Setting and reaching your fitness goals

About 70% of U.S. adults don't get the recommended amount of overall physical activity. For most healthy adults, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.

In general, aim for about 30 minutes of aerobic activity most days of the week. This should be at a moderate level, such as a fast-paced walk. For even more benefits, aim for about 60 minutes of aerobic activity most days of the week. Aim to incorporate muscle-strengthening exercises at least twice a week.

If you're not at that level of activity yet, keep it in mind as you think about your long-term goals. And keep in mind any activity is better than none at all.

Activity trackers provide immediate feedback about your activity level. So they can serve as a strong motivator to keep you moving. And they can help you track your progress over time.

Use these tips to integrate these tools into your activity routine:

• Establish a baseline. When you first get your tracker, wear it throughout the day for about a week as you go about your routine activities at home or work. Add up the total number of steps for each day and then divide that total by seven. This gives you a baseline number of steps, or average, that can serve as a launching point for the step goals you set.

• Set short-term step goals. Once you know how many steps you generally take on an average day, you can set some short-term activity goals. For instance, say you normally take about 2,000 steps a day while going about your normal routine.

  Set a short-term goal of adding about 1,000 steps a day for two weeks by incorporating a planned walking program into your schedule. You can either do it all at once or break your walking into short chunks of time to accommodate your schedule. When you meet a short-term goal, add a new one.

• Set long-term step goals. Think about your overall fitness and activity goals. Your short-term goals are the building blocks to these long-term goals. A long-term goal may be walking 10,000 steps a day, or about 5 miles (8 kilometers), several times a week as part of your new daily routine. Or it might be to walk briskly for 30 minutes, five days a week. You may also want to set a goal of walking faster as your fitness level improves.

• Track your progress. To see how you're doing, monitor your progress over time. Your tracker may or may not have a memory function to track your steps on a weekly or monthly basis.

  You can choose to use that feature or record your steps in a log of your own making. Or upload the information digitally to your computer or mobile device. Tracking your progress can help you see whether you're meeting your goals and when it may be time to set fresh goals.