Active calories not counted

It seems that this issue arrived with the upgrade of Edge devices to UTS with the arrival of the X40 series, prior to this no one seemed to have this problem, there was a one way transfer from Edge to connect to watch and the calories from the recorded activity were used. With UTS an extra step was introduced where the data on the watch was then sent back to connect and then on to the Edge and then the recorded calories from the Watch are used. Garmin acknowledged that this was a problem well over a year ago but there has been no progress. I previously was using an Edge 830 and like everyone else had no problems. I have upgraded to an Edge 1050 and continue to ride, recording with Edge, connected Power Meter, connected chest HRM and Fenix watch in passive mode. My synced calorie count continues to be normal and i would say that its because my FENIX OHR always records the same as my chest HRM. Its seems that for a lot of people this is not the the case and therein lies the problem low readings from the OHR will produce a low calorie count. 

It is my opinion calories counted actively during an activity are always likely to be more accurate than those counted passively and should take precedence during Trueup. Garmin encourage us to wear our watches 24/7 so this should not be a barrier to the collection of accurate data.

Based on everything reported it looks like it affects all products.

I suspect “The Bug” is in the core code base /  connect.  The issue is it dies not merge activities recorded on the non primary device. 

My preferred solution would be for the device recording the activity to take the lead. 

Julian 

I found a solution: Take off your watch just before the bike session -indoor or outdoor- complete it with your Edge device, save and sync to GC and than you can wear back your watch. %100 guaranteed.

This works, but if you launch another activity on the EDGE (with the watch still off) the calories get screwed up again. 

metin.aroyo said:

I found a solution: Take off your watch just before the bike session -indoor or outdoor- complete it with your Edge device, save and sync to GC and than you can wear back your watch. %100 guaranteed.

Everyone knows that, but its not a solution, its a workaround. People who wear there watches 24/7 don't want to take them off just because Garmin is not providing a solution.

Exactly. You are right it's a workaround but it works until they found a solution.

So just to be certain, there is no way to use the HRM capability of the Epix while on a ride as it must be in passive mode (battery saver mode, or is there another setting I am missing?).

Also, this statement is confusing to me:

"FENIX OHR always records the same as my chest HRM. Its seems that for a lot of people this is not the the case"

If you are using a power meter, isn't that the true source of calories burned, not heart rate? When I complete a ride with EpixOHR+Edge 1040+Power Meter, the activity correctly shows up with 1200  active + resting calories even though my Epix OHR spikes up/down in cold weather. In warm weather, when my Epix is not spiking up/down the active calories remain in-line with my cold weather rides.

I was going to upgrade to Fenix 8 to see if the crap cold weather OHR was fixed, but it sounds like moving to Fenix 8 even if I have better OHR performance still won't fix the calorie count problem?

So do you have a second heart rate monitor you use? 

5434068 said:

I was going to upgrade to Fenix 8 to see if the crap cold weather OHR was fixed, but it sounds like moving to Fenix 8 even if I have better OHR performance still won't fix the calorie count problem?

With the recent generation of Garmin devices, the Calories always come from the PWD (Primary Wearable Device - your watch), as long as it was worn, and the HR sensor was enabled. You can work around it in several ways:

• either remove the watch from the wrist when riding and using Edge
• or disable the sensor when riding
• or start an activity on the watch with the HRM connected to it while riding, and discard the activity at the end instead of saving
• or connect all sensors (HRM, speed, cadence, power,...) to the watch and record the activity with the watch instead of Edge, and use Edge just for the live monitoring and navigation

The last option is the cleanest, and the best one, since it does not have any negative side effects as the previous ones have.

As for the low accuracy in cold weather - it is unlikely the upgrade would help much. It is not the sensor that does not work, it is the cold-induced peripheral vasoconstriction that makes it difficult to optical sensors to detect reliably the HR signal, since the signal is weak and disturbed by noise from pedaling, or from running. It is more a matter of physiology - some people (like me) have no problems at all even with older generations of the Elevate OHR sensor, and others will have problems even with the latest generation. So if you experience heavy problems with Epix, do not expect any great improvement with Fenix 8. Rather use the HRM strap in such cold conditions.