Reference · Updated October 23, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Form turns your Apple Watch data into a single daily recommendation. You don't have to log anything, set anything up, or interpret the numbers yourself.

Getting started

What does Form do?: Form reads the health data your iPhone and Apple Watch already record and turns it into a single daily recommendation. You don't log anything. The app answers five questions: Am I consistent this week? Did I get enough Zone 2 cardio? Am I maintaining strength? Am I balanced between strength and cardio? And the one that matters most: what should I do today?
What do I need to use Form?: An iPhone or iPad running iOS/iPadOS 17 or later, and an Apple Watch that you wear regularly. The Watch needs to record overnight heart rate and HRV, so wear it to sleep at least a few nights a week. The more often you wear it, the more accurate the recommendations get.
Does Form work on iPad?: Yes, Form is a universal app. In portrait, the dashboard splits into two columns: Today, Readiness, and This Week on the left, Nutrition and Trends on the right. In landscape, Today and Readiness stay pinned in a left-hand rail while This Week, Nutrition, and Trends scroll in two columns beside it. Drill-downs and Settings open full screen, the same as on iPhone.
Why doesn't Form ask me to log anything?: Your Apple Watch already records workouts, heart rate zones, VO₂ max, resting HR, HRV, sleep, and HR recovery while you wear it. Form interprets that data instead of asking you for more. No logging means no friction, and no fiction: no numbers you made up later because you forgot to log them in the moment.
How do I grant Form access to my health data?: Form asks for HealthKit permission on first launch. To review or change what Form can read later, go to Settings → Health Permissions in the app, or to Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Form on your iPhone.
How long does it take before recommendations become useful?: Form works from day one with whatever history you already have. Recommendations get noticeably more accurate after about 2–4 weeks, once your personal baselines settle. A tile marked "baseline stabilizing" has fewer than 30 days of data for that metric. The value shown is still real; Form is just less certain how it compares to your normal.

The TODAY card

What is the TODAY card?: It's the large card at the top of the home screen. It shows a coloured state chip (e.g. ON TRACK, STRAIN), today's recommendation as a one-sentence headline, a spud mood icon in the top-right corner that reflects your readiness, and the weekly session strip (a row of seven circles labelled with the day of the month). The card background never changes colour; the chip colour shows your readiness state. Tap the card to see the full rule detail: which signals triggered the recommendation and why.
The headline changes every day. What determines it?: Form evaluates 19 rules in priority order every time you open the app. The first rule whose conditions are met becomes today's recommendation. Rules are ranked so recovery signals always outweigh training targets. If your body is showing strain, Form won't tell you to push harder.
Does the recommendation update during the day if I work out?: Form generates the recommendation each time you open the app. If you log a workout mid-morning and open Form again, it acknowledges the workout and changes its wording (e.g. "Workout done. You're on pace." instead of telling you to go train). The rule that fired may also change if the workout added enough zone minutes.
What are the circles in the TODAY card?: That's the weekly session strip: seven circles labelled with the day of the month (e.g. 15, 16, 17…). A filled circle with a workout icon means you logged a session that day. A leaf icon on a faint circle means a rest day with no session. An outlined circle is a future day, or today if you haven't worked out yet. Tap any past session circle to see a summary of that workout.

Recommendation labels (pills)

The coloured pill above the headline shows which category the recommendation falls into.

