“I never used to have this problem. Not that I think it’s a problem,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “It’s more of a challenge, I guess, though with my slightly obsessive temperament it could become a problem. And Apple is to blame.”
“They say a journey begins with a single step. My iPhone has the Apple Health app and this includes a step counter. It is counting every little step,” Evans writes. “Medical guidance suggests we should take 10,000 steps each day — that’s not a huge amount of steps and I’d always assumed I took at least that many during my day. Then one day while struggling with deadlines I noticed I’d walked only 2,500 steps.”
“That’s when things began to change. Walking the dogs has become something akin to a cross-country hike. We’re walking around ten miles a day across those leafy parts of London we know. The dogs are sleeping 18-hours a day to recover,” Evans writes. “The other evening I popped out to pick up a pint of milk. Checking my step counter I noticed I was a few thousand short of the ten thousand target, so I walked to some random shop in a different district. The return trip took two hours but I reached 20,000 steps!”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Motivation. We’ve been experiencing the same thing with our Nike+ FuelBands for several years now (more convenient than lugging around an iPhone). Apple’s Health, HealthKit, and, soon, Apple Watch are going to help a lot of people to live healthier.
Wish it would measure my sit time.
The new Apple Watch promises an Ass-o-meter® app..you strap the $400 iPhone peripheral to your left buttock every morning (Apple Designer ButtStrap sold separately) after it has charged fully. It then reports to your iPhone via bluetooth. You will get Siri-voiced admonitions every 15 minutes that you sit on your ass. It’s magical.
Jony Ives on the new Apple Designer ButtStrap:
“Apple has created an elegant, yet functional, solution to allow the Apple Watch to securely monitor how long you sit on your ass. Inspired by our CEO, the Apple Designer ButtStrap features AnalAnchor® technology: this allows the strap to be secured via a bio-friendly plug that inserts into your anus, then circles around the hips where it is attached by a loop to your testicles. This technique guarantees that you will always know where your Apple Watch is located within 2cm on your left buttock.”
I agree. In the evening I check for my steps and miles. Hmmm, 6729 steps. I’ll walk around the house and make it 6800. Uh, oh. Now it’s 7863. Might as well make it 8000. Uh, oh, again. And so on. One of these nights I must get to bed at a reasonable time.
I’ve downloaded Human and now I’ve become obsessed about making the required number of minutes of activity each day so I can keep my streak going. Very upset when I mess up and forget my iPhone when going out. But I guess this habit is better than other habits I could pick up.
I’ve been doing the same with a fitbit for some time now.if worse comes to worse, I tuck it in my sock and hop on the exercise bike.
Fell walker? Get thee to the Lake District for some real fells…. But many Yanks won’t understand what you mean. I do, sort of.
Sorry, I don’t understand. (Southern California)
I was very enthusiastic too, at first. But then with each iOS update it erased my record as well as my medical information. I gave up starting over again and again. Now I don’t bother to enter any medical info into health app. So disappointing.
Wow, I just checked my medical info. Your right, that needs to be fixed.
according to the web : “To burn 1 pound of body fat, a person weighing 150 pounds has to walk 39 miles ”
one mile is roughly 2000+ steps.
39 miles is 78,000 steps.
(Davewrite: the font of useless information… )
——
the above is just for amusement.
fat losing in humans is of course more complicated than that, there’s types of food, timing (blood sugar) etc.
Also it seems running full out for the same distance makes a person lose more weight (and increase fitness) than walking the same distance… (as espoused by the 10 minute workout trainers)
Timothy Ferriss (controversial self help guru) says someone even lost weight by CHEWING SLOWER….
I used to use one of those little Nike things you link to your iDevice and slip in your shoes. A pleasant sounding woman would talk to me about how much I ran and so on. I noticed a very slight, nearly imperceptible tone of disappointment in her voice upon my first regular run, so I increased the distance a bit, and she sounded happier. I no longer use the Nike thing, but I can still hear her approving voice.