I am trying to lose weight, so in addition to eating right, I have also decided to walk 10,000 steps everyday or at least every weekday.

Why Steps, and not Calories?

Thanks to the heart rate monitor, Apple does a reasonable job of measuring calories that you’ve burned during the day. However to get a more accurate measurement, especially while you’re exercising, you need to tell the Watch what kind of exercise you’re doing like walking indoor or outdoor, using an Elliptical trainer etc.

If you have to do something manually, you’re prone to forget it. It is one of the drawbacks of the Apple Watch. Ideally, I would have liked it to figure out what I am doing, and nudge me to get my confirmation. So to keep things simple, I decided to use the step count.

How to check the Step Count on Apple Watch

• Launch the Activity App. You can do it by either pressing the Digital Crown to go to the Home screen, or if are using a Watch face that has the complication of the Activity app, then you can tap on it to launch it. I use the latter option.

• Navigate to the Activity view or the Home screen of the Activity app.

• Use the Digital Crown or your finger to scroll down.

• You should see the step count next to Total Steps along with Active Calories and Total Distance travelled.

It would have been nice if Apple had offered a complication or even a Glance to make it easier to check the steps. There are apps like the StepCard (iTunes link – free) that allow you to add a complication which can display the step count. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be working too well, and don’t seem to update the step count real-time.

Do you use your Apple Watch to regularly track your steps? Do you find it frustrating that you have to manually select the exercise that you are doing every time?