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GlossaryApple Activity

Active Calories

Definition

Calories burned through movement, as distinct from your basal (resting) metabolic rate. Apple Health labels these 'Active Energy'. Walking, climbing stairs, and working out all contribute. Active Calories is what fills your Move ring.

Close-up of a wrist wearable showing three concentric activity rings mid-workout.

How MoveTogether uses it.

Active calories fill the Move ring and drive Head to Head on calories. They also count toward Raw Numbers and Percentage of Goals. MoveTogether reads them from your chosen tracker through Apple Health or Health Connect.

MoveTogether never scores total calories (resting plus active), because resting burn depends on body size rather than effort. Active calories still scale with body mass: a larger person burns more doing the same workout. If that matters for your group, Percentage of Goals scores goal completion instead of absolute burn.

Related terms

Move RingThe Apple Watch ring that tracks active calories burned during the day.Activity RingsApple's three daily activity targets, Move (calories burned), Exercise (minutes of brisk activity), and Stand (hours with at least one minute of standing).Head to HeadA MoveTogether competition scoring method that races one number, and the highest total wins.Raw NumbersA MoveTogether competition scoring method that adds up total activity: Active Calories, Exercise Minutes, and a step contribution in one points total.Percentage of GoalsA MoveTogether competition scoring method that scores each participant by how completely they hit their own daily goals for Move, Exercise, and Steps.
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See active calories in action.

MoveTogether is on the App Store and Google Play. Bring any device that syncs to Apple Health or Health Connect, or just your phone, and start your first competition this week.

Get MoveTogetherHow competitions work