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Number of Daily Steps vs. Distance (for non-timed activities)

To see where I'm fining this data, go in Garmin Connect on a PC, click on the three parallel bars, select Steps, scroll down, then click Activities. I am using a 235 watch with 3.20 installed.

Today I ran 16 miles. It shows that coming out to 25,950 steps, burning 1,218 active calories, and the distance shows 16.02 miles.
Then I look at Daily Steps. The number of just steps I walk around outside of the run. Today it shows 3,356. This sounds about right based on past days activities and considering it is mid-afternoon.

However, it shows those 3,356 steps burned 508 active calories (almost half of what the 16-mile run burned) and the distance shows 7.83 miles. This is clearly wrong. Most days I walk around 6,000 total steps. It ends up being around 3 miles, give or take. I don't think there is any possible way this number of steps could amount to 7.83 miles! I did not turn off the activity tracker or make any adjustments to my watch. Right before my run, I just stared my timer and took off.

I have called Garmin about this a couple of times, but they sort of listen, but don't have any real insights or solutions. I would like to hear if anyone else is having this same issue. The main drawback for me right now is that I am trying to track calories in and out. I believe in this case, it is overstating the calories I burned while strolling around in the house.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

any chance there is a time zone setting issue in GC ?

0 chunkywizard over 9 years ago

LPM= Low Power Mode ie when there is no activity going on

CW

0 philippe.berini over 9 years ago

Same again today... for LPM I would have a stride lenght of 1,32m... I wish!

Dec 13
workout: 5772 / 477 / 2,72 Km (Tennis indoors so the gps bug probably counted the Km)
LPM: 1.714 / 231 / 2,26 km
Total: 7486 / 708 / 4,99 Km

Total cal from daily overview: 2.649

EDIT: just found this in the GC forums https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?275946-Active-Calories-Report-is-broken

0 GailNestor over 9 years ago

Hey Gail, if you are running 16 miles. Forget calories and have a hot fudge sundae. Not sure how much you run a week, but my metabolism allows me to pretty much eat what I want when I run between 40-50 miles a week. That formula has worked for me for 40 years. Be grateful that you can run. Running 16 miles puts you in an elite category. Less than 5% of folks can do what you do. Make it fun, you will burn more calories if your running is your play. Nick

Yes, I am very grateful that at 48, having only run for 4 years, I can run as much as I do. :-) As for calorie burning with all this running, you would also definitely think I should be able to enjoy plenty of food! It's amazing how hard it is to kick start my metabolism, though. I am hypothyroid, but take Synthroid to keep it under control. I have run about 54-64 miles a week (at varying paces that average in the 8:15-8:30 range), but I have actually gained a little weight. I began tracking my caloric intake via My Fitness Pal, I started to see how many calories I was eating and exactly how the math worked.

I know I will not always be this hyper-vigilant, but I want to at least have a good ballpark number of how many calories I burn walking around in addition to the running calories. The math here is just not right.

0 GailNestor over 9 years ago

Update...

Yesterday's final stats on the PC:
Run: Steps-25,950, Calories-1,218, Miles-16.02
Daily Steps: Steps-7,579, Calories-649, Miles-9.73
Total: Steps-33,529, Calories-1,867, Miles-25.75
I think the stats in bold are incorrect.

Yesterday's final stats on the iphone app:
Resting calories: 1,352, Active calories: 1,867, Total calories: 3,219
Total steps: 33,529 (the sum of Run + Daily) - but no break-out between them on app :-(

On Steps details page on app:
Total Steps: 33,529 (This matches total steps on PC.)
Distance: 19.37 miles (This does not match the 25.75 on PC. These 19.37 miles less running of 16.02 leaves 3.35 miles in Daily Steps instead of 9.73.)
Calories: 2,647 (If you add resting calories of 1,352 to running calories of 1,218, you get 2,570. That leaves 77 calories for the Daily Steps. It's a little low, but who knows.)

Like others have reported on this thread, some days my Daily Steps show up as 0 too. I am very confused as to what numbers I can trust.

0 philippe.berini over 9 years ago

On Steps details page on app:
Total Steps: 33,529 (This matches total steps on PC.)
Distance: 19.37 miles (This does not match the 25.75 on PC. These 19.37 miles less running of 16.02 leaves 3.35 miles in Daily Steps instead of 9.73.)
Calories: 2,647 (If you add resting calories of 1,352 to running calories of 1,218, you get 2,570. That leaves 77 calories for the Daily Steps. It's a little low, but who knows.)

