Garmin Active Calorie Adjustments

I'm see 156 for any activity I import from both ErgData and Zwift. Where in the Garmin docs do you see that it uses HR zones inherited from the imported apps?

HR Zones are device specific. There is no global setting common for all your devices (or external apps). Each device controls the HRZ alone, and stores the current HRZ table in the activity FIT file. Find more details in the documentation for developers: https://developer.garmin.com/fit/overview/ 

That's correct, Its device specific, not app. My Garmin Epix is configured with a Max HR of 190. This means Z5 should be >171 not >156. So why are al l my activities showing Z5 as >156?

I've created the following spreadsheet to demonstrate how messed up this actually is. I challenge anyone to explain how this makes sense.

Notice that the numbers under the exercise explanation in MyNetDiary in no way matches the numbers I have set within MyNetDIary.

MyNetDiary figures I had 518 exercise calories:

The explanation as to why:

Yet the plan I have configured in MyNetDiary is for a 750 calorie deficit which puts my daily calories budget (for sedentary) at 1737:

Notice that the maintenance calories as calculated in my MyNetDiary plan is 2487 which is different that what the explanation above for the exercise states 2044. Does this make any sense to anyone? It certainly doesn't make sense to me.

Further, all I did was sit on the couch all day or in my jeep for a 1 mile drive to the store. My active calories should be about equal to that of my 3 workouts. The 3 workouts add up to 316 calories, not 518. This creates a 200 calorie discrepancy.

Then, rather than using my actual calorie budge of 1737, for some unknown reason there's this 2044 number. So there's another discrepancy of 307.

So I'm 507 calories off from my deficit. This will cause me to stall on my fat loss goal. 

In summary:

1. Garmin is adding extra calories to my active calories for unknown reasons.
2. MyNetDiary integration with Garmin is displaying numbers that don't match what I've configured in my MyNetDiary fat loss plan for unknown reasons. 
   1. I think that the weight maintenance calories are growing each hour and will eventually match the 2487 maintenance calories set in my MyNetDiary plan, at the end of the day. If this is true, that explains the difference I see, but, it should be still using my target budget calories of 1737, not the maintenance calories. Else I will maintain rather than lose.

   2. Activity Level: an important factor in calorie planning

      Your maintenance calorie needs are calculated based on your RMR/BMR and an "activity factor" that accounts for your usual level of activity.

      If you choose to log exercise, set your Activity Level as "Sedentary" in "My Weight Plan" under Weight Maintenance cals to avoid double-counting exercise calories.

      Note: Sedentary level accounts for basic activities of daily living, equivalent to walking about a mile (2.2 km) a day. Therefore, you would not need to log short activities as exercise, such as 15 minutes of shopping.
      
      https://www.mynetdiary.com/calorie-planning.html

   3. Therefore since I've chosen sedentary, the Garmin exercise calculation should be calculated based on the MyNetDiary calorie budget, not the MyNetDiary weight maintenance calories.

Droogles said:

My Garmin Epix is configured with a Max HR of 190. This means Z5 should be >171 not >156. So why are al l my activities showing Z5 as >156?

Because your activity was not recorded by your Epix. It was recorded by Zwift. You need to set up the HRZ at Zwift.

Droogles said:

My active calories should be about equal to that of my 3 workouts.

You do not read anything what I write, do you\? Active Calories are counted all day long, whenever your HR is higher than the RHR. The should NOT equal to your workouts done in the day, and practically never will, unless you sleep all the time except of the workouts.

I think it's more of, you're not reading what I write. I have clearly stated that other than my workouts yesterday, I just sat on a couch or in a car doing nothing. I would expect the active calories to roughly match the exercise calories. That's one of the main issues I'm having here.

ErgData (my rower app) does not have a way to set Max HR, and even though I found the Max HR setting in Zwift, and set it, I'm still seeing Z5 being >156 in Garmin for the synced Zwift activity. What's actually happening here is that Garmin is defaulting to >156 (and the other HR zones), for imported activities. What it should be doing is defaulting to what I have set for my Garmin profile in the absence of a device recorded activity. Seems like a huge bug to me. I'm surprised that more people aren't complaining. This is screwing up my numbers.

Droogles said:

I think it's more of, you're not reading what I write. I have clearly stated that other than my workouts yesterday, I just sat on a couch or in a car doing nothing. I would expect the active calories to roughly match the exercise calories.

Even if you sit all day on the couch, you burn active calories as long as your HR is not equal to RHR (or lower than it). I asked you to post the graph of your all-day HR, so that we can see, when your body burns active Calories, and when not.

Droogles said:

ErgData (my rower app) does not have a way to set Max HR, and even though I found the Max HR setting in Zwift, and set it, I'm still seeing Z5 being >156 in Garmin for the synced Zwift activity.

Then you have to contact Zwift, and ask them to fix it. The HRZ are in the FIT file that Zwift sends to Garmin, and it is not being adjusted by Garmin.

BTW, the change of the HR max at Zwift, will not act retrospectively. It will ony influence future activity exports.

trux said:

Then you have to contact Zwift, and ask them to fix it. The HRZ are in the FIT file that Zwift sends to Garmin, and it is not being adjusted by Garmin.

BTW, the change of the HR max at Zwift, will not act retrospectively. It will ony influence future activity exports.

It's still a bug. When there's an absence of HR zone data, there should be a way to set a default to be used, not some arbitrary number Garmin selected. That way if Zwift, ErgData, etc, don't send it, it's still in the ballpark of accurate.

I understand about retroactive. I recorded a workout this morning, after changing the setting, before posting my response here. 

Am I missing a global Max HR setting somewhere that supersedes devices?