Change to Resting Calorie calculation?

Anyone else notice a significant drop in resting calories since April 3rd? If so which device and software version are you on?

Vivosmart-HR, currently v3.10

The BMR changed to "no multiplier" with one of the beta software tests on the VS-HR, and it has stayed at "coma" level since the release of 3.10 around the beginning of April.

But "active calories" earned don't seem to be any higher than before the change. I understand that there was some level of double counting with the first mile or so of steps using the BMR multiplier of 1.2, but the active calories do not now seem to increase with normal activities of daily living, so the end number is still wrong.

Anyway, I finally quit obsessing about it and changed from MyFitnessPal to MyNetDiary, which does its figuring of "calories burned through exercise" from the total active calories my VS-HR sends it and ignores the Garmin BMR, and that's working great.

However, it would have been nice if Garmin had addressed the issue somewhere -- I am a little disappointed about that.

So it was a change in software on the VS that did it? I didn't see anything in the F3 beta notes on 6.92 that it was changed so it was either that version or connect changing it.

MFP always uses a factor of 1.25 for sedentary so there was always a 0.05 difference for the calorie adjustment. Now there is 0.25 with this change!

I'm working around it by putting in a different height and age in MFP to match "coma" bmr that garmin appears to be using. That way any steps and activities go on top as a positive adjustment. This messes up auto goals and projections in mfp but I use a custom calorie goal so it doesn't impact me anyhow.

Without the workaround if I use negative adjustments in mfp I see calorie targets messed up as the garmin projection will be a lot lower. If negative adjustments are disabled then I don't see anything added as a positive adjustment until I burned quite a bit of active calories because of the initial baseline difference.

Would be nice if garmin and mfp could work together and have their base bmr burns match.... So any calories added through steps and recorded activities always came over with a positive adjustment using the same baseline. That way anything sent over by garmin adds any calories used over and above sedentary through activity tracking and recorded activities so there isn't negative adjustments.

MFP always uses a factor of 1.25 for sedentary so there was always a 0.05 difference for the calorie adjustment. Now there is 0.25 with this change!

To be fair though, isn't the current situation actually more fair/honest?

The way I see it, MFP's "sedentary" is BMR*1.25, where the 25% increase accounts for the various activities you undertake during the day. Now that Garmin have changed the VS calculation, wouldn't you say that Garmin's BMR + your measured activities actually is the right amount of calories?? In retrospect I would say that the old "BMR*1.2 + activities" was actually too high!

I agree with you all that this change should have been announced! But in retrospect, I'm actually happy with this.

EDIT:
Sorry for missing your other post! I wasn't subbed to this thread yet...

which device and software?

Vivosmart HR, with version 3.1. And yes, I upgraded to 3.1 that weekend, so it's undoubtedly something in either Garmin Connect or in the firmware that changed.

And the drop in BMR is pretty clear:

MYTH CONFIRMED: the formula has changed

Myth confirmed: Garmin have indeed changed the formula they use in their calculations.

To quote their support personnel (translation below):

Het is door ons hoofdkantoor onderzocht en dit is een bewuste verandering geweest. De formule voor de BMR berekening gaf een te hoge waarde en is daarom naar beneden bijgesteld naar een realistischer waarde. Ik heb doorgegeven dat dit helderder door gegeven had kunnen worden. Onze excuses voor enige verwarring.

In english:

Our main office investigated the matter and this was a conscious change. The formula for the BMR calculation gave too high a value and was adjusted to give a lower and more realistic value. I conferred to them the message that this could have been communicated more clearly. Our apologies for any possible confusion.

To be fair though, isn't the current situation actually more fair/honest?

The way I see it, MFP's "sedentary" is BMR*1.25, where the 25% increase accounts for the various activities you undertake during the day. Now that Garmin have changed the VS calculation, wouldn't you say that Garmin's BMR + your measured activities actually is the right amount of calories?? In retrospect I would say that the old "BMR*1.2 + activities" was actually too high!

I agree with you all that this change should have been announced! But in retrospect, I'm actually happy with this.

EDIT:
Sorry for missing your other post! I wasn't subbed to this thread yet...