Pill	Colour	What it means
STRAIN	Red	Your body has been under strain for a while: HRV has been low for 3+ days, resting HR has been high for 5+ days, or your training load jumped well above your recent average. Rest or move very lightly.
POSSIBLE ILLNESS	Amber	Your overnight respiratory rate has been elevated for 2+ consecutive nights. This is an early illness signal that often precedes HRV dips by 24–48 hours. Light activity only.
RECOVERY DOWN	Amber	Today's HRV is more than 15% below your personal 60-day average. It's a one-day dip, so it's worth noticing but isn't a sustained warning.
LOAD SPIKE	Amber	Your training load this week is 1.5–1.8× your 28-day average (moderate spike). Pay attention to how your body feels.
SLEEP DEBT	Amber	You have accumulated more than 5 hours of sleep deficit over the rolling 7-day window. Prioritise rest over additional training tonight.
TRENDING DOWN	Amber	HRV has been drifting down over the last 14 days (even if no single day triggered an alarm), or HR recovery has dropped 4+ BPM below your baseline. This can mean early overtraining or poor sleep.
PLATEAU	Amber	VO₂ max has been flat for 4+ weeks while your Zone 3–4 minutes have been below target. Some higher-intensity cardio this week gives your aerobic system a reason to adapt.
AHEAD	Grey	You are ahead of expected weekly pace on your training targets. No strain detected.
ON TRACK	Grey	You are 70–100% of expected pace on your weekly targets. No strain detected.
BEHIND PACE	Grey	You are below 70% of expected pace. No strain detected, but there is a gap to close if you want to hit this week's targets.
EASING BACK	Grey	Form hasn't had overnight HRV or resting HR data for 4–7 days (the watch was off or not charged). Your baselines are uncertain, so Form holds off on prescriptions while they recalibrate.
REBUILDING	Grey	No overnight data for 8+ days. The app is rebuilding its picture of your baseline. Recommendations will sharpen as readings resume.

Readiness metrics

The Readiness section shows five body-signal tiles (HRV, Resting HR, Sleep, HR Recovery, Load Ratio), plus a Respiratory Rate tile on Series 8 and later. Each tile shows the metric value, with a small coloured arrow and the change in the header row. These signals drive the highest-priority recommendations.

HRV (Heart Rate Variability)

What is HRV?: Heart rate variability is the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats. A higher HRV generally means your nervous system has recovered and can handle training stress. A lower HRV means your body is under load from training, illness, poor sleep, stress, or alcohol.
How does Apple Watch measure it?: The Watch measures HRV overnight during sleep using the SDNN method (standard deviation of NN intervals). Overnight readings are more consistent than daytime readings because they are less affected by activity, caffeine, and mental focus.
What does the delta (e.g. "↓ 18%") mean?: It's the percentage difference between today's overnight reading and your personal 60-day rolling average. A reading more than 15% below your own average triggers an amber recommendation. Because the threshold is relative to you, someone with naturally low HRV and a high-HRV athlete are each judged against their own baseline.
My HRV seems low every day. Is something wrong?: HRV varies a lot between people; normal values run from under 20 ms to over 100 ms. What matters is the trend relative to your baseline. If your HRV is consistently 10–15% below what's usual for you, pay attention to that. If it's stable, Form treats it as normal, even if the number looks low compared to what you've read online.

Resting heart rate (RHR)

What is resting heart rate?: It's how many times your heart beats per minute when your body is at rest. Apple Watch calculates it during the day from periods when you're still and calm.
How does Form use RHR?: Form compares your RHR to your personal 60-day average. If it has been elevated for five or more days in a row, Form fires a red STRAIN rule, because that pattern reliably points to sustained stress from overtraining, illness, or not enough recovery.

Sleep

What sleep data does Form use?: Form reads total sleep duration from HealthKit's sleepAnalysis data, the same source the Apple Health app uses. If a third-party sleep app (e.g. AutoSleep or Sleep Cycle) writes to Apple Health, Form picks that up too.
What does the Sleep tile show?: Last night's total sleep in hours and minutes, and its difference from your personal 60-day average. Weekly targets and sleep debt use a target of 7 hours per night.
What is the Sleep detail view?: If your Apple Watch Series 8 or later recorded sleep stages, the detail view shows a breakdown of last night's sleep by stage: Deep, Core (Light), REM, and Awake. A warning note appears if Deep sleep was under 15% of the total, which often goes with lower HRV the next morning.

