What Icons and Symbols Mean on Apple Fitness App? Complete Guide

The Apple Fitness app is like a hub for health and activity, but navigating its interface is pretty complex. Those graphs and visual icons are quite confusing. From activity rings to workout metrics, those little Fitness app icons and symbols hold valuable insights into your progress. This guide will walk you through every key icon and symbol of the Apple Fitness app so you can fully understand and utilize your fitness data.

When you open the Apple Fitness app, you will see a ‘Summary’ screen. It is your daily snapshot of activity. Let’s break down all the icons and symbols:

Table of Contents

1. Activity Rings (Color Rings) Icons

Let’s kick things off with the Activity Rings! You’ll see these three colorful rings front and center, each telling a different part of your daily activity story.

Move (Pinkish/Red) Ring: This ring tracks how many active calories you’ve burned throughout the day. The pinkish/red color shows your progress, and the numbers right next to it tell you exactly how you’re doing. For example, ’27/400 KCAL’ means you’ve burned 27 calories out of your 400-calorie goal.

Exercise (Neon Green) Ring: This bright green ring shows how many minutes of brisk activity you’ve logged. Whether you’re going for a fast walk or crushing a workout, this ring keeps track. The numbers next to it show your progress, like ‘0/60 MIN’, meaning you haven’t hit your 60-minute goal yet.

Stand (Blue) Ring: Last but not least, the blue ring tracks how many hours you’ve stood up and moved around for at least a minute. The numbers tell you how many hours you’ve fallen out of your daily goal. ‘5/12 HRS’ means you’ve stood for 5 hours out of 12.

Alright, let’s dive deeper into those Activity Rings and see what’s hiding inside this section when you tap on it.

1. Calendar Icon: Tap this icon and you can jump to any other day to see your activity data.

2. Share (Up Arrow in Box) Icon: You can share your activity data with friends or family by tapping on this icon.

3. Current Day (Letter in Red Circle) Icon: This icon tells you the current day of the week – ‘T’ for Thursday, ‘M’ for Monday, ‘W’ for Wednesday, and so on. Tap on these to quickly jump to the previous day’s data.

4. Activity (Arrow) Icons: You might have noticed these arrows inside the rings. Each arrow has a meaning:

A single right arrow ➡️ for your Move goal (calories burned).
A double right arrow ⏩ for your Exercise goal (minutes of activity).
An up arrow ⬆️ for your Stand goal (hours standing).

5. Adjust/Change Goal (Plus/Minus in Circle) Icon: Tap this icon to adjust your goals for the day or change your daily goals.

6. Red Calorie Graph: The red graph shows your calorie burn throughout the day. The taller the red bars, the more calories you burned during that time. Left to right is the timeline, so you can see when you were most active.

7. Neon Exercise Graph: Similarly, there’s a neon green graph showing your exercise minutes throughout the day. The taller the bars, the more minutes you exercised. Left to right is the timeline, just like the calorie graph.

2. Step Count Section Icons Meaning

Moving down from the Activity Rings, you’ll see your ‘Step Count’ – a quick look at how many steps you’ve taken today. The purple number shows your total steps. But there’s more to it than just a number.

View All Steps Metrics (Green Right Arrow) Icon: Tapping this arrow takes you to the page where you can see all Steps Metrics.
Graph with vertical bars: This step count graph shows how many steps you took at different times of the day. The taller the bar, the more steps you took during that time. Reading the graph is easy – left to right is the timeline, so you can see when you were most active.

The alphabet above the graph represents D (Day), W (Week), M (Month), and Y (Year). So, if you tap W, you’ll see the step count for weekdays like Monday, Tuesday instead of time.

You can tap and hold each of the bars to see more details of that particular time.

Note: If you see numbers like ’18’ or ’00’ at the bottom of the graph, that means your phone’s set to a 24-hour time format. Just something to keep in mind when you’re checking your step count throughout the day!

3. Step Distance Section

Right next to the Step Count, you’ll find the ‘Step Distance’ graph, showing you how far you’ve traveled today. The big blue number tells you your total distance, measured in kilometers (or miles, depending on your settings).

Just like the Step Count graph, this one has vertical bars that show your distance covered at different times of the day. The taller the bar, the more distance you covered during that period. Again, left to right is the timeline, so you can see when you were moving the most.

Tap and hold on the bar to see more information on that particular bar.

Sessions Section Icons Meaning

Let’s move on to the ‘Sessions’ section. This is where you get a quick look at your recent workouts.

Session Box: In this ‘Sessions’ box, you’ll see your most recent workout. The green number shows you the distance you covered in that session.
All Sessions (Green Right Arrow) Icon: Tapping this icon takes you to the ‘All Sessions’ page. Here, you can see a complete history of all your workouts.

Workout Details – Heart Rate and Pace Graphs

Let’s take a closer look at your workout details. When you tap ‘Show More’ on a session, you’ll see some cool graphs that give you a deeper dive into your performance.

Heart Rate Graph: At the top, you’ll find the Heart Rate graph. It shows your heart rate throughout the workout.