Vivosmart HR, with version 3.1. And yes, I upgraded to 3.1 that weekend, so it's undoubtedly something in either Garmin Connect or in the firmware that changed.

And the drop in BMR is pretty clear:

Thanks for confirming with Garmin on the calculation :) I still haven't heard a response even though I sent a note to beta and support on this issue. They should have communicated it.

For example I lost over 300 calories per day with this change. Based on how I track in MFP and my progress, I would've noticed some trends outside of what I've seen if I was 300cals/day off.

Considering what a small amount of step calories are added to connect via general day to day things like shopping/cooking/walking to/from car etc via the activity tracker (maybe 100 calories for every 5000-7500 general steps?), I'm not sure why they wouldn't use the same baseline as MFP and any planned exercise/significant steps etc is added ontop of that?

Based on these articles, MFP is using the 1.25 multiplier for sedentary and it looks to include calories burned through food thermics and calories used in general day to day living. etc which are now not being counted on the garmin side.

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1375583-a-message-about-myfitnesspal-s-updated-nutrition-goals
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/5/921S.full
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/5/921S/T1.expansion.html

Personally I think the MFP baseline is the most accurate considering what little calories are added ontop through general steps. Wouldn't those count on becoming more towards "lightly active"?

Anyone else notice a significant drop in resting calories since April 3rd? If so which device and software version are you on?

I haven't yet, it's been the same forever. But I think it makes a lot of sense for those with a 24/7 HRM factoring into the daily calorie estimate. I have a 235.

Considering what a small amount of step calories are added to connect via general day to day things ... maybe 100 calories for every 5000-7500 general steps?

In my case it's roughly 150-200 kCal by walking my daily ~7000 steps. It depends on the person.

Personally I do feel this is a more fair method of doing it, but then again I -am- one of those like Darren who wear their device 24/7. In my opinion MFP's "sedentary" should roughly equal Garmin's "BMR + steps" because BMR assumes you're stationary all the time. Sedentary to me suggests "stationary 80% of the time", which fits nicely into Garmin's adjusted formula.

I guess I must be missing something, but the GC resting calories seem spot on. It is calculated by TDEE which is your bmr plus your regular daily activity calories.

If you want to set your resting calories to be higher just set your activity class higher in garmin connect.


I'm 5'11 and 170 pounds, and garmin connect tells me my resting calories is 2060. So that plus my active calories equals my total calories for the day. I have my activity class set for 0 just to be conservative.


Since GC is no longer using BMR and now using TDEE it actually seems even more accurate in my opinion.

I guess I must be missing something, but the GC resting calories seem spot on. It is calculated by TDEE which is your bmr plus your regular daily activity calories.

If you want to set your resting calories to be higher just set your activity class higher in garmin connect.


I'm 5'11 and 170 pounds, and garmin connect tells me my resting calories is 2060. So that plus my active calories equals my total calories for the day. I have my activity class set for 0 just to be conservative.


Since GC is no longer using BMR and now using TDEE it actually seems even more accurate in my opinion.

What device and software are you running? From what I've seen it appears to only be the VSHR and Fenix3 running very recent software that have noticed this.

I'm not far from your weight/height but an activity class of 7 and its showing resting cals 1750 daily since the change. Activity class doesn't impact resting calorie calculation, believe it only is used during activites with a HRM connected to calculate calories based on your class.

So for example. Connect tells me I burned 210 calories doing steps/movement outside of the running and walking activities I recorded today. That is still lower than what my previous daily resting calories would be if I added BMR+210 by 140 calories. I was certainly more than "sedentary" today based on activities outside of running/walking.

The watch can't track food thermics and some of the other factors I think are considered in the "sedentary" multiplier of 1.2 or 1.25 that is used to define a sedentary person ontop of BMR so they need to re-evaluate this change. Or at least make it configurable at a user level.

IMO its setting the baseline too low for resting calories.

I'm 5'11 and 170 pounds, and garmin connect tells me my resting calories is 2060.

5'11" here too, but 156 pounds. Garmin Connect tells me my BMR is 1600. Seems that you're possibly running an older version of the software that hasn't had the update yet :) As my earlier posts show, GC used to tell me my BMR is roughly 1900 and now they've taken off roughly 300.