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MyFitnessPal integration with Garmin Connect - step calorie adjustment broken

There are a few threads on the subject of Garmin changing the base calorie calculation on their watches and this impacts on the integration with MyFitnessPal.

I just thought I would post the feedback I have had from each end.

In short, it looks like the steps side of the integration is a no go for the foreseeable future :(

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From Garmin:

Dear Paul,
I am writing to you in regards to your BMR questions.
Please find the official statement regarding the caloric computation on our system:

"Many customers look to calorie burn to manage many facets of their workout program. With that said, there are many different ways to calculate calorie burn and there are competing theories as to which is more accurate.
We can all agree that the discussion about calorie burn is one that has many sides, multiple ways of being calculated, and can more than likely be discussed for an infinite amount of time.
We do value the information everyone has provided and we do consider this information critical to improving our products, which calculates calories through heart rate and user profile. We also acknowledge that there are many factors that can contribute to a calorie burn more or less than expected. Some of these factors may be, but are not limited to, running efficiency, very low workout intensity, inaccurate comparisons, etc...
Garmin will continue to investigate which of the above factors are true and refine any area that may challenge the caloric expenditure for specific users. Again, we appreciate all users input and passion to improve our products and the accuracy in the data they provide."
If there is anything else I can help you with then please let me know. Alternatively you can search for a solution here: http://www.garmin.co.uk/support
Kind regards,
Adrian

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From MFP:

Betty wrote:
MAY 24, 2016 | 09:49AM PDT
Hello Paul,

This is Betty, from our Premium support center. It will be my pleasure to help assist you.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Our apologies for any issues you are experiencing with the integration between Garmin and MyFitnessPal. We have reached out to them and are looking into ways to improve the integration considering these new changes. Unfortunately we do not have a current estimated time frame for when or if any changes will be made on our end.

In the meantime, thank you so much for using the program. Please let us know if you have any additional feedback or questions. We wish you all the success in reaching and maintaining all of your diet and fitness goals.

All the best,
Betty
MyFitnessPal

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Paul_Collyer wrote:
MAY 24, 2016 | 02:15AM PDT
Original message
Hi,

Garmin have recently changed their base calorie number on their watches. It now seems to start at BMR and work from there. Previously it started from BMR plus 20%. Mine changed from around 1900 or so down to around 1600 when I updated my watch software last week.

I have spoken to Garmin and it is by design, although it makes no sense to me since BMR is essentially comatose state calorie burn, and their watches only measure steps and sports activities, as opposed to standing vs sitting, brushing teeth, using the loo, etc etc. But it is what it is, and MFP now need to adjust the way they calculate Garmin step adjustment calories. I hope they do this fast as the MFP-Garmin steps link is essentially broken right now.

Right now in MFP I need to do at least 10000 steps on my Garmin before I start getting extra calories sent to MFP. I have disabled negative adjustments as they are off the scale wrong in the current state of play.

Please let me know what the plan is,
Paul
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0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Mine are way off but more then any 20%.

Today walked around some and got a few thousand steps. Good start. Went on a 6 mile run with HRM and it came in any at around 950 calories. Pretty good.

Total for day 17,000 steps including my 950 calorie run. Pretty good.

One MFP, I got positive 950 calories... Good.. Then I have a negative calorie adjustment of 660 calories.

So for 6.2 mile run and 17,000 steps MFP has me at an extra 250 calories for exercise. Really?

Right now I'm entering food in MFP but going off calorie number in connect. Not ideal but only thing reasonable close I have. A 700 calorie difference is big.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Thanks for posting this. Hopefully MFP and/or Garmin can come up with a fix for this situation. One potential workaround I've mentioned in one of the other threads about this topic is to disable negative adjustments in MFP. Recorded activities would still sync to MFP, as would any step adjustments where there were enough steps to result in a positive adjustment but negative step adjustments would be ignored. This isn't ideal since it could result in too many calories but I think it would be closer to reality and could work until someone comes up with a permanent solution.

0 dobssi over 8 years ago

Just for the record, MFP support are recommending I delink from Garmin until this is fixed, with the ball in Garmin's court.

0 GCBS over 8 years ago

I hope they let us set a custom resting calorie value and not try to overcompensate with step calories to make up for this existing gap.

There are enough threads on this now with concerned users..... hopefully they start listening and fix in a new sw update. It's all watch side calculations so no reason they can give a few options including a custom value.

0 dobssi over 8 years ago

Latest.....which to my mind suggests they have no intention to support my 920XT on this front now they have the HR watches on the market....

I am pretty annoyed.

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Dear Paul,

After further investigation we have a couple of point that we would like to raise:
We believe that we can all agree that the BMR is calculated correctly, even when compared to other online calculators it shows very close results. BMR should be calculated as in staying in bed all day, and this is the reason why previous BMR was changed.
We understand that you want to use Garmin Connect to manage your daily calorific intake, however as you mentioned your 920xt model does not support 24 hours heart rate tracking and your total results comes short of couple hundred calories. And to offset this we have couple of suggestions:
Wear your heart rate monitor when doing some house work and record them as activities. This will still save and calculate your calories burned and add up to the total.
You can create manual activities in Garmin Connect and sent specific calorie burn and this again will also add up to the total.

Unfortunately both options seem to be a little long winded, however those are the only alternatives we can think of at this point.

In regards to your suggestion, to give ability to set your own BMR or edit, we advise that you send your suggestion trough:
http://www8.garmin.com/contactUs/ideas/

The more similar suggestions we get the more likely they are going to be included in future releases of Garmin Connect.

If there is anything else I can help you with then please let me know. Alternatively you can search for a solution here: http://www.garmin.co.uk/support

Kind regards,