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How are "Smart" eat/drink alerts determined?

I have been wanting to get more accurate guidance on when and how much to eat and drink on very long rides.  So, Garmin's "smart" eat/drink alerts seem very promising to me, but I have some questions.  

What assumptions does Garmin make in triggering these alerts? For example, does Garmin assume that I start the ride fully hydrated? Does it just take into consideration calories burned, or does it look at other factors like power output, temperature, heart rate, etc?  Based on the online manual, it appears to take several of these into consideration, but the manual does not give any details about how or when the alerts are triggered.

I started using the "smart" alerts this past weekend, and it seemed to work ok -- but seemed to recommend drinking a little less than what I would normally do.  Has anyone been using these "smart" alerts for any extended period of time?  How is it going?

Are there any IQ apps that have similar (but more accurate) in-ride fuel/hydration guidance?

  • The eat alert is based off of calories burnt or work done if you are riding with power meter. It will alert you after 200 calories are burnt. 

    The drink alerts are also based off of the above, but are adjusted based on the temperature either up or down from a mid or neutral point of around 60 F.

  • Interesting choice of transition point. 60F = 16C.

    By comparison, thermo-neutral zone for lightly clothed adult is low 20s C (TNZ is temprature range where no extra energy is expended to mainatin normal body temp. Implies no sweating at rest.)

  • It is actually a range from 15.5 C to 21.1 C that is consider neutral scaling. These values have been obtained by reverse engineering the results using known inputs.

  • Thank you.  

    I set my 1030 Plus to also prompt me for actual food and hydration at the end of the ride, and I am noticing that with regard to the calories, it is defaulting to 100 calories more than the total calories in the alerts i received. So far, this seems to be fairly consistent for me (4 rides).  

    Am I correct in assuming that this 100 calorie difference is because the 100 calorie alert is triggered after burning 200 calories?  

    Any idea why these 100 calories are not made up during the ride?  

    Is it assumed that I will consume 100 calories at the outset (and therefore no alert needed)?

  • I used to have an alert for eating at 13km, and smart alerts for drinking.  I changed to smart eating alerts recently.

    I have noticed over this month's riding in Southern California that the eating alerts tend to hover around the 13km mark fairly closely.

    Drink alerts change in a wider range.  The high seems to be almost 8km average on a ride in cool temperatures (12 -15C), and lows are around 5km in warm temperatures (23 - 28C).

    January temperatures have ranged from 3C to 34C!

  • That’s interesting! Do you ride the same route/terrain at the same level of effort?  13km seems like an arbitrary measure which doesn’t seem to relate to the amount of calories burned.  I’m interested to hear more details about your experience with the smart alerts. 

  • The eat alert is triggered after you hit 200 calories burnt. 

  • I'll be sure to check my Calories when the alert shows up on my next ride.  However, it's raining today, and I'm a softy.

    It's a shame that the Nutrition / Hydration info doesn't show up on Garmin Connect.

  • I started using 13km as the distance for a drink reminder.  When I noticed that there were also eating reminders, and "smart" alerts, I kept 13km for food, and began using "smart" for drinking.  I'm not sure how I decided on 13km initially - it's a bit over 30 minutes at my normal speeds.

    In truth, I've been doing rides of 2 to 3 hours by myself for the past year, and I only eat on the longer of these rides.  Also, I usually ignore the first and maybe the second drink alert, as it has been relatively cool, and I drink before I start.

  • I paid closer attention to my eating alerts today.  When the first one sounded, the Calories count was 202.  I missed the second and third, but number four showed 795, and number 5 showed 992 or 993.