HR recovery (HRR)

What is HR recovery?: HR recovery (HRR) is how far your heart rate drops in the first minute after you stop a high-intensity workout. A larger drop in BPM means better cardiovascular fitness and parasympathetic nervous system function.
Why does Form show "—" for HR recovery?: Apple Watch only writes a HRR value for workouts where your heart rate was sustained in Zone 3 or above and the watch detected a clean cool-down. Strength training, casual walks, and yoga rarely produce a value. If you have not done a qualifying workout recently, there is no data to show.
How do I capture HR recovery data?: Do at least one of these workouts each week: running, cycling, hiking, rowing, elliptical, stair stepper, or HIIT. When you finish, sit or stand still for 2–3 minutes. Walking off right away is the most common reason no value gets recorded, because the watch can't get a clean heart rate reading after exercise.
What does Form's HRR baseline use?: A rolling average of your last 4 qualifying sessions over the past 30 days, compared against your 90-day session baseline. If your recent 4-session average has dropped 4+ BPM from your long-term session baseline, Form fires a TRENDING DOWN amber recommendation.

Respiratory Rate

What is respiratory rate?: It's your breathing rate during sleep, in breaths per minute (brpm). Apple Watch Series 8 and later measures it automatically every night.
Why does this tile sometimes not appear?: The tile only appears if your watch records respiratory rate, which means Apple Watch Series 8 or later. Older models don't record it, so the tile stays hidden.
What is the threshold for a warning?: A 2+ BPM elevation above your personal 7-night rolling baseline for 2 consecutive nights triggers the amber POSSIBLE ILLNESS recommendation. A single elevated night does not trigger it; both of the last two nights must be above baseline. The rule clears automatically the morning after your rate returns to normal.
Why does the copy say "possible early illness" rather than "you're sick"?: Illness isn't the only thing that raises respiratory rate. Altitude, alcohol, some medications, and heavy training can all raise it for a while. Form doesn't diagnose anything, so treat the label as a prompt to notice how you feel.

Load Ratio (ACWR)

What is ACWR?

ACWR stands for Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio. It compares your recent training load (last 7 days of workout active energy) to your longer-term training baseline (the 28-day rolling average). A ratio of 1.0 means you are training at your recent average. A ratio of 1.3 means 30% above average. The Load Ratio tile appears in the Readiness section alongside HRV, RHR, Sleep, HR Recovery, and Respiratory Rate.

Why does this matter?

In sports science research, large, sudden jumps in training load relative to your baseline are the main predictor of soft-tissue injury risk, more so than total training volume.

What do the zone indicators mean?

The tile shows a coloured zone label in the header, and the drill-down shows a gauge bar:

Ratio	Zone	Colour
Below 0.8	Detraining	Blue
0.8–1.3	Sweet spot	Green
1.3–1.5	Normal	—
1.5–1.8	Caution	Orange
Above 1.8	High risk	Red

Why is ACWR not showing?

The tile needs at least 2 logged workouts in the last 28 days before it appears. After that, until your workout history spans 14 days, it shows "—" with a "Building baseline" note that counts the days (for example "Building baseline (9/14d)"). Load spikes don't trigger recommendations during that time.

This Week metrics

The This Week section shows your progress toward four weekly training targets (active days, Zone 2, Zone 3–4, strength sessions), plus strength/cardio balance and sleep debt.

Active days

What counts as an active day?: Any day on which you logged a workout in the Apple Workout app or a compatible third-party app that writes to Apple Health. Passive steps or background movement does not count unless Shadow Detection is enabled (see Shadow Detection).
What is the target?: 5 active days per week (Monday–Sunday).

Zone 2 cardio

What is Zone 2?

Zone 2 is steady effort at a pace where you can still hold a conversation. It builds your aerobic base and improves fat oxidation, and the rest of your fitness is built on top of it. Research shows most endurance training should happen in this zone for long-term cardiovascular development.

How does Form calculate Zone 2 boundaries?

By default (the Form Standard model), Zone 2 is 60–70% of your estimated max heart rate, where max HR uses the Tanaka formula (208 − 0.7 × age). If your date of birth isn't set in Apple Health, Form uses a default max heart rate of 190 bpm.

Form Standard is one of several zone models you can pick from. See Heart Rate Zone Model for the others and how to choose.

What is the weekly target?

