I don't understand the philosophy behind my Garmin Fenix 5X Plus

Former Member over 6 years ago

(Also posted in the Fenix 5/5S forum.)

I’m using a Garmin Fenix 5X Plus for almost 3 months now and I still don’t understand the philosophy behind it. Especially how the daily activity is calculated is a secret to me. The Polar V800 I had before would tell me after a 4 km open water swim that I had fulfilled f. e. 150% of my daily activity, or after a 2.5 hour MTB tour even 250% or more. It would add that to my steps and in the end of a very active day it would present me something like 300% of the required daily activity. And with that it would not demand more (just complain if I stay motionless in front of my computer for more than one hour). In a sub menu, I could see that 300% would equal 30.000 steps – but who cares?
My Garmin instead, unimpressed by my efforts, will tell me after a similar 4 km swim, that to reach my daily goal of 9.000 steps, 7.000 are still missing. As if I hadn’t exercised that day. The same applies to the really stupid goal to have to walk 10 floors every day. I mean, after climbing up a hill by bicycle for 500 meters or more it still demands that I walk the missing 6 floors to achieve my daily goal? (But it may happen that I manage this goal motionless in an elevator!)
I’m completely new to the Garmin universe and there may be just a different philosophy behind it (I don’t understand though). Or I have the wrong philosophy. (Or Polar.) Or I’m just using the wrong settings. Or it is a bug – this forum is full of bug reports. Or my expensive Garmin watch is more a toy than a training device...

0 tmk2 over 6 years ago

An element that most closely resembles your polar's activity percentage would be intensity minutes on your garmin. Step count and floor count are somewhat independent of that, and you may choose not to use them, if you don't find them useful nor sensible.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Thank you very much for this hint. I'll check if there is a useful widget for that and whether it can be integrated into any watch face or not. How do you deal with step and floor count? Do you use it?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

By the way, it is hard to believe that step and floor count should be separate, because then the watch will never give me a complete daily activity overview.

0 tmk2 over 6 years ago

How do you deal with step and floor count? Do you use it?

I don't care that much about things like that. I do have an auto goal set up for step count, and sometimes I try to hit that goal, but just for the fun of it. I am a very active person, and use my watch primarily for endurance sports training, so I do not feel any need to pay attention to things like intensity minutes, steps, calories or floors. I don't need the watch to tell me how active or inactive I was during the day, because normally I am quite aware of it even without the help of advanced technology.

it is hard to believe that step and floor count should be separate, because then the watch will never give me a complete daily activity overview.

Steps and floors are just details of your daily activity. Details that might or might not be interesting for you. A very general overview of your activity level are intensity minutes. You can gain intensity minutes by making steps or climbing floors, but you can also gain activity minutes by doing other types of activities. This is what I had in mind when I said they were independent.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

With my old Fenix 3 I found that Active Calories is the most useful metric of my daily activity. Intensity minutes were too coarse, and steps were just ... steps.

With my new Fenix 5X+ there is a new thing called Training Load. It seems to fulfil the same purpose, but with a higher tendency to reward high intensity training. Active Calories scales rather linearly with your heart beat during a training session and also reward lower intensities / longer duration, as long as you have the same number of "total extra heartbeats" during the session.

I guess it is a question of taste. I do a lot of low heart rate training, and I find that Active Calories better reflects my daily training amount than Training Load does.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Settings > Widgets > Add Widget

Add "My Day" and "Intensity Minutes"

My day will give you a run down of the day so far and Intensity Minutes is a combination of all your activities, not just step count. It makes no sense for your step count to change when you are swimming or cycling etc.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Thank you all very much for your advice. I already found the appropriate widgets to visualize what I need and I can live with that.

0 Hammie023 over 6 years ago

When I was 200+ pounds and just starting out in my fitness path, steps and floors were important since it gave me a perspective of my activity level. I began my journey with various fitbits, but once I got into other sports like OCRs and MTB, I needed something a lot more durable. That is when I got the fenix 3.

Now that I am far more fit, steps and floors are just "there" for me. A metric that I can quickly look at, or maybe "play" in a Garmin Connect Challenge. I am to the point now, that I know when I am active and when I am not. On my rest days, I may not hit my step count because I have not gone out for a run (or maybe just a short run). Floor counts are usually met when I am at home since I live a 3-story row house. However, when I am not at home, I can barely meet that metric.

I don't get bend out of shape about it because, like I said before, I know the days I am active and when I am not. I don't need my watch to tell me that. :)

Glad you found the widgets. Do you mind sharing them with us? Always curious about what others are using.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Sorry to disappoint you, Hammie023, I meant the pre-installed widgets on my whatch, as suggested by tmk2, AllanOlesen67 and TheOtherPhil.

I'm using Training Load with the widgets My day, Performance, Intensity Minutes and Calories. (I couldn't find anything better in the IQ store.)

It is not exactly what I want, I prefer the Polar way of a total daily activity, where steps is only used as unity for movement and I decide what to do, to achieve my daily goal. If I make a two hour open water swim, it will convert that into steps and if I have achieved my daily goal it will not demand an extra 10.000 steps or that I climb up 10 floors. Instead it will tell me that my daily goal has been fulfilled by 150% or so. And if I don't exercise one day, I can still try to achieve my daily goal going shopping...

I spent a lot of money for my Fenix 5X Plus and I'm trying to arrange with it. In a few days a new Polar watch will be announced and of course I will check it out. But even if it turns out to be the better watch, I am going to wait until next year, before I buy it. (My last Polar watch, a V800, was very buggy when it was brought to the marked, and a lot of features were missing, and it took Polar more than a year to fix everything - but they manged it!) So, let's say in April '19, I'l have a look again at my Fenix and see what Garmin has fixed and just then I compare it to the capabilities of the new Polar watch.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi Ossi, intensity minutes as used with Garmin's line of products follow the WHO and American Heart Association guidance of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week (or a combination of the 2). It is an internationally recognised method of deciding whether you are hitting your goals. Your step count may add to this total depending on how fast/ hard the activity is (hill walking for example). Light walking won't add to your intensity minutes but will increase your step count. It is entirely possible to hit 10,000 steps per day and still not achieve 150/75 intensity minutes as a recommended minimum level of activity. I would argue that the Garmin method of tracking activity is superior to the Polar method because of this.

https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/getting-active/moderate-to-vigorous-what-is-your-intensity
http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_adults/en/