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Sudden decrease in "resting calories?"

Former Member over 9 years ago

Hey guys, recently my GC app has drastically cut what it calculated as my resting calories. I'm 5'11, 167 pounds. It was calculating my resting to be 2040 which is spot on for my TDEE.

Two days ago something changed, and my resting went down to 1720. What gives? I've changed nothing.

Has anyone else seen this?

Top Replies

ascii256 over 9 years ago +1

Or at least, reply to this thread and acknowledge that something has changed and let us know whether or not it is going to be fixed.

All Replies

0 ascii256 over 9 years ago

Or at least, reply to this thread and acknowledge that something has changed and let us know whether or not it is going to be fixed.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I posted in a thread in the Fenix 3 forum (https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?350271-Something-wrong-with-resting-calories-after-7-0) but I just wanted to echo what everyone is saying. I am having the same problem and would like to see the old calculation back, or even better a selectable multiplier.

Disabling negative adjustments in MFP may be a stopgap for the time being. Since timed activities show up separately from steps they would still be captured in MFP and added to the calorie budget but the steps wouldn't reduce the calories due to the faulty calculation.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Dunno why they've gotta fix somethin that didn't appear broken:mad:

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I posted in a thread in the Fenix 3 forum (https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?350271-Something-wrong-with-resting-calories-after-7-0) but I just wanted to echo what everyone is saying. I am having the same problem and would like to see the old calculation back, or even better a selectable multiplier.

Disabling negative adjustments in MFP may be a stopgap for the time being. Since timed activities show up separately from steps they would still be captured in MFP and added to the calorie budget but the steps wouldn't reduce the calories due to the faulty calculation.

How are you achieving this? MFP is still reflecting both step calories and activity calories.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

How are you achieving this? MFP is still reflecting both step calories and activity calories.

If you log into MFP (you have to do this on the website, I have not found this setting in the mobile app) and go to settings and then diary settings there is an checkbox under calorie adjustments that you can uncheck to turn off negative adjustments. If this box is unchecked, the step calories from Garmin will never reduce your calorie budget, they would just be treated as 0 until they get high enough to be positive. Since recorded activities such as runs are synced separately to MFP those will still show up as will any positive step calories if you walk enough to actually make up the difference from the faulty math. This is not ideal but would at least give a more reasonable calorie budget for the time being until this is hopefully fixed.

On a separate note, I noticed that if you look at the calories remaining in Garmin Connect vs MFP then they are still calculating more reasonably due to the difference in which Garmin handles calorie math They subtract active calories from consumed and then compare that to your budget from MFP while MFP takes the total amount burned including rest calories from Garmin and projects it forward and then compares it to its estimates for the day.

0 ascii256 over 8 years ago

I finally got a reply from customer service about this. Unfortunately, the reply did not add value or resolve the issue.

They suggested that my activity class got "reset" on my device and advised that I change mine to a 5. I did this and as expected there was no change to the calculated resting calories.

What I find interesting is that some on these forums suggest that the activity class isn't even used anymore on newer Garmin devices. My experiment seems to confirm this (at least as far as resting calories go.)

So I guess I just need to keep waiting this out. I do wish a "Super Mod" or GARMIN employee would reply to this thread and confirm that that this problem is larger than just me and assure us that it is being worked on.

0 GCBS over 8 years ago

If activity class still does anything, it'd only affect calories burned during exercises in which you are wearing a hrm. No effect on resting cals. Not sure if you've emailed your devices beta team but try them too for suggesting to add more options for this resting value.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I think activity class was part of the older first generation Firstbeat algorithm and is no longer used for modern devices, and like GCBS said even if it was it would only be for workouts and have nothing to do with daily activity tracking.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I think activity class was part of the older first generation Firstbeat algorithm and is no longer used for modern devices, and like GCBS said even if it was it would only be for workouts and have nothing to do with daily activity tracking.

It isn't used anymore. I feel like I can confirm that.

I've been changing around my activity class for a few days now and it makes no difference. Neither on resting calories or active calories.

0 dobssi over 8 years ago

This is infuriating as it's basically broken MyFitnessPal for me.

I am wondering if it was in any way related to them trying to fix the long broken active calorie counts?

Surely there is no reason to reduce base calories like this if the device isn't going to measure your every move and heartbeat during each 24 hours as well as steps and activities?

As gadgets the Garmin watches are brilliant but the software side is a shambles. Wish Apple or someone else would nail a proper sports and activity watch and give us a decent choice.