It’s time to burn those summer calories
Whether you're starting a new exercise routine or resuming your regular activity, Google Fit is a great way to keep track of your fitness goals and achievements. You can use it when you're walking, biking to work, exercising actively, or just strolling with your dog. The app is simple to use and works on the best Android phones and the best Android smartwatches. The app can also interact with other services and trackers by measuring your activity, even when using machines and fitness equipment, and recording reliable data coming from connected devices. Read on to learn how it works and how it can help you maintain a healthy daily routine.
Before you can use Google Fit, you'll need to set it up using your smartphone. The process is simple and only takes a few minutes. After it's set up, you can forget about it while it tracks your activity in the background.
The Google Fit app is fairly straightforward. The homescreen is where you'll see your day at a glance, with two circles representing your achievements in terms of steps and heart points, as well as your target. Fit also displays the overall calories expended, distance traveled, and move minutes for the day. The Home tab also recaps your weekly target and daily goals, as well as general trends from data it's been collecting, such as your weight and energy expended.
The Journal tab shows the activities Fit has recorded, including ones sent from connected apps. Tapping an activity brings up the details, such as the duration, distance, calories burned, and steps walked.
The Browse tab gives you access to all the data Fit tracks, including measurements, vitals, and sleep.
Finally, the Profile tab is where you can update your goals and measurements.
Whichever tab you're on, a + button in the lower-right corner lets you add measurements such as your blood pressure or weight, as well as track a new workout.
Google Fit is designed in a simplistic way to make it easily accessible to all. The app tracks two main figures: your steps and heart points, which are received for each minute of relatively intensive exercise, like a brisk walk. In addition to these two metrics, Google Fit also records various types of activities and analyzes the distance traveled, elevation, time, pace, calories burned, and more.
When performing an activity, Google Fit automatically recognizes it, provided you turned on automatic activity tracking. This means that when you start walking, running, or cycling, it automatically measures these. However, it won't do it as precisely as if you manually track an activity.
Although this may be confusing, it's designed in such a way as to maximize your battery life. This means that these activities feature basic data, such as an estimation of the distance, duration, calories burned, and pace, as shown above. When connected to a compatible device, Fit can track your heart rate and estimate the calories burned more accurately.
You can also manually start recording an activity, which tracks it more accurately using your GPS location, and displays it on a map, as in the screenshot shown above. This is done using the + button in the lower-right corner of the app or by starting an activity on your Wear OS watch.
Google Fit also works with third-party services to automatically integrate workouts and measurements coming from them. For instance, a Withings scale sends updated weight to Google Fit every time it's stepped it. Similarly, some non-Wear OS smartwatches are compatible with Google Fit, helping aggregate your data. Think of it as a hub, which tracks essential data and also centralizes data coming from various devices. There is no way to link them from Google Fit. Instead, you'll do it from the service you'd like to connect to your Google account.
Now that you know more about Google Fit, and how it can help you track your activity and help reach your goals, you're ready to make the most of it and have a better idea of your fitness activity and your overall health. Even though the app is simplistic, it's easy to use and can track numerous workouts and sports. When you connect your Google Fit with one of the best health and fitness apps, the Fit acts as a hub that centralizes your fitness data and presents it to you in an organized fashion.
To make the most of Google Fit and ensure you achieve your goals, wear a smartwatch that proactively records your activity and places the Google Fit widget on your phone's homescreen. This ensures all your energy expenditure is tracked and that you can see it on your homescreen, without having to look for your achievements or forget about working out. At the end of the day, you'll quickly see whether your circles are full or not, and decide that you may want to go for a quick run to fix that.
Hagop is a tech-savvy guy, who’s also into traveling, fitness, biking, food, and planes. He’s heptalingual and has lived in 5 different countries, but has decided to settle in Paris for the time being.