Apple Watch - health metrics
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Anyone here use one?
I bought one last year, reluctantly. I wanted to get away from notifications and my phone - but still fulfill my need to check for notifications from work.
It's worked moderately well on that front. I only get push notifications for a small subset of apps, and don't walk around with my phone in the house.
What I didn't realize was how useful the health metrics are. I few things I've come to know about myself:
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Sleeping hours and walking/resting heart rate norms for me
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Max heart rate (and the sustained rate I can manage during a workout)
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How much I walk and typical minutes standing each day
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How much alcohol, food choices and activity choices affect my heart rate and sleep
Not really useful, I guess - but I like knowing...
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I use FitBit. I find the data over time to be very helpful, but I don't so much look at the daily stuff.
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@aqua-letifer said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
I use FitBit. I find the data over time to be very helpful, but I don't so much look at the daily stuff.
Same - it wasn't that interesting until I had about half a year of data to look at.
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I've considered a Whoop strap a few times, but then concluded that it is too expensive (it's about $20 to $30 per month) for the use I could get out of it. I like the concept, though. There is no reason to have another device with buttons and screen if you have a cell phone anyway. Also, heart rate variability seems to be a quite useful measurement.
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@klaus no idea what a whoop strap is, but it sounds like something you dont want to use in public, and have your picturs plastered over reddit....
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@bachophile it doesn't actually look like much.
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I use a Fitbit. The main reason is that I get $50 a quarter from work/Virgin Pulse if I track my health.
The change in the metrics when I cycle regularly is significant, which is a bit depressing at this time of the year.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@doctor-phibes said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
The change in the metrics when I cycle regularly is significant, which is a bit depressing at this time of the year.
What changes? Resting heartrate?
A couple of years back when I was fat and didn't do any sports I had a resting heart rate of 75+. Now it's more like 45.
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@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
What changes? Resting heartrate?
That's the big one. It's gone from about 45 to about 60.
Also, the Fat Bastard alarm keeps going off.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@xenon said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
It's worked moderately well on that front. I only get push notifications for a small subset of apps, and don't walk around with my phone in the house.
I think I'm getting one for my birthday, and look forward to exactly that benefit. I also minimize my notifications on my phone and don't like carrying it around the house. Thanks for the info on the health metrics, I would be curious about that as well.
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@doctor-phibes said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
What changes? Resting heartrate?
That's the big one. It's gone from about 45 to about 60.
Also, the Fat Bastard alarm keeps going off.
Those are about my numbers, too, depending on whether or not I'm regularly riding.
I've also found that VO2 is a decent measure of how "fit" I am, however you'd like to define that. The numbers go up when I stick to a good, consistent routine.
I also like the sleep values. I have a terrible time sleeping these days. It takes me forever to fall asleep, and when I do I often get sleep paralysis in the middle of the night. The sleep scores help me figure out whether I'm tired because I woke up funny, or because I've spent the last 72 hours dabbling with insomnia.
Please love yourself.
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@aqua-letifer said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
I've also found that VO2 is a decent measure of how "fit" I am
By VO2, do you mean the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise? How can a smart watch measure that? Some kind of correlation with heart rate? Is that accurate enough to be useful?
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@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
@aqua-letifer said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
I've also found that VO2 is a decent measure of how "fit" I am
By VO2, do you mean the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise? How can a smart watch measure that? Some kind of correlation with heart rate? Is that accurate enough to be useful?
FitBit does it through what it calls its "cardio fitness" score. It estimates VO2max based on a handful of things, including your resting heart rate during the day vs. at night, and your age.
As with any other kind of fitness tracker, it is limited by measurement. It all depends on what kind of questions you expect it to answer for you.
"What is my VO2max" is something it's going to suck at answering. But for example, when I got bronchitis and couldn't ride for about a month, I wondered how much back to baseline I'd fallen. I took FitBit's word for it, and planned my next few rides with that in mind—I didn't want to over-tax myself by trying to do what I used to, but I didn't want to start from zero again. For this I found the FitBit numbers very helpful and accurate enough to plan from.
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@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
@aqua-letifer said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
I've also found that VO2 is a decent measure of how "fit" I am
By VO2, do you mean the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise? How can a smart watch measure that? Some kind of correlation with heart rate? Is that accurate enough to be useful?
They model VO2 max using a few variables when you do workouts. Apple does the same thing - here's their methodology:
https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Using_Apple_Watch_to_Estimate_Cardio_Fitness_with_VO2_max.pdfI agree with Aqua - the trend correlates with my training efforts (and lack thereof).
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@xenon said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
@aqua-letifer said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
I've also found that VO2 is a decent measure of how "fit" I am
By VO2, do you mean the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise? How can a smart watch measure that? Some kind of correlation with heart rate? Is that accurate enough to be useful?
They model VO2 max using a few variables when you do workouts. Apple does the same thing - here's their methodology:
https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Using_Apple_Watch_to_Estimate_Cardio_Fitness_with_VO2_max.pdfI agree with Aqua - the trend correlates with my training efforts (and lack thereof).
Thanks for the link. I still don't quite understand. The paper says:
Cardio fitness on Apple Watch is an estimation of a user’s VO2 max in ml/kg/min, made based on measuring
a user’s heart rate response to physical activity.But wouldn't the watch need to know what kind of physical activity I'm performing (and the intensity) to make any guesses about VO2max? Or do you tell the watch "now I'm going to walk a mile at moderate pace" or something to get an estimate?
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@klaus said in Apple Watch - health metrics:
But wouldn't the watch need to know what kind of physical activity I'm performing (and the intensity) to make any guesses about VO2max? Or do you tell the watch "now I'm going to walk a mile at moderate pace" or something to get an estimate?
The VO2 max estimates can only be made for an outdoor moderate walk, run or cycling workout. It uses GPS (pace), heart rate and maybe some other health factors (gender, age, weight, etc.) to spit out an estimate.
The watch can detect a walk or run (and will ask you to confirm if you're working out) - but you have to tell it that you're about to cycle.
If you don't do one of those 3 activities - you won't get a VO2 max data point.
