Outdoor Recreation Archive

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

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 jimoestman over 6 years ago

Hello Ossi,

In the Garmin user-environment, step count has some importance. It is the measure used for competition between users in weekly challenges or a challenge against a friend.
If Garmin did what you suggest, this concept would fall apart. Then a step is no longer a step. This is also why Garmin does not let you add steps manually, like any other activity. It would undoubtedly end up in someone cheating.

BR,
Jim

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi all,
interesting posts.

Didn't know that Gramin is following the WHO guidance. I'll read the related articles, thank you for the links.

I'm not saying that it should not be possible to use step count to compete against others. What I want is that all my movements are calculated together for my daily goals - they all produce a training load. To visualize that, here an example of my recovery status in the Polar universe.

red = trainings (cycling, running)
blue = walking around (steps)ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1401418.png

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

I think you are discussing two different things without realizing it.

Ossi, if I understand you correctly, you want a metric showing your general activity level for a day, including both steps and logged activities. This metric doesn't have to be shown as steps - as long as the watch shows some useful measure of general activity.

Jimoestman and others, if I understand you correctly, you want to prevent that the watch will start adding other activities to the step count.

It would seem to me, that these two requirements are not contradicting.

I will agree with Ossi that the watches lack a good metric of daily activity level across all types of activities. Intensity minutes will lump a lot of intensity levels together in the same range without adjusting for relative intensity within that range.

As I wrote earlier, the best I have come up with is the Active Calories. But Active Calories seems to be sort of a step child - I can't even select it on my watch face, and in the Calories widget it is not the main piece of information.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

You're right, there is no contradiction between what I and what the others want.

And talking about displaying useful measures: I want a recovery status view similar to the one Polar is offering (see post #13).

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.

Is there an Olympic Stepping sport? Major League Stair Climbing? Both activities are pointless to athletes, but serve as basic activity indicators for the obese populace. If you've got a 5x, you're an athlete and steps/stairs don't count, or you'vemassively overspent for an activity monitor. Basic human locomotion is not a sport.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Eh, that's a little harsh. If it motivates people to get off the couch, then I'm all for it. I'd still be 60 pounds heavier if it wasn't for getting a tracker and using steps as a guide starting out.

That being said, steps are a poor measure of activity. If a person with a 0.5m stride runs a mile and a person with 1m stride runs a mile, the person with the 0.5m stride length will have twice as many steps. Does that mean that the person with the shorter stride used more effort? Maybe, maybe not.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

Is there an Olympic Stepping sport? Major League Stair Climbing? Both activities are pointless to athletes, but serve as basic activity indicators for the obese populace. If you've got a 5x, you're an athlete and steps/stairs don't count, or you'vemassively overspent for an activity monitor. Basic human locomotion is not a sport.

It is incredible how often people think that they understand other people's reasons for buying a Fenix watch so well that they can declare those reasons wrong.

I bought my first Fenix for the built-in navigation tools, the ruggedness and the waterproofness. All of which are very suitable for a sea kayaking watch. So because I am not an athlete, I have bought the wrong watch?

Isn't the problem rather that you have been thinking the wrong thoughts? (To say it in the most friendly way.)

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Isn't the problem rather that you have been thinking the wrong thoughts? (To say it in the most friendly way.)

Nope. hth