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Vivoactive 4s / active calories

Hello,

I bought a garmin va4s about six months ago. Everything works as it should, but from the very beginning it measures very few active calories. The values ​​are unrealistic.

For example, yesterday, I had almost 17,000 steps and 50 floors climbed, and the watch calculated 160 active calories for the whole day.

At rest they measure correctly, and during sports also fine, but normal movement during the day does not.

Where could the problem be please?

Top Replies

  • Where could the problem be please?

    Bad HR data. Either too high Resting HR (possibly also too high Max HR could be the culprit), or too low HR during the day. Post a screenshot of the all-day…

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  • Where could the problem be please?

    Bad HR data. Either too high Resting HR (possibly also too high Max HR could be the culprit), or too low HR during the day. Post a screenshot of the all-day HR graph, including the value of the Resting HR, it could reveal the reason.

  • Well, the GC app (unlike GC Web) shows only the Min HR for given day, but for the calculation the 7 days avg. is being used. And I see on the last screenshot, that you do not always wear the watch at night. That may increase the 7 days average considerably. Please have a look at the 7 days average Resting HR on Garmin Connect Web - scroll to yesterday, and see the number shown in the biggest font on the left: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/daily-summary/2023-11-18/heartRate  

  • BTW, you posted 3 screenshots, but none of them is from the concerned day (yesterday). Better post a screenshot from yesterday's page on GC Web: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/daily-summary/2023-11-18/heartRate and also the value of your Max HR (seems to be around 180, seeing the coloring of the higher part of the HR graph)

  •      tommorow. A Hhope it's right :D 

  • Well, seeing your Max HR is 190, the 7 days Resting HR 52 (HR Reserve of 138), and your HR never went above 107 (mid of the Zone 1), I think that the value of 191 Active Calories, although low, is possible. It would be a bit higher if you have worn the watch always during the night and have a more realistic Resting HR value.

    Besides the issue with the higher Resting HR, to me it looks like the effort you did, was simply too easy for the fitness level you have, and hence the heart did not need to work much, and did not burn much energy.

  • I don't think it's possible. Yesterday I was working all day as a waitress. Hence the constant carrying of full heavy plates and drinks around the restaurant and upstairs. Heart rate should soar many times during that day..
    In addition, I have two small children who have to raise my heart rate very high several times a day :D

    I have been sleeping with the watch for the past two months. I only had them once for charging.

    could it be that the heart rate zones are too high and that's why I'm still in zone 1?

  • I am afraid that for having all that work logged correctly, you would have to start an activity on the watch. Because during the non-activity all-day mode, the heart rate is being recorded only once each 2 minutes, which may not be sufficient to detect short bursts of the HR.

    My advices:

    1. Wear the watch consistently while sleeping or deep resting in order to avoid having the Resting HR avg. too high. Alternatively you can disable the auto-detection of the Resting HR, and set it manually. I am not 100% sure it works also for the Calories calculation (never tested it), but there is a good chance it is. I am not sure whether the setting is on the same path on your Vivoactive as on my watch, but I have it in Device Settings » User Profile » Heart Rate & Power Zones Zones » Heart Rate » Resting HR » Use Average » off

    2. Starting an activity when you work. Make a copy of an indoor activity, such as for example the Cardio, name it for example "Work", and start it each time you start working (and stop afterwards). That will assure sampling the HR up to each second.