150 minutes per week, in line with ACSM and WHO guidelines for aerobic activity. The target stays the same whichever zone model you use; only the bpm boundaries that count toward it change.

What counts toward Zone 2 minutes?

Time during logged Apple Watch workouts when your heart rate was in your Zone 2 range. Background walking and movement without a logged workout does not count (unless Shadow Detection is enabled).

Zone 3–4 cardio

What is Zone 3–4?: Zone 3–4 is moderate to high intensity cardio, harder than a comfortable aerobic pace. Training here improves VO₂ max and lactate threshold. Brisk running, cycling at pace, HIIT, and sustained intervals all count.
What is the target?: 45 minutes per week. Zone 3–4 minutes come from the same logged workouts as Zone 2: any time your heart rate is in the upper band of your selected zone model.

Heart Rate Zone Model

What is the Heart Rate Zone Model setting?

It's a setting under Settings → Heart Rate Zone Model that decides how Form sets your Zone 2 and Zone 3–4 bpm boundaries. The options differ in how they estimate max heart rate, whether they use your resting heart rate, and the percentage bands they apply.

What are the options?

Form Standard (default): Zone 2 is 60–70% and Zone 3–4 is 70–85% of max HR, with max HR from the Tanaka formula (208 − 0.7 × age). A good starting point if you're new to structured training.
Apple Zones: an approximation of Apple's heart rate reserve bands, with Zone 2 at 60–70% and Zone 3–4 at 70–90% of heart rate reserve, and max HR from the classic Fox formula (220 − age). Pick this if you want your zones to line up with your Apple Watch or Fitness app.
Heart Rate Reserve (Karvonen): anchored to your resting heart rate, resting HR + % × (max HR − resting HR), using the Tanaka max-HR formula. Zone 2 is 40–55% and Zone 3–4 is 55–75% of heart rate reserve, which keeps Zone 2 a genuinely easy aerobic effort. Because it tracks your resting HR, your zones tighten as your fitness improves. It works best if you've been training consistently for a while.
Apple Health Zones (iOS 27 and later): uses the exact heart rate zones your Apple Watch and Fitness app calculated for each workout, including any custom zones you've set. Workouts without Apple zone data fall back to Apple Zones. On earlier iOS versions this option isn't offered.

Which one should I use?

If you're just getting started, stick with Form Standard, the default. Once you've trained consistently for a while, Karvonen usually reflects your fitness better, because an age-based formula doesn't change as your resting heart rate improves. If you want your numbers to match what you see on your Watch or in the Fitness app, pick Apple Health Zones on iOS 27, or Apple Zones on earlier versions. Form never switches models for you; you choose in Settings.

What happens to my existing data when I switch models?

This week's Zone 2 and Zone 3–4 progress updates right away to use the new model. Completed weeks are never recalculated. They keep the ranges and minutes they were computed with, so your training history and weekly recaps don't change behind your back.

Strength sessions

What counts as a strength session?: Any workout logged as: Traditional Strength Training, Functional Strength Training, Cross Training, or High Intensity Interval Training. Other workout types (running, cycling, yoga, etc.) do not count as strength sessions.
What is the target?: 2 sessions per week.

Strength / cardio balance

What is this row?: It shows the ratio of your strength workout time to your cardio workout time this week, as a target band with a marker for where you are now.
What is the target ratio?: 1 part strength to 2–3 parts cardio, measured by time. If you do 60 minutes of cardio in a week, 20–30 minutes of strength training puts you in the target band.

Sleep debt

What is sleep debt?: It's how far short of 7 hours a night you've slept, added up over the last 7 calendar days. Only nights with recorded sleep count; a night with no data isn't treated as a night with no sleep.
When does it appear in recommendations?: When sleep debt exceeds 5 hours over the rolling 7-day window (averaging less than ~6 hours per night), Form fires an amber SLEEP DEBT recommendation, suggesting you prioritise rest over additional training.
Why is the bar coloured differently from the other progress rows?: The sleep debt bar fills as debt grows, so a fuller bar is worse, the opposite of the training rows. It turns amber when debt exceeds 2 hours and red when it exceeds 5 hours.

