24/7 HR Sampling

Is it my imagination or has 24/7 HRM improved in version 3.30, even if there has been no mention of this in the version history? Today it seemed to sample more often and/or picked up on movement better. Anyone else experiencing this?

Is it my imagination or has 24/7 HRM improved in version 3.30, even if there has been no mention of this in the version history? Today it seemed to sample more often and/or picked up on movement better. Anyone else experiencing this?

I hope so, though I haven't noticed. It really doesn't matter to me. I really enjoy having my HR say 72 outside an activity every time I check it. As a bonus, mine went from 72 as soon I checked to 164 while driving this morning. At least I don't have to charge as often anymore.

Update: Looks as if the 235 user's have company. My wife has the Vivosmart HR, so I decided to check out their forum. They had a recent update and now people are complaining about poor 24/7 tracking and a 72 HR value too. Funny thing is they never had a battery life issue with the Vivosmart HR. What did you do Garmin?????

For me I want

1.)24*7 tracking for calorie burn

2.) A means of accurately recording activities in terms of distance/hr/calorie burn.

Fitbit HR is excellent at 24*7 calorie tracking BUT is very poor in terms of a) interval training, running or otherwise. b) locking onto my HR for early morning cold activities such as indoor cycling. Optical HR monitors can be poor generally in both these cases so I am happy to wear a HR monitor when needed.

That left me looking at a watch or a band. I spend a lot of time at a computer at work and felt that a band, like the Microsoft 2 or the VSHR would get in the way. Looking at the Garmin 235 the specification matched what I wanted perfectly. Overall it has the potential to do just that. I just think there is something wrong with step count (too low when doing lots of small steps due to the fact that it doesn't count anything less than 10 steps apparently?) and elevated HR outside of activity mode doesn't seem to calculate sufficient calories with maybe GC just relying on steps to calculate this?

In the attachment you can see where the Fitbit starts adding the additional calories when the HR starts to spike due to being active (as opposed to recording an activity) with the calorie burn rising dramatically when getting into fat burn and cardio zones.

I don't claim to be an expert in these matters and maybe the Fitbit overestimates a bit, but I have used this for the past year and my weight loss generally equals my calorie deficit. I'm not sending my watch back as I hope it will improve and I like it for recording my activities, but for now I still wear my fitbit for 24*7 tracking and I would really like to just use my Garmin. I need to be convinced on the calorie tracking accuracy and at the moment I am not.

To try and determine more accurately where the discrepancy lies with my Fitbit HR Vs Garmin 235 I decided to do a bit more analysis between the two. In terms of steady activity like cycling and running:

1. Early morning indoor cycling in a cold room the Fitbit is taking up to 15 mins to properly lock on my actual HR compared with the 235 with a strap. Maybe its locking onto cadence for a while as well, but calorie burn is often around 30% less for an hours ride due to this.
2. Activities at a constant pace such as crosstrainer, treadmill etc its fairly accurate.

Note I normally use a HR strap when doing activities to improve accuracy and it doesn't bother me wearing one.
So when I am fairly active over a reasonable length of time they are comparable but when I am generally busy they are not and I need to understand why.

Now, I thought the extra calorie burn from the fitbit when generally walking around and doing activities such as tidying, cooking etc was due to the high sampling rate, but it just seemed too high. So I did a an experiment.

While I was doing a few jobs around the house and cooking dinner I set a times activity off on the Fitbit and did the same with the Gamin using "other" and wearing a strap to get good accuracy. The difference in Heart rate readings was quite astounding as you can see from the attachment. The Fitbit HR is spiking and then reducing back to a more realistic rate. The 235 was reasonably steady. The Fitbit average HR over 93 minutes was 103 while the Garmin + strap was just 66. I'm not sure what is happening here but this definitely explains a good part of the extra calorie burn with the Fitbit as its definitely over reading. Whether its been doing this all the time I don't know, but I am definitely backtracking regarding its accuracy. I still think the Garmin needs a higher sample rate to capture true blips and give a more accurate RHR but I would advise Fitbit HR users to do a similar comparison as mine is definitely off in this scenario. Maybe mine is faulty or the bright lights of the kitchen are interfering with the optical sensor. Who knows...

Up until last week I'd been on 3.10 as I didn't want to lose the more frequent HR sampling. But, I noticed that the device was becoming a little unstable so bit the bullet and upgraded to 3.20 and then 3.30.

Over the past few days I've monitored my HR chart on GC, and have noticed that 'dormant' periods are lasting anything from 1-4 hours which is a real concern.

Even when doing physical work it's not picking this up.

I've emailed Garmin, but they just don't give a straight answer :(

Ooh, you should have stayed where you were, at least until they make this a 24/7 hr monitor again.

So earlier clicked over to the hr widget to look, then expected the watch to automatically switch back to the watch face as usual. It didn't and has stayed on the hr widget for a while now. Look at the difference in the first two hours and the last two. I've been at my desk most of the day so nothing active. The usual crappy "24x7" monitoring the first two hours, then the last two like it should be. Constant up and downs, no straight line same hr for half hour at a time. This is what I want the watch to do at all times. This is how it should function. Or at least have a setting do those of us that want to see true 24x7 monitoring.

Trying to get photo to attach. Hope this works.

I get it sometimes too. Could not figure out when/how it happens.

BTW, battery drains significantly faster when it happens.

I've had it stay on the HR widget before like this. It's not something I can force it to do, just happens to do it every so often. It's been on it for 4 hours now. I'm fine with the battery drain, although I don't want to check it now. I want to see how long it will stay there.

I've had it stay on the HR widget before like this. It's not something I can force it to do, just happens to do it every so often. It's been on it for 4 hours now. I'm fine with the battery drain, although I don't want to check it now. I want to see how long it will stay there.

The battery drains so fast so I think GPS is also ON :)