As a dog owner and a fitness writer, I do a lot of walking. While testing out some of the best walking shoes recently, I wondered whether or not my stroll counted as a workout. My heart rate was elevated and I was breaking a sweat but I wasn’t sure I was doing enough to improve my cardio fitness.
I decided to speak to NASM-certified personal trainer, Ellen Thompson, the head personal trainer at Blink Fitness NYC. Not only did I want to know if walking is technically cardio, but I wanted to find out if there was a minimum pace I needed to hit to turn my walk into a cardio workout.
I’ve also seen walking workouts trending on my social media (usually on a treadmill) and wanted to get Thomson’s insight on how valuable these are. Here’s what she said.
Ellen Thompson
Ellen Thompson is the head personal trainer at Blink Fitness. She has dual NASM certifications in personal training and corrective exercise, a fitness nutrition specialist certification, and expertise in functional movement screening, TRX, and Schwinn Cycling.
“Yes! Any activity that increases your heart rate can be considered cardio. Walking at any intensity—but preferably a moderate or high intensity—checks that box,” said Thompson.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
What are the benefits of walking as cardio?
“Walking is a great form of cardio because it’s accessible. [It] doesn’t require any gym membership, any special equipment, or any special skills, almost anybody can just go outside and walk,” she said.
“It’s a great way to work the heart and blood [circulation] together, and it can be a great way to burn calories, all while having low impact on the body. Compared to other forms of cardio, it can also put less stress on the joints.”
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Do you need to go at a certain pace for your walk to become a ‘workout’?
“No. Go at your own pace. Any walk for any duration of time will burn some calories, and still get the heart to work at higher levels than just staying sedentary.
“However, just like anything, the more effort you put into your walk, the more benefits you reap. If one person walks on a treadmill four times per week for 20 minutes at a 2.0 speed and a 1.0 incline, and another person walks on the treadmill the same four times per week for 20 minutes but at a 3.5 speed and a 3.5 incline, the person at the higher speed and incline is going to burn more calories throughout the week as well as grow their cardio capacity at quicker rates [all else being equal].”
What’s the minimum pace that people should aim for weight loss?
“Instead of thinking ‘pace’ think heart rate zone,” Thomson said. “To get results you need to at least get out of zone 1 heart rate into zone 2 heart rate which is 65-75% of your maximum heart rate max.”
To find your heart rate max, you subtract your age from 220. So if you’re a 27-year-old, your heart rate max is 193. If you want your heart rate to reach at least 65% of that, the minimum pace you should be going should bring your heart rate up to 125 BPM.
“If I had to estimate what pace that would be, it would probably be around 3.0-3.5 MPH,” added Thompson.
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What do you personally think about the trend for ‘walking workouts’?
“Whenever you see a fitness ‘trend’ or ‘fad’, chances are it is a gimmick, overcomplicating things for no reason,” said Thomson.
Her advice for anyone who wants to use walking for their workouts? “Keep it simple. Walk at a pace that challenges you for the time that you have in the day, for as many times a week as you can.”
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Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best ones for you. Find out more about how we test.
Choosing from the best fitness trackers available can feel overwhelming at times — how can you differentiate them? How do you know if they have all the features you’re looking for? This is why we spend weeks testing fitness trackers, to help gather the information you need to make an informed decision.
When it comes to the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, there was a lot to like and only a few things that turned us off. However, when you consider the price of this fitness tracker, there isn’t much to grumble about. We loved the amount of yoga types you could select from, the personalized workout screen that took minutes, if not seconds, to sort, the Velcro-adjustable strap, the battery life, the sleep tracking and the durability of the Gorilla Glass screen.
While the accuracy of the stress monitor was questionable, and the tracker was unable to determine when all workouts were paused or finished, there was still a lot to like about this budget fitness watch. So much so that we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to newbies to the fitness tracking world, keen yogis or those looking to make tracking their fitness as easy as possible.
It’s in tough competition with the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 in our eyes. The Smart Band 10 shines with an extra week of battery life compared to the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, but otherwise, these fitness trackers are very similar. So how did the Motorola Moto Watch Fit perform during our testing period? Read on to find out.
