Issues with Step Counting, Sleep Tracking, and Calorie Burn on Fenix 8

Hello,

After several weeks of testing, I still have a few issues, and interestingly, my friend who owns the same watch is experiencing similar problems, so I believe this might be a general issue.

Step Counting during Car Rides: During a three-hour car ride, my watch recorded over 700 steps. This seems like a significant error, and my friend has reported the same issue. This is important to me as I pay close attention to my daily activity, and such inaccuracies are concerning.
Sleep Tracking: The sleep tracking feature seems inaccurate. For instance, even when I’m awake for over an hour and a half in the morning but still in bed, the watch doesn't register me as awake until I physically get out of bed. This is frustrating, as sleep tracking is a key feature for me.
Daily Calorie Burn: On rest days (without training), my watch shows that I’ve burned only around 1900 kcal. This seems incorrect considering my weight (72 kg) and fairly active daily routine. I believe the watch is underestimating my calorie expenditure on non-training days.
Step Counting Sensitivity: The watch seems overly sensitive when counting steps. Even when I walk around my small apartment, it feels like the step count is too high. Also, I’ve noticed that even sitting and frequently moving my arm seems to add steps.

I hope Garmin focuses on addressing these issues, especially the step counting, which appears to be too sensitive.

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0 dukeskd 7 months ago

My Fenix 8 counts my steps when I am on the kayak... Nuff said.

0 9733071 7 months ago

I woke up one morning and had already done 500 steps (older version of OS).

0 Denser 7 months ago

If you have a bumpy ride and your hand would be shaking, it can definitely record steps. Anything "shaking" your hand would record steps. Is your watch configured as wearing it on your non dominant hand? That makes a difference too.

Sleep tracking is also based on heart rate and movements. If you are very still in bed with a low heart rate and nothing in the criteria of the watch for making it record an awake time, the watch will still think it's a sleep period. This will always be something difficult to measure without a brain activity sensor, when only with metrics for heart, moves, etc that are located on your wrist...

For you calories burn, I'm 72 kilos too, and my base calories is 2000, if I wouldn't move at all for 24h. It's also influenced by the activity level from 1 to 10 that you have set. Try to put it at 8. It's also based on how fast your heart goes the whole day, if you are really quiet you might burn less. I find my measures pretty accurate with a history of 1998 days as of today.

For the last point I would say again check if it's set on your non dominant wrist, and well, let's say you would clap your hands 100 times, it would add 100 steps can't do much about that

0 mcbit 7 months ago in reply to Denser

Just in way of an update.

Denser said:
It's also influenced by the activity level from 1 to 10 that you have set.

What Is the Activity Class Measurement in Garmin Connect? | Instinct® – Tactical Edition | Garmin Support

NOTICE: The activity class setting applies to older Garmin devices and does not affect the measurement readings on newer devices. Improved algorithms have negated this setting from being used on newer products despite the it still being visible in Garmin Connect. For more details on devices that use this feature see the section "Which Garmin Devices Use Activity Class?" in this FAQ.

0 Charles Hamel 7 months ago

Personnally the step count seems good. I have been wearing along side and Apple Watch Ultra for the last 4 days. I walk a lot during work (28 000 to 32 000) and there is a 150-300 steps gap.

But the Fenix 8 is way way way off for the stairs count. Last tuesday, it recorded 26, my AW 4 and my iPhone 5. The right count is 5. Wednesday, the Fenix recorded 22, my watch and phone 15. It's harder to count cause I use the subway but my personal estimation is more around 15 than 22.

Today the Fenix was totally off, 64 stairs, my apple watch 30. I didn't really count but I would bet my pay check that it was closer to 30 than 60.

I just did what is recommended on this page : https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=LJ6vYF2phv7JUAOlsRRjC8&identifier=1228429&tab=topics

Hope it will fix it.

I wish you will get stats that represents your real daily activity

0 Suaro 4 months ago

Just got my new Garmin Fenix 8 . Basic step counting simply doesn’t work properly and is inaccurate. I woke up with over 2k steps. It currently says 7.7k steps which I know is nowhere near correct. Not even close . I’m currently sick and have been sitting on my ass literally all day. Apple shows 1,921 steps. If steps are not even close I can only imagine everything else being off as well. My work paid for the watch because I spoke highly of Garmin . This is an inaccurate toy. Trying to determine if I should return it and go with another product . This is terrible

+1 Garmin-Laurie 3 months ago in reply to Suaro

Hello. I am sorry to hear you are having trouble with the watch.

For elements the watch is using to capture sleep, steps, and calories, the watch is using limited metrics. Most often this is going to be heat rate and motion.

For steps, this is limited to the regular motion of your wrist. So during a restless nights sleep, or a bumpy car ride, this can be picked up by the watch as steps. To limit this sensitivity would lead to low steps counts when walking. For low steps count ensure you are not holding anything in your hand, and swinging your arms freely. My Garmin Watch is Not Accurately Counting Steps

For sleep tracking, this is going to track your Resting heart rate and movement. So being awake, but still sedentary in bed can still be tracked as sleep. The watch is looking for spikes in your HR and an increase in the movement of your wrist. You can help mitigate this some, by ensuring you have the correct sleep times set for your sleep schedule. Why Am I Getting Sleep Detected When I’m Not Sleeping? Advanced Sleep Monitoring Watch Compatibility

Your calorie burn will also use heart. But this includes personal profile (age, weight, gender) in the algorithm. So be sure these are set up correctly. You will also want to ensure you choose the correct activity app for your workouts. Some more intense activities will have a higher calorie burn. Burned Calories Calculated on My Garmin Device Are Wrong What is Used to Calculate Calories on My Multisport Watch?

0 burns3 3 months ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

How about waking up to 13,000+ steps? The graph shows 69 steps at 4:45am and 13,207 steps at 5:30am. Sleep shows I woke up at 5:22am.

0 hml60 3 months ago in reply to burns3

This has never worked properly with any Fenix, I've had all the successors since the Fenix 5.
The steps are counted by hand movements. I'm always very proud of myself when I sit at the computer and I reach my goal.
The step count would only really be useful if you could deactivate it and only switch it on when you're actually walking.

0 mcbit 3 months ago in reply to hml60

Funnily enough, it has always worked for me without issue.