Here, we’ll cover all the Activity Score basics, including how your Activity Score is calculated and tips on how to increase your score.
How Oura Measures Your Activity Score
What Is a Good Activity Score?
What Is the Crown Icon?
What is Walking Equivalency?
How to Improve Your Activity Score
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How Oura Measures Your Activity Score
Your Activity Score is measured using your daily activity (how much you move throughout the day), step count, training frequency, and training volume, among other metrics. The Oura Ring is able to capture these metrics using a 3D accelerometer, a small piece of technology tucked neatly into your ring. By using a 3D accelerometer, the Oura Ring is able to measure the movement of your hand to estimate whole-body activity (physical activity) and leg movement (step count).
What Is a Good Activity Score?
Readiness, Activity, and Sleep Scores — and their contributors — are rated on a scale of 0-100.
- 85-100: Optimal
- 70-84: Good
- 60-69: Fair
- 0-59: Pay Attention
An 85 or higher may be a sign that you are ready to take on new challenges. Scores below 70 indicate that you may benefit from prioritizing rest and recovery in the indicated areas.
What is the crown
icon?
On days where your Readiness, Sleep, or Activity Score is 85 or higher, you'll see a crown icon in the following places:
- Near your Readiness, Sleep, or Activity Score on the Home
tab
- Beside your score in the Readiness, Sleep, or Activity tab
- Above the corresponding day in the calendar view (accessed by selecting "Today
" at the top of the app)
What is Walking Equivalency?
Oura also converts your activity burn into distance, which is displayed in your app as "Walking Equivalency." In simple terms, walking equivalency answers, "How much would I have had to walk to burn the amount of calories that I did?" This is why high-intensity activities like jogging move you closer to your daily activity goal faster than low-intensity activities like walking.
The best part about walking equivalency is that it’s comparable between people; because walking equivalency reflects similar activity levels, you can see how you stack up against your friends using this metric. In comparison, caloric burn is related to body weight, which is why it’s often not useful to compare between people.
How to Improve Your Activity Score
Oura promotes an active, but balanced lifestyle. The focus is on staying physically active on a weekly basis (2-3 sessions per week that allow your heart and breathing rates to get into elevated zones that challenge your system) and to avoid complete inactivity daily.
Here are a few tips to consider when looking to achieve a higher Activity Score:
- Keep your total inactive time below 8 hours per day. This will positively affect your Activity Score. In contrast, being inactive for more than 10 hours daily will negatively impact your score
- Move for just a few minutes each hour (e.g. standing up from your desk to stretch your legs). This can directly assist in raising your score. You can enable inactivity alerts in your settings if you’d like to receive a friendly reminder to get your blood flowing after 50 consecutive minutes of inactivity
- Strive to meet your activity goal five or more times per week. Keep in mind that your activity goals are based on your readiness level
- Get your step count up. There is no step count goal as a feature of your Oura experience; rather, the focus is on comparing steps to your own baseline. Of course, some days will be more inactive than others, but if you can increase your average step count by bumping up your daily movement with 1,000 additional steps for example, you’ll see boosts in your score and gains in your overall health
- Try to get in 2,000-3,000 calories of medium-to-high-intensity activity per week. For an average adult, this equates to two hours of jogging or 4.5 hours of brisk walking per week. If your volume falls to 750-1,500 calories per week, this will negatively impact your Activity Score
The idea is to push yourself, then recover, and repeat this pattern. You’ll end up gaining more fitness in the long-run this way. If you’ve gone five days without active rest, the "Recovery Time" contributor will detract from your overall Activity Score. If you'd like to understand how this contributor, among other activity contributors, is determined, please visit our guide.
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