Nutrition

The Nutrition section sits between This Week and Trends on the home screen. It shows daily protein, carb, and fat targets calculated from your body data and today's workout. As with the rest of Form, you don't log anything in the app.

Daily macro targets

What are the Protein, Carbs, and Fats targets based on?: Protein is based on your body composition: either lean body mass (if you have a smart scale that measures it) or total body weight. Carbs and fat split the remaining calories in your daily estimate, in a ratio that depends on whether today is a strength, cardio, or rest day (see Day type below).
Why do I sometimes see percentages instead of grams (e.g. "~35%" instead of "144g")?: Gram targets require a recent weight reading (within the last 7 days) and enough data to estimate your calorie needs (see Calorie estimate). If either is missing, Form shows a percentage-of-calories split instead, along with a short note on what to add in Apple Health to unlock exact grams.
Do the targets change based on what I ate?: No. Your targets are set for the day from your body data and workout. If a food-logging app syncs to Apple Health, Form can also show how much you've eaten so far next to them (see Tracking what you've eaten).

Day type (strength, cardio, rest)

What makes today a "Strength day" for nutrition purposes?: Logging any qualifying strength session of 10 minutes or more today, whatever else you did. If you run for 60 minutes and then do a 15-minute strength finisher, today still counts as a Strength day. Strength training creates a protein and glycogen demand that a cardio-only day doesn't, and the strength split has enough carbs to cover the run too.
What counts as a qualifying strength session?: Traditional Strength Training, Functional Strength Training, Cross Training, or High Intensity Interval Training, the same workout types that count toward your weekly Strength sessions target.
Does a rest day still show nutrition targets?: Yes. Protein stays the same on every day type. Muscle protein synthesis stays elevated for 24–48 hours after a strength session, so eating enough every day matters more than which day you eat it. Only the carb/fat split changes, and cardio and rest days share the same split, which leans more toward fat.

Calorie estimate (Est. TDEE)

What is "Est. TDEE"?: Your estimated Total Daily Energy Expenditure: roughly how many calories your body uses today, calculated as your basal metabolic rate (BMR) plus today's logged active energy. It appears next to your Nutrition Goal when both are available.
How is BMR calculated?: Form uses the most accurate formula your data supports. If a body-composition scale has written lean body mass to Apple Health, Form uses the Katch-McArdle formula, which is based on lean mass alone. Otherwise it uses Mifflin-St Jeor, which needs your body weight, height, date of birth, and biological sex in Apple Health.
Why is my calorie estimate hidden?: Form needs either lean body mass or all of weight, height, date of birth, and biological sex to estimate BMR. Without them, the TDEE row is hidden and macro targets fall back to percentages. Add whatever is missing in Apple Health to bring it back.

Nutrition Goal

What is the Nutrition Goal setting?

It's a single preference (Lose Fat, Maintain, or Build Muscle) that moves your calorie target up or down and turns on the Weight trend feedback line. It's optional; macro splits still show without a goal.

How does each goal affect my calorie target?

Goal	Calorie target
Lose fat	TDEE − 400 kcal, a moderate deficit that preserves muscle if you eat enough protein
Maintain	TDEE, so intake matches output
Build muscle	TDEE + 200 kcal, a lean surplus that minimises fat gain

Where do I set or change it?

Settings → Nutrition Goal. Changes take effect the next time you open the app.

Tracking what you've eaten

Can I log food inside Form?: No, on purpose. Form never asks you to log meals, and it never writes to Apple Health.
So how do the "consumed" numbers next to my targets appear?: They appear only if you already use a separate food-logging app, such as MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, or Lifesum, that writes protein, carbs, fat, and calories to Apple Health. Form reads that data from Apple Health like everything else; the two apps aren't connected in any other way.
What if I only logged breakfast so far and it's afternoon?: The numbers show what's synced so far today, without a "partial day" warning, just as a This Week progress row doesn't warn you the week isn't over. Read them as "so far today."
What if I don't use a food-logging app at all?: You'll see your targets with no progress bar, and Form won't ask you to start logging. The targets alone still tell you roughly what to eat.