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Motorola Moto Watch Fit review
Motorola Moto Watch Fit : Design
The Velcro strap on the Motorola Moto Watch Fit lets you adjust the strap to your precise wrist size. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
The Velcro strap is a nice touch
Screen is a great size, durable and resistant
Lots of personalization features
There is a lot to like about the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, especially as it seems to be a fitness watch with numerous personalization features, which make this watch more compatible with you than you first realize.
For example, there is the standard personalization of the watch faces, with a huge amount to select from. However, beyond this, the Velcro strap design, while initially appearing somewhat cheap-looking, is actually a blessing in disguise. It allows you to get this watch to fit your exact wrist size, reducing the number of times it may slip down your wrist during exercise. While the silicone straps on other fitness watches are good, they tend to leave you with only a few options for sizing. The whole of the band on the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is available to use as a Velcro band, meaning even those with smaller wrists can get this watch to fit snugly.
While we love the Velcro strap, we aren’t too keen on the color. Currently, it appears this watch is only available with this color strap, a dark green with a yellow race stripe down the center, which is a little disappointing. Motorola does note you can swap this band out with any other compatible 0.86-inch (22 mm) band, although it appears these need to be sourced elsewhere than Motorola.
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The side button is discreet and doesn’t interfere with this watch’s performance during workouts. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
Specifications
Display: 1.9″ OLED, Gorilla Glass
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Always-on: Yes
Dimensions (in): 1.75 x 1.49 x 0.37
Dimensions (mm): 44.46 x 37.9 x 9.5
Weight: 0.88 oz (25 g)
Colors: Trekking Green
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GPS: Yes
Compass: No
Altimeter: No
Water resistance: 5ATM (up to a depth of 50 meters)
NFC Payments: No
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Compatibility: Android 12 and up
The personalization feature we feel it’s important to note is the fact that you can add and remove workouts on the workout screen with a simple touch of the Add and Remove buttons. Even the most uninterested person in tech could easily adapt their workout screen within seconds. This means that hitting go on a workout involves the minimal amount of faff possible — a real godsend compared to wading through tons of workouts until you find the one you want (and then that one appearing again on your workout screen for future reference).
Furthermore, there is a wide range of workouts available to choose from, including differentiation of yoga types. This gives this watch massive appeal to yogis who can now distinguish between their Ashtanga practice and their restorative or Yin Yoga. It might not seem like a big deal to non-yogis, but different types of yoga require different levels of energy, with some being more dynamic and others more slow and steady, meaning stats per yoga session can vary widely. With the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, you can now capture your yoga sessions far more accurately.
Another great feature of this watch is the screen, with a 1.9-in OLED display that’s a good size without being too bulky. The visibility is great in all light conditions, and we found it to be sufficiently durable and resistant to dust and other particles for a budget fitness tracker. After two weeks of continuous daily testing, there wasn’t a mark or scratch to be found on the screen, which is possibly thanks to its Gorilla Glass.
The screen itself feels quite slender on your wrist, and there are minimal external buttons, meaning this watch isn’t prone to getting stuck on clothing while working out (one of our bugbears!) There is one button on the side that can be used to turn the screen on (if you don’t have always-on mode activated) and to pause workouts. Other than that, most operations are handled by swiping or touching the screen.
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Motorola Moto Watch Fit: Performance
Stats are presented clearly both on the watch itself and via the accompanying app. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
Outstanding battery life for a budget fitness tracker
Sleep and heart rate monitoring are largely accurate
The stress monitor appears to be inaccurate
For a budget fitness tracker, the Motorola Moto Watch Fit performed well. It logged most of our workouts accurately, including the length of time we were exercising for, the length of the walks we took and our heart rate. It also has exceptional battery life, offering two weeks on a single charge, and we can attest this was the case for our testing period. We never needed to charge it during our two-week testing period and still had 32% of battery life at the time of writing this review. However, we should note that we had the “always-on” feature turned off during this period, as a personal preference. Having this feature on would certainly drain the battery faster.
While walking outdoors, with the watch using its own built-in GPS, the watch automatically acknowledges when you have paused and when you start walking again. This is a great feature that allows you to stay present in your surroundings, rather than having to constantly stop and start your workout whenever you pause to look at something on your walk. You also have the option to pause workouts by tapping the screen or pressing the button on the side, which is perfect for indoor workouts when automatic acknowledgement of a pause in a workout doesn’t work.