Graph: The graph itself shows your heart rate over time. The horizontal axis represents the duration of your workout (from ‘0:00:00’ to ‘0:29:41’), and the vertical axis shows your heart rate in BPM. The red lines on the graph show how your heart rate fluctuated throughout your workout.
Average Heart Rate: You’ll see the average heart rate displayed (e.g., ‘Average: 100BPM’).
Range: You’ll also see the heart rate range (e.g., ’88- 112BPM’), showing the lowest and highest heart rates recorded.

Pace Graph: Below the Heart Rate graph, you’ll find the Pace graph. It’s a measure of how fast you’re going.

Graph: The graph shows your pace over time. The horizontal axis again represents the duration of your workout, and the vertical bars show your pace at different points. Taller bars mean a faster pace, and shorter bars mean a slower pace.
Average Pace: This shows your average pace (e.g., ‘Average: 20’13″/KM’).
Pace Range: You’ll also see the range of your pace (e.g., ‘0’00”-15’12″/KM’).

You can also access this data for a particular time. Simply, tap and hold anywhere on the heart rate or pace graph where there is some activity.

Yellow Number: These yellow numbers represent the workout time.
Blue Number: These blue numbers represent the distance covered.

Heart Rate Section – Graph and Zones

Alright, let’s dig into your heart rate data. When you tap ‘Show More’ on the heart rate section, you’ll see a detailed look at your heart rate throughout your workout.

Heart Rate Graph: At the top, you’ll find the Heart Rate graph.

Average Heart Rate: You’ll see your average heart rate displayed (e.g., ‘100 BPM’).
Range: The graph shows your heart rate range, with the highest point (112 BPM) and the lowest point (88 BPM).
Graph: The graph itself shows how your heart rate fluctuated during your workout. The horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis shows your heart rate in BPM. The blue bars on the graph indicate your heart rate at different points in time.

Below the graph, you’ll see your heart rate zones.

Zones: These zones help you understand the intensity of your workout. They’re typically categorized as Zone 1 through Zone 5, with each zone representing a different level of exertion.

BPM Ranges: Each zone has a specific BPM range (e.g., Zone 1: < 136 BPM, Zone 5: 170+ BPM).

Time in Zone: The blue bar and the time next to the zone (e.g., 17:30 in Zone 1) show how long your heart rate stayed in that particular zone.

Dots: The dots next to the zone name show the time spent in each zone.

Understanding Zones:

Zone 1: Light activity, good for warm-ups and cool-downs.
Zone 2: Moderate activity, improves endurance.
Zone 3: Vigorous activity improves cardiovascular fitness.
Zone 4: High-intensity activity improves anaerobic capacity.
Zone 5: Maximum effort, short bursts of very intense activity.

Trends Section Icons Meaning

Alright, let’s talk about the ‘Trends’ section. This is where you get a quick snapshot of how your activity is trending over time.

You’ll see a bunch of metrics here, like ‘Stand,’ ‘Exercise,’ ‘Move,’ ‘Distance,’ and more. What’s cool is that each metric has an arrow or a dash next to it, giving you a quick visual cue on your progress.

Up Arrow (▲): If you see an up arrow, that’s a good sign! It means you’re doing well in that category, and your trend is positive.
Down Arrow (▼): If you see a down arrow, it means your trend is going down in that area. It’s a signal that you might want to focus on improving that particular metric to get back on track.
Minus/Dash (-): If you see a minus or dash, it means there’s no data available for that activity yet. This could be because you haven’t tracked that activity recently or at all.

Trends – Activity Graphs

Let’s take a closer look at the graphs you’ll find inside each activity in the ‘Trends’ section. They all work pretty much the same way, just with different values. We’ll use the ‘Stand’ graph as our example.

Goal Line (Dotted Line): You’ll see a dotted line running horizontally across the graph. This line represents your goal that you can set in Settings. In this Stand Graph, the dotted line is at 10 hours, which is your daily stand goal.

Vertical Bars (Colored and Grey):

The colored vertical bars represent your activity over the last 90 days. In this graph, they show how many hours you stood each day.
The grey vertical bars show your activity for the 275 days before that. So in total, the color + grey bar represents data for the last 365 days from today.
The height of the bars indicates the amount of activity. So, taller bars mean you stood for more hours on those days.
Months: The letters along the bottom of the graph are the initials of the months, helping you track your progress over time.

7-Day Details: Here’s a cool trick: if you tap and hold on any of the vertical bars, you’ll get a detailed view of your activity for last 7 days.

Daily Averages: Below the main graph, you’ll see a ‘Daily Averages’ section. This shows you how many days you closed your stand rings.

The grey bars represent your daily averages for the past 365 days.
The blue bars represent your daily averages for the past 90 days.

Rings Closed: You’ll also see a breakdown of how many days you’ve closed your stand rings, both for the last 365 days and the last 90 days, shown as a fraction and a percentage.

Note: keep in mind that the ‘Move’ graph will be similar, but instead of hours, it’ll show calories. And other activity graphs will have their own relevant metrics. But the overall structure and how to read the graphs will be the same!

And there you have it, folks! If you’re curious about the symbols in other apps, don’t forget to check out our other icon explanation guides below!