Weight trend & your goal

What is the context line on the Weight trend tile (e.g. "On pace for fat loss")?

Once you set a Nutrition Goal, the Weight tile in Trends gets a line comparing your recent weight trend with what's expected for that goal, much like the VO₂ max tile adds context to its number.

How is the rate calculated?

From a 14-day trend across your weight readings, expressed as a percentage of body weight per week instead of pounds. That way the target scales to your size, whether you weigh 130 lb or 230 lb.

What counts as "on pace"?

Goal	On pace
Lose fat	Losing 0.5–1% of body weight per week
Build muscle	Gaining 0.14–0.28% of body weight per week
Maintain	Within ±0.3% of body weight per week

Why don't I see this line?

It needs a Nutrition Goal and at least 5 weight readings in the last 14 days. Without both, the Weight tile shows no goal line.

Turning Nutrition on

Is Nutrition guidance on by default?: Yes, for new installs. You can turn it off any time at Settings → Enable Nutrition, which hides the Nutrition section, the TODAY card's nutrition line, and the nutrition breakdown in Rule Detail.
What extra Apple Health permissions does it need?: A few beyond what Form already reads: lean body mass and height (for more accurate calorie estimates), plus dietary protein, carbohydrates, fat, and calories (to show what you've eaten, as described above).
I see "Turn on permissions" instead of my targets. What does that mean?: Form hasn't asked Apple Health for the nutrition permissions yet, usually because you updated from a version of Form that predates Nutrition. Tap it to go to Health Permissions and grant them. Once you've answered the prompt, whichever way, the message goes away and your targets appear.

Trends metrics

The Trends section shows slow-moving signals over 90 days. Each is a full-width row with an SF Symbol icon and a sparkline on the right. Tap any row for a drill-down chart with a 7D/30D/90D toggle and a band showing your normal range; press and drag on the chart to see exact values. The rows always appear in this order: VO₂ max, Walking HR, Walking Speed, Active Cals, Consistency, Steps, Weight.

VO₂ Max

What is VO₂ max?: VO₂ max is the highest rate at which your body can use oxygen during intense exercise, and it's the gold-standard measure of cardiovascular fitness. A higher VO₂ max means your heart and lungs can deliver more oxygen to working muscles. It correlates with endurance performance, longevity, and overall health.
How does Apple Watch measure it?: Apple Watch estimates VO₂ max during outdoor walks, runs, and hikes by comparing your heart rate to your pace. The estimate updates about once a week when you've done qualifying activity.
What does the context band mean (e.g. "above avg · 40–49 M")?: It compares your current VO₂ max to population norms for your age and biological sex, using ACSM / Cooper Institute data. It answers "is this number good for someone like me?" It's there for context only and doesn't affect recommendations, which always use your personal baseline.
What triggers a PLATEAU recommendation?: If your VO₂ max has been flat for 4+ weeks and your Zone 3–4 minutes have been below the 45-minute weekly target, Form suggests adding a higher-intensity session. Zone 2 alone maintains VO₂ max, but improving it takes Zone 3–4 work.

Walking heart rate

What is walking heart rate?: Apple Watch computes your average heart rate during casual, unlogged walking throughout the day. A walking heart rate that falls over time means your heart is getting more efficient and doesn't have to work as hard for the same activity.

Walking speed

What is walking speed?: Your average walking speed during everyday walks (not logged workouts), measured by your iPhone's motion sensors. It's a stand-in for functional mobility. For people aged 30–50, a gradual drop in walking speed can be an early sign of declining fitness, independent of how much you train.
Why isn't this always visible?: The tile stays hidden until there are at least 7 days of walking speed readings, and it only appears on iPhones with enough motion data.

Active calories trend

What does the Active Calories Trend show?: The 90-day trend in daily active energy, meaning the calories your Watch credits to deliberate movement above baseline each day. An upward trend usually means you're training more or harder.