Although overall we were impressed with this watch’s performance, we did notice a few nuances in its accuracy functions. The Motorola Moto Watch Fit can’t recognize when you have finished a workout, so it’s important to remember to finish your workout manually. To do so, it’s a simple swipe to the right when on the workout screen and a press of the Finish button. Unlike other budget watches we’ve reviewed, such as the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, you only need to tap the Finish button rather than hold it down to end a workout. This made ending workouts quick, which we liked.
The reason we say to end your workouts promptly is that, when doing a yoga class, we forgot to end our workout and realized an hour later, after having sat down for lunch. The watch had continued monitoring our “workout” and couldn’t distinguish between us doing yoga and eating lunch! This was slightly disappointing, but as this is a budget fitness watch, it was understandable.
The accompanying app displays stats in an easy-to-digest format. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
Another feature that left us unsatisfied was the stress monitor. The stress monitor appears to use your heart rate as a monitor for your stress. Currently being six months pregnant means our heart rate is always higher than average, with a resting BPM of somewhere between 90-100bpm. This put us in the Medium category for stress; however, we did not experience any level of stress during our testing period, as we were on holiday. Consequently, we found this measurement unreliable and void, which was a shame.
However, being pregnant also meant that we could tell the heart rate monitoring on the Motorola Moto Watch Fit was largely accurate. Capturing our resting BPM often in the 90s, and our exercising BPM reaching a maximum of 142 when doing light exercise, we felt happy that this aligned with our current heart rate due to the pregnancy.
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While we found the heart rate monitoring to be impressively accurate for a budget fitness tracker, we were also surprisingly happy with the sleep monitoring function. Again, being six months pregnant, we are often up in the night for toilet trips. The watch accurately captured our awake windows, including how long we were actually awake for. Not only this, but we found the sleep data to be interesting to look at the following day, with it capturing the length of our sleep, the time spent in deep sleep, light sleep and REM, our awake periods and sleep heart rate. The data also gives you an idea of the quality of your sleep.
Motorola Moto Watch Fit: Functionality
There were many things to like about the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, including how it captured health stats. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
Simple interface is ideal for beginners
Lack of smart features
Additional useful features
Overall, we felt the Motorola Moto Watch Fit did a great job, especially for a budget fitness tracker. The combination of the design, including many personalization options, and strong performance allows us to confidently give this fitness watch 4.5 stars out of 5. We would happily have given it five stars if some of the features provided more accurate stats.
However, we can’t fault the interface of this fitness watch. There are only six actions required to get what you want from this watch. These are: • pressing the button on the side to activate the screen • tapping the screen to wake it up • swiping right to access the main menu (including workout features) • swiping left to access your daily activity goals • swiping up for any notifications • swiping down for the quick menu, including water lock, torch and sleep mode.
It really is as simple as that — once you’ve spent a few minutes familiarizing yourself with these actions, you can confidently move around the watch. We think it’s a good option for beginners to fitness tracking.
As far as we can make out, the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is primarily a fitness tracker, as it lacks smart features such as NFC payments. While we didn’t personally miss these features, those looking for a fitness tracker-cum-smartwatch may want to look elsewhere. This is a “basic” fitness watch — as you’d expect at this price.
We loved the amount of features that allow you to personalize this fitness tracker. (Image credit: Kat Bayly)
While the primary function of this fitness watch is to track your workouts, there are some additional features that are handy to have. These include breathing exercises, a torch and 5ATM water resistance. There is sadly only one breathing exercise, but you can increase how long you want to practice it for by increasing the number of minutes. For those looking for more of a rounded approach to their health and fitness, the inclusion of breathing exercises is a nice touch that can help people destress and unwind — especially as health isn’t just about the workouts we do.
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The 5ATM water resistance and water lock function mean you can wear this fitness tracker while swimming. It also has its own “Pool swimming” workout mode — great news for those who prefer working out in water rather than on land.
Previously, we haven’t felt the need to use the additional features, such as a torch, when reviewing fitness trackers. However, due to our pregnancy and many trips to the loo each night, we can say that having a torch on your wrist is actually a worthwhile thing! It’s bright enough to light up a room and safely walk in the dark — we only used it indoors, but this feature might also prove useful when rooting around in the car or trunk when returning home in the dark from the shops, for example. It unfortunately won’t suffice for using outside while exercising, as it turns off after a few minutes.
Overall, we feel the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is a fantastic budget fitness tracker that feels more premium than it is. Some of its features are outstanding, and only a few could be a tad better.
