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Vivoactive counting calories when it shouldn't?

Merlin5
over 4 years ago

Can a moderator please delete the other two duplicates i posted, something went wrong with them.

Hi everyone. New here and a beginner jogger. I hope you don't mind me posting in this forum. I posted in the vivoactive 3 forum a couple of days ago but it seems dead in there and I haven't had any response to my questions. So maybe I'll have more luck here. I just bought a Vivoactive 3 but I think my questions might also apply to the Vivoactive 4.

I recently bought the Vivoactive 3 and am enjoying it for jogging. I use it mostly to keep track of calories and heart rate and my goal is to lose some weight so I've put myself on a calorie controlled diet.

Here's the thing, it's counting calories, distance and pace when just sat on the table.

I went out and did a 3 mile jog, average pace of 14:37 min/ml, 44 minute duration, which the watch said burnt 457 calories. The other day I did 4.19 miles, average pace 14 min/ml, 58 minute duration and 668 calories burnt. Do they sound about the correct amount of calories for my distances and pace? In other words, is the watch accurate? From what I've read on Google, it should be more like 100 calories burnt per mile. I'm wondering if my watch is overestimating about a third too many calories.

I've been saving my stats to Garmin Connect app on my phone and that sends the calories to MyFitnessPal which then determines how many more calories I can eat that day. But if the watch is overestimating, it's a bit dangerous as it means it would be falsely telling me I can eat more than I should.

Got home and decided to see what happens on the watch with no activity. I set the watch to run just like my real workouts and put the watch on the table.

I could see calories running down. After 44 minutes, it said 264 calories burnt, 2.95 miles distance, and 15:50 pace. Average heartrate 90bpm. What's going on with that? My table isn't jogging. That's only 193 calories less than my actual jogging for about the same time and distance.

Why is it counting calories, distance and pace while doing absolutely nothing, and it makes me question if there's any accuracy when monitoring calories supposedly burnt during my jogging? Is the watch faulty or is it meant to be this way?

Do Vivoactive 4 users have the same issue?

Thanks for any help. :)

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hello! Is there any chance there was a foot pod connected to the device? Let's have you restore to defaults and see if this still happens on the watch. (Menu > Settings > System > Restore Defaults > Yes) If so, please let me know.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-Isabella

    Hi Isabella, and thank you for your reply. No I don't have a foot pod. Ok, I'll go ahead and restore the watch now to default and then I'll set it to run and see if it counts calories and distance again. Will report back shortly. :)

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Merlin5

    Yes Isabella, it's doing it again after resetting and re-syncing with garmin connect. After I start the run activity, it won't do anything but once I shake the watch a little it detects motion and starts counting distance, pace and calories. I then put it down on my table and it continues to show distance and pace and increases 1 calorie every 4 to 5 seconds. I can do a little video showing it doing that if it would help? If you think it's faulty, I have plenty of time to return it. I bought it from ebay as "authorised Retailer - This is a Garmin Newly Overhauled device, guaranteed to be in as new condition".

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Merlin5

    I suppose I'd better just phone Garmin Customer Services tomorrow. Too difficult trying to get answers on these forums. Though I suspect I should probably return this watch,  seems like it might be faulty. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Merlin5
    Merlin5 said:
    I suppose I'd better just phone Garmin Customer Services tomorrow. Too difficult trying to get answers on these forums. Though I suspect I should probably return this watch,  seems like it might be faulty. 

    Sorry to hear that it is still doing this! I would like to reach out to you from Garmin so we can get this resolved, are you in the US or Canada?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    1kcal*x kg of body mass* y kilometres run. Check if that's close

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-Isabella
    1. Hi Isabella. I'm in the UK but I think I've sorted it actually. All the times I thought GPS was tracking during my runs, well, I don't think it was.  Whenever  it said 'wait for GPS' I never saw it change from that status, so I would go ahead and press the button again to start the run activity thinking that the GPS was probably running in the background.

    Today was the first time I saw it change to green to let me know GPS acquired. After testing by walking with the watch in my garden just to get some activity data to show up, I then put the watch down on a surface (still outdoors with GPS) and it paused, it didn't continue counting calories, distance or pace. So I guess it's not faulty! Slight smile 

    I'm looking forward to my next jogging session. Now that I know to wait for the GPS green signal, there's a good chance my calorie numbers might be more realistic. For good measure,  I installed Garmin Express and it told me my software version was already the latest. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 1024644

    Thanks 1024644. I'd like to check it.   I don't understand your formula though,  can you clarify? 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Merlin5

    It's either from 80/20 running or from jack daniels running formula, forgot right now. It's how I estimate my runs and it tends to match garmin's.