Learn why and how to close all three rings in the Activity and Fitness apps on your Apple Watch and iPhone by manually adding data to it.
Even though closing those activity goals and rings on your Apple Watch each day isn’t easy, we’re not here to encourage you to cheat with your Activity goals. The primary intent of Activity goals and rings is to help you live a healthy lifestyle. There can be times when this feat can seem impossible, but you should still do your best to close the rings yourself each day.
However, what happens if you forget to strap on your Apple Watch before your workout, or the Apple Watch battery is dead, and you don’t have time to wait for it to charge before your workout? The activity you’re going to perform might be the only option for closing one or more of those rings that day, and now you’re going to miss it.
As another example, maybe you simply want to close out your goals for the day to beat your friend in that friendly competition you’ve been sharing Activity data with (yes, this one is cheating). Or maybe you just want to take a cheat day without losing your streak.
Whatever the reason, you have the option to close your Move, Exercise, and Stand rings in the Activity and Fitness apps by adding data manually.
Note that if you have updated your iPhone to iOS 18 and Apple Watch to watchOS 11, you can also pause rings to take a break without breaking your streak.
Get familiar with the goals
Knowing what each ring requires is key to closing them manually.
- Move (pink): The Move ring fills in as you burn calories each day. This is based on the goal for the number of calories that you set up.
- Exercise (green): The Exercise ring expects you to exercise for at least 30 minutes per day and is the same for everyone, provided you have not changed the daily goal to some other number.
- Stand (blue): The Stand ring wants you to stand for at least one minute during 12 different hours each day or the goal you have set.
Manually add workout data to close your Activity rings
Use these steps to manually enter real or fake exercise data to close your daily Activity rings on iPhone and Apple Watch:
1) Open the Health app on your iPhone and tap Browse from the bottom right.
2) Tap Activity and select Workouts from the next screen.
Note: You may have other ways to access the Workouts area of the app. For instance, it can be under Favorites on the Summary screen. Just navigate to the spot where you can create a workout.
3) Tap Add Data in the upper right corner.
4) Select the Activity Type at the top of the Workouts screen. You can choose one of the various workout options, from American Football to Yoga. The important part is that you select an activity that includes calories (active calories), distance, or both as per the ring(s) you want to close.
5) After you pick an Activity Type, add the number of calories and/or the distance by typing it in.
6) Select the Starts and Ends times by tapping those sections. This is especially important for filling your Exercise and Stand rings.
7) Finally, with all data manually filled, tap Add from the top right.
Now, open the Fitness app on your iPhone or the Activity app on your Apple Watch, and you’ll see that the rings have closed. You may have to give your Apple Watch a few minutes to sync and update this new information.
Examples
If the reason you’re manually closing your goal for the day is because you didn’t wear your Apple Watch, then you could enter the numbers and amounts for what you know your activity would work on. For instance, if you run for 30 minutes per day and usually burn 200 calories, that’s all you need to fill your ring, then just enter that data.
On the other hand, if you don’t know the details or are just trying to close your rings in a hurry, you can go overboard to make sure they close. For example, use the American Football workout, burning 2,000 calories, with a distance of 25 kilometers, for almost 12 hours. Boom all rings close!
Related: How to turn off hourly “Time to Stand” reminders on Apple Watch
Delete workout data from iPhone and Apple Watch
If you change your mind about the fake or wrong workout you set up, you can get rid of it along with its data.
1) Head back to the Health app on your iPhone and tap Browse.
2) Tap Activity and select Workouts.
3) Scroll down and choose Show All Data.
4) Swipe left on an entry with the Health app heart icon and tap Delete > Delete Workout & Data. You can also tap Edit and hit the red minus button to Delete it.
Keep in mind that depending on the Activity Type you choose, you may have to adjust other areas. For instance, with the American Football example above, you may have to delete the data from the Exercise Minutes section as well.
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