Should you buy the Motorola Moto Watch Fit?
Buy it if:
✅ You’re a regular yoga class attendee: We loved the amount of yoga types you could select from on this watch.
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✅ You want a fitness watch you can personalize to your needs: The personalization features on this watch are seriously impressive for its price point.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want a smartwatch: This is a basic fitness watch, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for features like NFC payments.
❌ Accuracy is important to you: While the accuracy was generally acceptable, if you want complete peace of mind, you’ll need to up your budget and spend more.
The Motorola Moto Watch Fit has some impressive features, such as its personalization abilities, multiple yoga workout options, 5ATM water resistance, built-in GPS, user-friendly interface, extensive battery life and useful additional features, to name a few. We found the benefits and ease of use of this watch far outweighed the few things we noted as disappointments. It’s also worth remembering that this is a budget fitness tracker, and as such, it can’t be directly compared to the likes of Garmin watches, which are renowned for their accuracy but cost considerably more.
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Saying that, there are a few groups of people who would particularly like this tracker. Beginners to fitness trackers will find the interface accessible, while the accompanying app is also a breeze to look through and understand — there is nothing overly complex in the data that could overwhelm those new to the world of fitness tracking.
Keen yogis will also be delighted with the ability to choose more than just “Yoga” on their workouts. The variety of yoga types means yogis can accurately capture their workout and look back at their data knowing exactly the type of yoga they practised at the time. This is useful as not all yoga requires the same amount of energy and thus calories burned and heart rate measurements may look quite different depending on the style being practiced.
Finally, this watch will appeal to anyone looking to make fitness tracking easy. With the ability to personalize your workout menu and set the strap to your exact wrist size, all the faff is removed, and it literally takes a second to start and end your workout.
If this product isn’t for you
While we think the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is a great budget fitness tracker, it may not suit your needs. If you’re looking for a slender fitness watch, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 is a good option, receiving 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review and featuring as the best budget fitness tracker in our best fitness trackers guide. We complimented its slender design, which allowed it to be unobtrusive, both during workouts and to wear at night, and it features over 150 workout modes. Plus, the battery life is around 21 days — a tad better than the Motorola Moto Watch Fit.
If you have more money to spend but are new to fitness tracking, consider the Garmin Vivoactive 6. With a similar battery life of 11 days, accurate fitness tracking and exercise animations, the Vivoactive 6 is a great introduction to Garmin’s fitness tracking technology without feeling overwhelmed.
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Depending on your needs and budget, you might want to try the Garmin Fenix 8 if you’re looking for a reliable fitness watch to track your workouts — we rate it as the best fitness tracker for tracking workouts. However, this might be a bit too expensive for some, especially if you’re new to the fitness tracking world.
If you’re a keen runner, we rate the Garmin Forerunner 965 as the best running watch. But the TicWatch Atlas is a great competitor to some of the more expensive models available, and may suit anyone looking for a great Garmin alternative.
Hello you lovely lot. Right, I have 500 words and I’m not going to use them for persuasion or coercion, because that doesn’t work. I want to explain what the point of exercise is. All facts, no emotion. Then you can make up your own mind.
The first fact is that many people view exercise purely as a means to lose weight. So that 45 minutes of exertion three to four times a week becomes only about burning calories.
Yet – and this is important – we burn calories all the time. Just sitting still. Breathing, digesting and metabolising uses around 60% of our daily calories. Then our hard-working brains use another 20%. Another 10% goes on essential daily movement, getting dressed, cleaning teeth, cooking etc. So, that means just 10% of your daily calories are used on that workout which you do, or don’t, want to do. And, if you think about it, 10% of your calories is a very small dent in your fat stores.
Diet and exercise go hand in hand
Let’s take Sylvia. By June, she wants to slide effortlessly into the mother-of-the-bride dress she bought a size smaller in the January sales. So Sylvia starts brisk walking for 30 minutes five days a week, which her fitness tracker tells her burns around 130 calories. That’s 650 calories (5 x 130) in a week.
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Walking as a workout is fantastic exercise, but if all Sylvia wants is to lose fat, then making changes to her food will have much more impact in terms of calories.
Swapping her two breakfast slices of toast, butter and marmalade for one slice of toast, one poached egg and a large crunchy apple, plus reducing the three daily chocolate digestives down to one, saves her (yes, I’m sitting here with my calculator) just shy of 2,000 calories a week. Without much hardship.
