Heart Points: Are They Real?

June 29, 2024 12:34 AM

I have an Android phone with Google Fit kicking away in the background without my interest or explicit consent. Once every couple days it says, "Congratulations, you have xx heart points!" What even is that, and does it mean anything useful?

It says I want 150 Heart Points, which seems to be equivalent to "taking a walk a couple times," per the American Heart Association.

When I Google it I get the standard AI post citing the AHA, and several Reddit posts that seem not very authoritative. There are also AHA posts that don't cite anything but assure me that 150 Heart Points could maybe prevent heart disease.

Is this a helpful metric? What is it based on, and does that basis have any credibility? A "Heart Point" appears to translate to some number of minutes doing "moderate activity," but again, what even does that mean?

I usually exceed 150 Heart Points by 100-150% just by doing my stuff, but I have prediabetes and am not the picture of great health!! I'm fine, on a downward trajectory. Is that the goal?

posted by kensington314 to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

Someone will probably be in here with actual information, but my own fact-less take: who knows how accurate or reliable the measurement is, or how helpful reaching any particular number may be. The only attention I would pay to this would be to look at trends, like "I'm getting in less activity* than last month" or "looks like I'm sticking to my New Years resolutions, I'm twice as active* as I was a year ago".

* "in terms of types of activity registered by my phone, while having my phone on me"

If it's annoying and you want to disable it, you might have luck removing its permissions, and possibly going through the list of services/processes running on your phone and disabling the ones that look relevant (although there are services that can only be disabled if you've rooted your phone, unfortunately). Depending on your phone, getting to that list might involve going to the Apps section of your general settings menu and finding the option to "show system apps", which may be hidden in some places what you wouldn't expect it (on my phone, it's in the menu you get when you hit the "sort" icon for the apps list).
posted by trig at 1:23 AM on June 29

It's just a way to "estimate" your physical exertion and how much health benefits you're deriving from it.

Supposedly, each minute of rigorous activity gets you one point, according to an old article from AHA

Feel free to turn it off by doing the opposite of the steps here, which turns it on.

https://support.google.com/fit/answer/9488336?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid#zippy=%2Cchange-permissions-for-google-fit-on-another-device
posted by kschang at 1:31 AM on June 29

What is it based on

Joggling sensed by your phone's accelerometer.

does that basis have any credibility?

It's a phone, not a wearable with access to your pulse, so no. You could probably accumulate points by driving if you mount the phone in a cradle or your pocket happens to end up somewhere near your gearstick.
posted by flabdablet at 3:13 AM on June 29

Anecdotally, I do find that it is pretty good at diffentiating exertion when it comes to steps on flat ground-- ie I don't get many points for a leisurely stroll with the dog, more for a purposeful walk, and most for a jog or run. But it isn't accurate for something like cycling or climbing up a mountain. So a useful metric in a very limited way.
posted by ambulanceambiance at 4:27 AM on June 29 [5 favorites]

Total anecdata - my phone lives in my back pants/shorts pocket, and my job often involves bursts of upper body physical labor or periods of moving heavy stuff with my whole body more slowly. This kind of thing definitely gets the heart pumping (it's in my chest, I can feel it) but it will barely register (if at all) as "Heart Points" in GoogleFit.

So yeah, maybe generally vaguely useful for considering your physical activity trends or jogging vs strolling, but not something to center your health plan around.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:00 AM on June 29

Response by poster: What is it based on

Joggling sensed by your phone's accelerometer

Sorry, I meant the metric itself. Is it like ... Did some scientist or doctor say in a paper, "your heart is constantly scoring points when you go for a walk?"
posted by kensington314 at 9:01 AM on June 29

Did some scientist or doctor say in a paper, "your heart is constantly scoring points when you go for a walk?"

"Heart Points" just sounds like a reward to prompt physical activity, but yes, there's the whole 10,000 steps thing.
posted by LionIndex at 9:59 AM on June 29 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It's a metric intended to reflect one minute of moderate physical activity, to align with AHA guidelines. "Heart point" is a thing Google Fit made up to describe their internal metric that they think, sort of, roughly reflects that one minute of physical activity, for the types of activity they measured the most when tuning it.
posted by Lady Li at 11:45 AM on June 29