you! I am 46 and have mostly similar scores to you, except for steps (I live in London and walk everywhere so I average over 14,000 steps a day over the last year). I get more sleep than you as I am exhausted otherwise but, despite this, my HRV is much lower – annual average of 42. I’m not sure why it’s so low as my other metrics are all quite healthy. Anyway seems to have always been like that so maybe I just have a conformist heart!
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My HRVZ IS 39 so mine is quite a bit lower than Kae’s, too, but in a healthy range according to my googles (sub 19 is apparently where you should wonder if something is off). I am on steroids so I wonder if that is part of the problem. I also would say I am in a fairly stressful stage of life with young kids and a lot of work travel so that might be part of why my score is lower? I do wonder how more strength training would impact that number. Most of Kae’s workouts are strength, nearly all of mine are cardio. I’m hoping to do more strength as the running season comes to a close this winter and then I will see if that makes a difference in my HRV! Kind of fascinating to look at all these numbers!
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I strength train 4 times a week – heavy- and have done for 13 years with a bare minimum of cardio so it hasn’t helped me much. Stress could be a factor. Parenting and working in the big city is not relaxing although mine is not that little anymore. Glad to know we are both healthy though despite being a bit lower – thanks for sharing!
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Well there goes my theory on the HRV data point!!
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Yeah, I have no idea TBH what really impacts the HRV! I’ll have to research it a bit more.
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I’m not really sure the HRV on Apple watch is super accurate anyway! I don’t actually know too much about that metric though. It sounds like you are very healthy so I wouldn’t worry about it! (I am jealous of the 14,000 steps daily! And also, I REALLY want to get my boys to London before they graduate high school in a few years…. maybe I’ll come visit you soon! 😉 )
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I do not have an Apple watch, but this is all fascinating. I don’t think I want a watch to tell me how poor my sleep is (my Garmin could do that, but I don’t look at those stats.) I have kind of the same issue as you- I convince myself I’m getting seven hours of sleep because I’m allegedly turning out the light at 10:30 and getting up at 5:30- but I’m definitely not sleeping those whole seven hours.
That downward trend on your cardio fitness it kind of funny (the line looks so sad) but I’m only laughing because I really think you are overall in good shape.
There’s so much here to dive into- interesting that it compares your average calories burned to the same average last year.
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Hahaha, yeah, when I saw the line going down I was like, womp womp…… lol! I think we have exactly the same sleep issue! My “bedtime” really should be about 30 minutes earlier so I’d actually sleep >7 hours…
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This is fascinating and made me take a look at my own data! Currently, I’ve only been tracking my sleep + periods, but I’m also trying to keep an eye on blood oxygen levels + resting heart rate as I’m trying to improve both. Going to go down a rabbit hole of looking up all my data!
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Super interesting and agree the trends are most useful vs assuming every stay is 100% accurate. And I cannot imagine living on that amount of sleep! I need 8 hours which means being in bed for 8.5+. I am step obsessed so have over 10k+ average BUT my strategy of lifting 4x/week and being active but nothing too intense likely needs to change. I did an executive physical and my VO2 max was “fair!!” I did not feel good about that so need to work on getting my heart rate up which I do NOT enjoy. Feels like a full time job if you want to do all the things.
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Oh, I love everything about this. I know these stats are not 100% accurate and just for “trends” but I love looking at this stuff. 🙂
I am currently trying to get my sleeping under control because I sometimes have great sleeps stats (although I woke up a lot, which is not usual for me) and bad sleep stats when I actually felt like I had a great night of sleep. Trying to figure out what influences that. Bed time and sleep time are definitely part of it.
I also like to keep an eye on my active calories because it means I moved more than I sat.
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