Staying active is one of the most useful things you can do for your kidneys — it helps control blood pressure, protects your heart, and preserves muscle on a protein-conscious diet. Kidney care guidelines suggest aiming for about 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, and your care team will often ask how active you’ve been. KidneyPal keeps the answer in your pocket.
A gentle note: KidneyPal records your activity; it doesn’t prescribe it. What kind and how much exercise is right for you — especially on dialysis — is a conversation for your doctor or care team.
Logging a Workout
There are two ways in:
- From your diary — tap the Activity tile in the quick-log row (Weight, Blood Pressure, and Activity sit side by side). If you haven’t logged anything yet, it shows a +.
- From the Activity History screen — long-press the Activity tile (or tap the Weekly Activity card on the Progress tab), then tap Log Activity on the This Week card.
The log sheet takes seconds:
- Pick the activity type — Walking, Running, Cycling, Swimming, Strength, Yoga, Hiking, Dancing, Sports, or Other.
- Enter the duration in minutes, or tap a preset (15, 30, 45, 60).
- Choose the intensity — Light, Moderate, or Vigorous.
- Check the calories (more on this below).
- Pick the date and tap Save.
You can log as many workouts per day as you like — a morning walk and an evening swim each get their own entry. The diary tile shows the day’s total minutes and calories.
Calories: Estimated, but Yours to Correct
When you log manually, KidneyPal estimates calories from the activity type, intensity, your duration, and the body weight on your profile, using standard exercise (MET) values. Estimated values are marked with a ~ — “~150 kcal” means “about 150.”
The estimate is only a starting point. If your treadmill or gym machine shows a number you trust more, type it into the Calories field before saving — your number replaces the estimate, loses the ~, and stays put even if you edit the entry later. Workouts imported from Apple Health show the measured calories from your watch or fitness app, with no ~.
Editing and Deleting a Workout
Open the Activity log sheet on a day that already has workouts and you’ll see a Logged on this day list above the form:
- To edit: tap a workout in the list — the form fills in with its details and the title changes to Edit Activity. Change what you need and tap Save. (Tap the workout again to deselect it and go back to adding a new one.)
- To delete: tap the trash icon on the workout’s row (or in the header while editing) and confirm.
The same works from the Activity History screen — tap any manual entry to open it for editing. Apple Health workouts are read-only in KidneyPal (see below).
The Weekly Goal
Both the Activity History screen and the Weekly Activity card on the Progress tab show a Weekly goal bar tracking your minutes against the 150-minutes-a-week guideline. Fill the bar and a checkmark appears. On the Progress tab, the card follows whichever week you’ve navigated to, so you can look back at past weeks too.
The history screen’s This Week card also sums up your last seven days: workouts, total minutes, active days, and calories.
Activity on Your Doctor’s Report
If you log workouts, your Doctor’s Report includes a Physical Activity section: how many workouts you logged, your average minutes per week, your active days, and your most frequent activity — the exact numbers your nephrologist asks about.
Apple Health Workouts (Pro, iOS only)
With Apple Health sync turned on (requires KidneyPal Pro) and the Workouts toggle enabled under Read from Health, workouts recorded by your Apple Watch — or any fitness app that writes to Apple Health, like Strava or Peloton — appear in KidneyPal automatically, labeled Apple Health with a small heart icon, complete with their real measured calories.
A few details worth knowing:
- Import only. KidneyPal never writes workouts back to Apple Health, so nothing you log manually shows up there.
- Apple Health workouts are read-only in KidneyPal — they can’t be edited or deleted in the app. If one is wrong, fix it in the Health app; note that a workout deleted in Apple Health currently stays in KidneyPal.
- Every Apple Health workout type is welcome. The common ones map to KidneyPal’s categories (a HIIT session shows as Strength, pickleball as Sports); anything unusual keeps its own name, like “Rowing.”
Activity on the Web
Manual logging works the same in the KidneyPal web app at web.kidneypal.app (available to Pro members): an Activity row on the diary, an Activity section on the Progress page with the weekly goal bar, a minutes-per-day chart, and your history, plus the Physical Activity section in the web report. Workouts imported from Apple Health on your iPhone show up on the web too — it’s all one diary.
