An Apple Watch is a great tool for getting and staying active. Daily Exercise, Move, and Stand goals (plus nudges) get you on your feet throughout the day and can get your heart rate up.
Your Apple Watch lets you set your Move goal at the start of each week, but you can actually change any of your activity goals at any time to better match your fitness objectives. You might also need to do this to compensate for any injuries or rests you need.
Read on to learn how to change your activity goals and make your Apple Watch work even better for you!
Change Your Activity Goals in watchOS 7 or Later
It’s very easy to change your Move, Exercise, and Stand goals on your Apple Watch when you have watchOS 7 or later. You don’t even have to jump around on your Watch to change each of them either—when you go to adjust one, you’re prompted to adjust all three of them in a row.
To adjust your activity goals, open the Activity app on your Apple Watch. Once you’re in the app, swipe up or use the Digital Crown to scroll to the Change Goals option.
Tap on Change Goals. You’ll be presented with your current Move Goal. Tap the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease your goal by 10-kilocalorie increments. When you reach the goal you want, tap Next.
You’ll now get to change your Exercise Goal. For this one, the plus or minus increases or reduces the number of minutes of increased heart rate you need for your goal. When you’re happy with that goal, tap Next again.
Last but not least is your Stand Goal adjustments. Here you can add to or subtract from the number of hours within which you need to stand to achieve the goal. When you’re done changing this goal, tap OK.
Your Apple Watch activity goals will now be changed whatever you chose for them!
Change Your Activity Goals in watchOS 6 or Earlier
If you have an Apple Watch model that can’t update to watchOS 7, or if you simply don’t want to update it, you can still change your Move goal at any time, but you can’t change your Exercise or Stand goals.
There are ways to spoof your Exercise goal so that you can sort of change it. It just won’t be official on your Watch or in your Activity history.
To reduce your Exercise goal from 30 to 15 minutes, for example, you can keep track throughout the day and hit that 15 minutes of Exercise. Then you can open the Workout app, set the workout type as Other or Mind & Body, and let it run for 15 minutes.
You’ll still “hit” your goal for the day, and your Apple Watch will record it accordingly. Adding workouts in your Watch and in your iPhone’s Health app can also help you fake your Stand goal if you want to do that too. As will holding up your arm for a minute at a time.
If you want to increase your Exercise and Stand goals, you’ll have to keep track of that yourself. You can make an Excel document or Google Sheet with the data from your Activity History for this. And you can enjoy your Apple Watch giving you additional rewards for exceeding the baseline a lot of the time!
To change your Move goal, though, just open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
Once you’re in the app press and hold anywhere on the screen. You’ll have to press pretty hard, but when you do your screen will shift, sending the Activity rings backward.
Two buttons should appear for you now—Weekly Summary and Change Move Goal. Tap Change Move Goal and use the plus and minus buttons to set your goal. Then tap Update to save your new Move Goal.
Change Activity Goals for Your Changing Life
It’s great that as your health plans and exercise regimens shift, grow, or end, you can change your Apple Watch Move, Exercise, and Stand goals to match them. Or at least your Move goal, if you have an earlier Apple Watch.
We hope the guide above will help you set the Activity goals that best suit you and your life.