Consistency Score

What does the Consistency Score measure?: The percentage of the last 8 complete Monday–Sunday weeks in which you hit all five weekly training targets: active days, Zone 2, Zone 3–4, strength sessions, and balance ratio. It looks back at whether your training habit is holding over time, so it won't tell you how this week is going.
What is a good score?: Success is ≥ 75% (6 of 8 weeks). 50–74% is normal. Below 50% triggers a grey recommendation to get back on track. If you have fewer than 4 complete weeks of data, the tile stays hidden until you do.
Why doesn't sleep count toward the Consistency Score?: Sleep is a nightly readiness signal rather than a weekly training achievement. It influences your Readiness tiles and can trigger a sleep debt recommendation, but it is not included in the Consistency Score targets.

Steps

What does the Steps trend tile show?: Today's step count as the primary value, with a 90-day daily history in the drill-down chart. The delta shows the 90-day trend direction.
Where does step data come from?: From your iPhone's motion sensors and Apple Watch (when worn). Steps are counted automatically, with nothing to log.

Weight

Where does weight data come from?: From a connected smart scale or entries you make in the Apple Health app. Form only reads it; you never enter weight in Form.
Why does the tile sometimes not appear?: The weight tile is hidden when no weight data exists in Apple Health within the last 30 days. Once data exists, the tile appears and shows the 90-day trend in the drill-down chart.

Baselines & personalisation

What is a personal baseline?

Form judges every metric against your own rolling average instead of a population norm. "HRV −15%" means 15% below your 60-day average. If you have naturally low HRV or naturally high resting HR, Form adjusts to that and doesn't penalise you for falling outside a generic normal range.

What baseline window is used for each signal?

Signal	Baseline window
HRV, Resting HR, Sleep	60 days
VO₂ max	90 days
HR Recovery	Last 4 qualifying sessions (30-day window)
Respiratory Rate	7 nights
ACWR (chronic load)	28-day rolling average
Sleep debt	7-day rolling
Training Consistency	8 most recent complete weeks

What does "baseline stabilizing" mean on a tile?

That metric has fewer than 30 real data points in its baseline window. The value shown is real, but the personal average it's compared against is less reliable. As more data comes in, the baseline settles and the marker goes away.

Does Form use my age and sex?

Yes. Form reads age and biological sex from Apple Health (the values you set in the Health app). Age goes into your estimated max heart rate, which sets your Zone 2 and Zone 3–4 boundaries; the exact formula depends on your Heart Rate Zone Model setting. Sex is used to compare your VO₂ max with population norms (e.g. "above avg · 40–49 M"). Neither is ever used as a rule threshold, and all recommendations stay relative to your personal baseline.

What if my age or sex is not set in Apple Health?

No date of birth: Zone boundaries use a default max heart rate of 190 bpm. A note appears in the This Week section suggesting you add your date of birth for accurate zones.
Sex "not set" or "other": Everything works normally. The VO₂ max context band shows the population average across both sexes for your age bracket, without a sex label.

Data gaps & missing data

I forgot to wear my Watch for a few days. What happens?

Form counts how many nights in a row are missing overnight data and adjusts:

Gap	What Form does
0–1 nights	Everything works normally.
2–3 nights	Streak-dependent rules (e.g. "HRV elevated for 3 days") are suppressed, but training and trend recommendations still work.
4–7 nights	EASING BACK mode. Form stops prescribing training, and the TODAY card shows a welcome-back message.
8+ nights	REBUILDING mode. Only a default message appears. Baselines resume stabilising as overnight readings return.

This keeps a gap in your data from producing a false alarm. A missed night never counts as a low-HRV night.

Some tiles show "—". What does that mean?

Form hasn't found any Apple Health data for that metric yet. Usually that's because HealthKit permission wasn't granted for that data type, your Apple Watch is too old to record it, or there isn't enough workout history yet (for HRR and ACWR). The tile updates on its own once data arrives.

My metrics look wrong after I came back from a trip. Is that normal?

