Step-tracking app for things besides steps
April 19, 2024 3:58 PM Subscribe
What are some good android exercise-tracking apps that track and reward all forms of exercise and not just steps?
My partner is highly motivated by her step counter. Sometimes in bad weather she cycles on a stationary bike instead of walking, but the stationary bike experience is VERY disappointing because it doesn't count towards her step goal. Similarly, I've stopped tracking my steps entirely because most days I walk on a treadmill and it feels silly to carry my phone on the treadmill.
What can we use that will track different forms of exercise and treat them as fungible such that we can attain the same quantitative goal by cycling, walking, canoeing, etc? I'm imagining that we'd be entering this data by hand after the fact, since surely even a fitbit can't detect cycling in place.
Part of the nice thing about counting steps is that they're largely disconnected from calorie-counting and weight loss. We can probably live with a calorie-based app if need be but it would be a lot nicer to have something that translates a variety of activities into 'steps' or 'activity points' or similar arbitrary but interchangeable units.
My partner is highly motivated by her step counter. Sometimes in bad weather she cycles on a stationary bike instead of walking, but the stationary bike experience is VERY disappointing because it doesn't count towards her step goal. Similarly, I've stopped tracking my steps entirely because most days I walk on a treadmill and it feels silly to carry my phone on the treadmill.
What can we use that will track different forms of exercise and treat them as fungible such that we can attain the same quantitative goal by cycling, walking, canoeing, etc? I'm imagining that we'd be entering this data by hand after the fact, since surely even a fitbit can't detect cycling in place.
Part of the nice thing about counting steps is that they're largely disconnected from calorie-counting and weight loss. We can probably live with a calorie-based app if need be but it would be a lot nicer to have something that translates a variety of activities into 'steps' or 'activity points' or similar arbitrary but interchangeable units.
Best answer: Fitbits can be set to autodetect swimming and I've found that mine detects kayaking as swimming and records the Active Minutes for that. (It also detects laundry folding and sometimes me waving my arms while teaching as swimming and gives me Active Minutes for those.) You can also set it in Exercise mode and tell it that you are swimming, walking, biking, etc and hit play and it will record your workout as Active Minutes.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:52 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:52 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Seconding active minutes (or any measure of your heart rate going up). Apparently it's a better measure of activity and it's effectiveness is actually proven, unlike the 10,000 steps. Here's more about how active minutes work on Fitbit. You will need some sort of a device like a fitbit to measure heart rate, but the cheapest ones are a around $100 or sometimes less on sale.
posted by beyond_pink at 5:33 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
posted by beyond_pink at 5:33 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
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It will also track calories and "active minutes" which you might enjoy as it counts casual walking plus fitness. If you don't want calories you can give it a goal of 1 calorie a day and ignore it.
posted by Narrow Harbor at 4:20 PM on April 19