“It has way more to offer than calorie burning”
My point is that if you want to lose fat, think more about changes to your food than exercise because exercise has way more to offer than calorie burning.
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What’s more, you don’t have to go through a pain barrier to feel the rewards. Sylvia has come to love her brisk power walks (yes, she’s moved on from a saunter), and she is experiencing good things.
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
If I told you those good things, would you lose interest? Does it feel a bit like someone telling you why smoking is bad? You’ve heard it all before, I know, but I’m sorry because you’re going to hear it again, without the emotion, just the facts.
From walking to weightlifting – you choose what you enjoy but they will all improve your physical health, your mental health and your energy levels, as well as: increase bone density, muscle strength and joint stability; reduce the risk of depression, stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes; contribute to better sleep; lower blood pressure; increase body awareness and balance; and improve your core strength, flexibility, mobility – and very possibly sociability.
The list goes on but I’m running out of words. It doesn’t have to hurt to be good. And it’s never too late to start. Find a form of exercise you enjoy and make it a habit. Make it something you always do. You wouldn’t let your children down. Don’t let yourself down, either.
3 moves to do when you have no time
We’re covering all bases here – strength of upper and lower body, as well as mobility.
Call it multitasking if you like! Do them in order, for the number of reps and do three rounds.
(Image credit: Future)
1. Sumo squats
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They use all leg muscles and the glutes. Stand with feet turned out and wider than shoulder-width apart. Slowly lower your hips, keeping your knees pointing roughly over your second toe. Pause and rise slowly back up. Do 10-20 reps.
(Image credit: Future)
2. Spine twist
This improves spinal mobility and core strength. Stand with feet in a V and squeeze glutes. Breathe in, keep arms outstretched and, as you breathe out, slowly twist to the left, keeping hips facing forward. Do three times each side.
(Image credit: Future)
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3. Don’t shy away from push-ups
They’re cracking for upper body strength and firming up the triceps. Start on all fours, hands slightly wider than shoulders. Slowly lower yourself towards the floor. Pause then push back up. Do five reps slowly.
Andy McIntyre (BOst, MSc) says his clinic is always fully booked in January.
The associate osteopath from The Livewell Clinic in London says the reason injuries tend to always flare up at the start of the year is simple.
“Unless it’s a long-term injury, people become injured because they’ve done too much too soon after having done too little for too long,” he tells Fit&Well.
Going from zero to 100—or very little movement in December to suddenly running a 5K every few days in January—is a recipe for inflammation and injury.
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The most common ailments tend to relate to overuse: runner’s knee, plantar fasciitis, shin splints and lower-back pain.
Instead, McIntyre (who happens to be treating my lower-back pain from an overuse strain suffered last summer) emphasizes the need to build up gradually with any new activity you’re undertaking.
If running 5K is your target, start with run-walk intervals, he says. Alternate running 30 or 60 seconds with one or two minutes of walking.
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If simply going to the gym more often is your goal, start with one or two gentle sessions a week rather than three or four intense workouts.
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What should you do if you’ve picked up a January injury?
But what if you’re already nursing an injury from biting off more than you could chew?
McIntyre says you should re-evaluate the activity or resolution that caused the injury in the first place and question whether it’s worth sticking with.
“If it is an activity that is just a means to an end, like losing a few pounds or adding a bit of muscle, rather than an activity you really want to have in your life, then honestly, I think it won’t be that sustainable,” he says.
“Is it worth killing yourself or getting injured because you’re chasing a goal that isn’t going to be part of your life forever?
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“Could you find an activity that you enjoy more that is going to be better for your mental health and your physical health long-term without such a fixed goal?”
McIntyre provides his relationship with climbing as a prime example.
“I’m a big climber. That’s what I like doing. But in the last year I’ve barely been going once a week. So, I don’t have a goal in mind, I just want to get back to doing more regular climbing because I enjoy it. I enjoy the people that I get to hang out with. It’s a constant challenge.”
And that means getting back into a rhythm of climbing once a week for a month or two, then increasing the frequency and duration of these workouts once his body has adapted to the increased workload.
That way, come January next year, he’ll have built up enough tolerance to survive a good rest over the holidays and won’t end up on his own treatment table.