Yes, that's expected. If your Watch was off or you didn't log workouts while travelling, your chronic training average (ACWR) can make your first week back look heavier than it is. Form turns off load-spike rules during and right after medium and long gaps to avoid that false alarm. By your second day back, the pace math has adjusted to the days left in the week.

Shadow Detection

What is Shadow Detection?: It's an opt-in feature (Settings → Shadow Detection) that tries to spot activity you didn't log, using your Apple Watch's detailed heart rate and step data. When it's on, Form looks for stretches of raised heart rate together with more steps, which suggest you were active even without a logged workout.
Why would I use this?: If you regularly exercise without starting an Apple Watch workout (e.g. you go for a walk or bike ride but forget to record it), Shadow Detection keeps those days from counting as missed sessions. Days with inferred activity get a different marker in the weekly session strip.
Is it accurate?: It's an educated guess. It works well for sustained aerobic activity and less well for activities without much movement. If accuracy matters to you, logging workouts on your Watch will always be more reliable.

Notifications

Form can send four kinds of local notification. All of them come from the on-device data Form already reads, and nothing is sent anywhere.

What notifications does Form send?

Daily nudge: a morning notification with today's recommendation, about 30 minutes after your predicted wake time. The wake time is a 7-day trailing average, and it defaults to 8:00am until there's enough sleep history.
Recovery alert: replaces that day's Daily nudge whenever a warning or danger recommendation fires (e.g. STRAIN, POSSIBLE ILLNESS, SLEEP DEBT). You get at most one of the two per day, and Recovery alert always takes priority.
Sunday recap: a Sunday-afternoon summary of your week, with a one-tap Share action that opens the share sheet. It's the one exception to the one-a-day limit and arrives alongside that day's Daily nudge or Recovery alert.
Re-engagement: a "your week's picture is ready" nudge after 3 days without opening the app, repeating every 3 days for as long as you stay away. It replaces whatever Daily nudge or Recovery alert would have fired that day.

Do I need to open the app for these to fire?

No. Once you grant permission, notifications are scheduled on your iPhone and fire on their own like any local notification. Each time you open the app, Form recomputes the next ~2 days of the schedule, and a best-effort background refresh tops it up in between.

Will I get a notification for something I've already seen?

No. If you've already opened the app that day, Form skips that day's Daily nudge or Recovery alert.

When am I asked for notification permission?

New users are asked once, at first launch, alongside the HealthKit permission screen. If you're updating from an older version that already has HealthKit access, you'll see a separate one-time prompt for notifications the next time you open the app.

How do I turn notifications off?

The Notifications toggle in Settings turns all four types off at once; you can't turn off just one. You can also revoke permission entirely from iPhone Settings → Notifications → Form.

Does this require a new HealthKit permission?

No. Notifications use the same data Form already reads for the TODAY card and weekly recap. The only new permission is the standard iOS notification permission.

Privacy & data

Where is my health data stored?: Everything stays on your device and in your own iCloud-protected Apple Health database. Form reads from HealthKit, has no backend, and never sends your health data to an outside server.
Does Form share my data with anyone?: No. Form only reads Apple Health data. It doesn't export, share, or send your health information anywhere.
Can I revoke Form's access to my health data?: Yes. At any time, go to iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Form and toggle off any data types you no longer want Form to read. You can also adjust permissions from within the app at Settings → Health Permissions.

Subscription & settings

What is included in the free version?: Form gives you 30 days of full access to every feature from your first launch, with no payment info required. Settings → Subscription shows how many days you have left.
What happens when the trial ends?: After day 30, you'll need a subscription to keep using Form: monthly ($2.99) or annual ($29.99, which saves 16%). You won't be charged before then. There's no extra App Store free trial on top of your 30 days, so subscribing starts billing right away.
How do I restore a previous purchase?: Go to Settings → Subscription → Restore to restore a prior purchase on the same Apple ID.
What does the Appearance setting do?: It sets the app to light mode, dark mode, or your iPhone's system setting.

The activity advice provided by Form is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet, sleep or exercise routine.