Active Calories Recorded on an Instinct Solar or Instinct Solar 2 Not Adding Up Correctly in Garmin Connect Mobile App

trux said:

No, it is not a device issue.

Better told, I am not really sure, because not every Instinct owner experiences the reboots, but the reports started to pop out in the last time only (I think since v17). Browse the Instinct forum for some more details, and definitely report it to the Support, making sure you make them aware that the reboot caused the Calories data corruption.

3016112 said:

if the watch sent the correct numbers to the app, which it did if you believe the active calories number in the app, why would the app not add the two active calories numbers together correctly?

Because practically everything is being processed by the watch, and only the resulting data is being synced to the server, where no post-processing takes a place. And the activities data is being transmitted separately from the daily data (separate folders and files), hence it can happen that only some of them get corrupted or lost during the reboot.

I have the exact same problem. Today is my first day with a Garmin. I have the small size Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. I took the dog out this morning to test it and have done 2 other short walks. In the calorie section in Garmin Connect help it has a table that shows how calories are added up. I’ve attached that picture. I’ve then done 3 walks and have shown the pictures of the calories for each walk and the split between resting and active. Then I’ve shown you my total calories and you can see the active calories are way less in total than they are if you add up the activity active calories. 

Incidentally I’ve had zero reboots of the watch so it isn’t that. 

Good morning,

I haven’t experienced this issue since the day I posted this problem, however, it’s only been a few days. I’m chalking the issue up to the reboot I had during that specific workout, since I’ve worked out plenty since and the numbers have added up correctly, albeit slowly. What’s weird is that I woke up this morning, put my watch on since I don’t wear it to bed, and noticed within less than a min I already had 619 resting calories burned, which seems kind of odd. To burn 619 calories in a span of 30-60 while resting in bed seems a bit off. I bought a Garmin for its accuracy in recording fitness metrics, switching from an Apple Watch, and while I do like the Garmin better in many ways, this one has been a bit of a disappointment. I have an email in to Garmin but haven’t heard back and won’t be expecting much to be honest. I’m just going to continue to track what’s going on and see how it goes. Maybe a software update is needed on the app end. 

I’ve done the same as you and swapped from an Apple Watch for the fitness tracking. I’ll check the stats at the end of the day. What I’m thinking is that the total calorie split between active and resting isn’t right. I had the same issue as you. I was up early this morning and apparently I had already burned 600 odd calories which is impossible when my BMR is only 1200 for the day.  Today is my first day with the Garmin so I’ll keep checking - I’m hoping by the end of the day the calories all add up so let’s see! Tomorrow I’m doing a long run in the morning so it will be a good test of it! 

glad your issues haven’t returned - that gives me some hope! 

Do you wear your watch when you sleep? I don’t, so to burn 600 resting calories in less than a min while just sitting upright in bed seemed high. From what I can tell, the activity metrics are always correct. It seems to be the daily summary that’s off at times +/-  I just ran 7+ miles and checked the daily summary before and after my run and all the numbers were correct, so I’m hopeful it was an anomaly with that reboot that hasn’t happened since. That reboot happened during a strength training workout and I had just updated reps/weight as I had been doing the previous 45 mins, so I think there was a glitch. Funny how the glitch only showed in the daily summary though, not the actual workout. Anyway, we’ll see. I hope things stabilize for you, let us know how it goes. I truly am happy with the watch, I just need to make sure it’s AS reliable as the Apple Watch. Something else to know that I’ve seen, is the Apple Watch either OVERestimates calories burned or the Garmin underestimates because I’ve found that my calories burned are lower with the Garmin for the same exact workout, workout lengths, and energy expended. I’ve seen this online too so I know it’s not just me. I’m coming from a series 1 Apple Watch though lol. 

Good luck!

3016112 said:

Do you wear your watch when you sleep? I don’t, so to burn 600 resting calories in less than a min while just sitting upright in bed seemed high.

Resting Calories are being counted in regardless whether you wear the watch or not.

3016112 said:

I’ve found that my calories burned are lower with the Garmin for the same exact workout, workout lengths, and energy expended.

That's not surprising, since you do not wear the watch while sleeping. Not wearing the watch in the night means that the watch does not detect correctly your Resting HR (RHR). Having higher RHR results in lower active Calories, since only HR higher than the RHR will generate active Calories.

Based on what? What you’re resting calories have been in the past or simply your height/weight/age metrics? You even said in your second response that since I don’t wear it to bed it can’t detect my RHR accurately. So is everything except the AHR just a big guessing game?