Wrong calorie count on watch face, correct amount in Connect mobile

Does anyone else notice that after recording a workout on the watch, such as an indoor cycling session that the calories on the watch face are way too high. I did a 460 calorie hour long easy ride and Garmin Connect had a correct daily calorie count of about 2500 while the watch showed over 2700 daily calories around midnight, as though it was recording something extra in addition to the indoor bike session.

I'm not sure where the additional 200 calories came from as before my bike session the calorie count always matches in both areas, it's only after the workout that there is some erroneous value on the watch face. I use myfitnesspal and it bases it's recommendation from the correct value, but I would prefer the watch didn't show false values, otherwise what good is having that data-field on the watch face.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

I have seen something similar, but I have so far just assumed that it was caused by me double recording my rowing ergometer sessions*, and those double recordings somehow being syncronized back to the watch. But lately, I have seen behaviour, which perhaps can't be explained by that. I haven't digged further into it yet.

(*: I track the ergometer sessions with my F5X+, but the data from the ergometer are also uploaded to an online logbook at the ergometer manufacturer, from where it is syncronized with Garmin Connect, so I end up having two rowing sessions in my Garmin Connect activities.)

0 rob-tech over 6 years ago

Thank you for your reply, in your case it would perhaps make sense if you saw double the calories when you use the watch to track rowing, and also pull in data from the rowing ergometer platform.

In my case however this is not possible as only a single activity is pushed by the watch to Garmin Connect, therefore, I think this is a bug. For reference, today I did a 1.5 hour Sweetspot interval session which burned 814 calories. The total calorie count on Connect at the end of the day was 2830 which is accurate for a sedentary day with one intense workout where the active calores on Connect are 802 (the 802 figure includes all activity above the RMR including steps etc.). The watch face on the other hand read 3001 calories before the reset at midnight which is too high, and not believable when I look into how Garmin Connect counts active and resting calories.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

I can't reproduce the difference between Garmin Connect and the watch, which you are seeing. But something is certainly fishy about my active calories. I wonder if Garmin has once again changed their definition of either Active Calories or calories within activities.

The way it has worked until now:
The calorie count within an activity includes resting calories.
These resting calories are subtracted before the total calories from the activity are added to the daily Active Calories.
Also, when I am not in an activity, calories from the activity tracker in the watch are added to the daily Active Calories.
(I can see in your post that you already know this. I am just trying to make my assumptions clear.)

What I saw yesterday:
I had 4 activities with a total duration of 3:05 hours and a total calorie count of 940 kcal.
My resting calories yesterday were 2097 kcal. So during 3:05 hours I would have spent 269 kcal resting.
This leaves 940 - 269 = 671 kcal, which would be added to the Active Calories of the day.
My total Active Calories yesterday were 961 kcal, checked on the watch just before midnight, and also checked on Garmin Connect Mobile just after midnight.
This means that my Active Calories from other, unlogged activity should be 961 - 671 kcal = 290 kcal.
This number seems quite high. Based on previous experience from sedentary days, I would think that my unlogged activity yesterday would sum up to not more than 100 kcal.

What I see today:
My Active Calories from yesterday has over night changed to 949 kcal in Garmin Connect.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

Today I did a test where I took screenshots of the calorie screen in the watch before and after a walking session. It adds up rather nicely:

Before session:
Resting: 988
Active: 39
Total: 1027

After session:
Resting: 1151
Active: 455
Total: 1606

Difference between before/after:
Resting: 163
Active: 416
Total: 579

The calories, which were recorded in the session: 558

I have a small difference of 21 kcal between the session calories and the daily calories screen. But I have seen similar small differences in earlier sessions, so nothing is changed here.

Garmin Connect shows 456 calories, so the watch and Garmin Connect are in agreement right now. I will take a look again in the late evening and tomorrow and see if the figures suddenly change.

Update: It is now tomorrow. I forgot to check just before midnight. Will have to give it another go.

0 rob-tech over 6 years ago

Thank You for your findings, in your case it appears everything is working fine. I have also seen small discrepancies between the session and daily calories, it is possible that some mysterious underlying correction is taking place based on some unknown input. What concerns me however is that the watch and Garmin Connect are way out of sync, the watch calories are now 3037 while Connect shows 2570.

This is after an outdoor ride recorded on my Edge 1030, both devices have TrueUp enabled, and it is my understanding that the correct calorie amount should be synced back to the watch after I conclude the ride. It's just double counting by combining it's calorie burn from the OHR in smartwatch mode with the official activity file, and not correcting upon syncing with connect.

The watch was just worn on my wrist and it never behaved this way during the last cycling season, the values also matched when I did weight training using the watch strength program about 4 months ago. The discrepancy is less massive when the watch is recording the activity but it's still significant at over 200 calories on a 1.5 hour routine, it is calorie sync back to the watch that appears broken for me as the platform registers the correct amount of calories and everything adds up over there. For some reason it's only able to add the activity calories to the watch face.

EDIT: Is your firmware version 6.0 or one of the newer betas? Perhaps updating will help as I'm running 6.0, and there have been lots of changes recently.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

Yes, everything is working quite fine for me. My reason for recording the calories and posting my findings in this thread was that I thought it wasn't fine. But it is, so I have just wasted space in your thread. Sorry.

I see one interesting thing for yesterday, though: I had 1401 active calories in Garmin Connect Mobile and in the watch, but only 1381 in Garmin Connect Web. I had expected GCM and GCW to always show the same. For the previous 6 days, GCM and GCW are in full agreement.

I only have one Garmin unit, so I do not have TrueUp enabled. So if this is your culprit, I would not see the same as you.

I use Beta 6.71. A lot of errors have been fixed in the betas since 6.00, and I know of no new errors added in those betas. If your watch is not an APAC version, I would strongly recommend installing the beta.

0 rob-tech over 6 years ago

Just a follow-up, the problem is resolved on firmware 7.10 and now everything appears to sync up correctly. This issue along with the problematic battery meter, and bike power meter cadence drops with the Favero Assioma are finally resolved so I am happy.

Hopefully the next update will have some of those lovely new firstbeat algorithms ported from the Marq/Forerunner 945 as my edge 1030 is confirmed to be getting those in the future.