Like others have reported on this thread, some days my Daily Steps show up as 0 too. I am very confused as to what numbers I can trust.

Those 3.35 sound more reasonable. I also checked the app but I get the same numbers as in the webservice.

Resting calories of 1352 doesn't sound quite right? A man hs usually around 2000 cals BMR as far as I remember. That's also what I get from the app (I'm 38 yrs old). And 77 sounds a bit low for 3.35 of walking. Even though walking doesn't burn much I think it should be more, at least something above 100?

EDIT: For three days I had been walking those distance: 4,60/4,29/3,83 Km, the calories for this are 145/391/235. But thats just like my posts above, the distance and corresponding calories seem not right. My guess would be the distance is most likely to be wrong.

Did you see the link I posted? In the Connect forums they report those numbers being all over the place as well!

0 GailNestor over 9 years ago

Those 3.35 sound more reasonable. I also checked the app but I get the same numbers as in the webservice.

Resting calories of 1352 doesn't sound quite right? A man hs usually around 2000 cals BMR as far as I remember. That's also what I get from the app (I'm 38 yrs old). And 77 sounds a bit low for 3.35 of walking. Even though walking doesn't burn much I think it should be more, at least something above 100?

EDIT: For three days I had been walking those distance: 4,60/4,29/3,83 Km, the calories for this are 145/391/235. But thats just like my posts above, the distance and corresponding calories seem not right. My guess would be the distance is most likely to be wrong.

Did you see the link I posted? In the Connect forums they report those numbers being all over the place as well!

It's good to know others are reporting this as well. I just went back and constructed a spreadsheet comparing steps, calories, and miles on the app vs. the PC. Some days it matches. Others not.

The app tells me my BMR is 1,352 per day (it used to show 1,374). I am 5'4" and weigh 112. I run between 50 and 70 miles a week. I have a very hard time burning calories. I am hypothyroid, but take Synthroid. I don't know if the 1,352 is accurate, but I have been trying to only eat that number of calories plus whatever calories it tells me I burn during my run. It seems to work out okay and my weight is stable. However, would like to feel I can trust the calories burned via Daily Steps too.

The other reason is that I just like to see the same data on the PC and the app and not different numbers for the same thing!!

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

The other reason is that I just like to see the same data on the PC and the app and not different numbers for the same thing!!

I made comment on the Connect Forum based on the current observation. It appears this happens when some of the GC modules are incurring limited processing as per https://connect.garmin.com/en-US/status

I assume that affects some of the calculations for reporting steps/distances/calories correctly whenever parts of them are "limited"

0 GailNestor over 9 years ago

Those 3.35 sound more reasonable. I also checked the app but I get the same numbers as in the webservice.

Resting calories of 1352 doesn't sound quite right? A man hs usually around 2000 cals BMR as far as I remember. That's also what I get from the app (I'm 38 yrs old). And 77 sounds a bit low for 3.35 of walking. Even though walking doesn't burn much I think it should be more, at least something above 100?

EDIT: For three days I had been walking those distance: 4,60/4,29/3,83 Km, the calories for this are 145/391/235. But thats just like my posts above, the distance and corresponding calories seem not right. My guess would be the distance is most likely to be wrong.

Did you see the link I posted? In the Connect forums they report those numbers being all over the place as well!

Yes, I just browsed through the thread. Ugh! So this has been an issue since June? I'm now not so optimistic it's going to be fixed any time soon. I might as well not use the data at all if I can't trust it. I love my new watch, but the steps/calories data reporting on the app and the PC leaves a bit to be desired. :-(

0 philippe.berini over 9 years ago

I made comment on the Connect Forum based on the current observation. It appears this happens when some of the GC modules are incurring limited processing as per https://connect.garmin.com/en-US/status

I assume that affects some of the calculations for reporting steps/distances/calories correctly whenever parts of them are "limited"

Interesting, thanks for sharing that link. Will be interesting to see what happens when all modules are back to normal. If new syncs are calculated correctly and if it will affect historic data as well.

But I agree... this problem seems to have existed for a long time. Doesn't make me go all-in with my hope. If you look at the GC forums there seem to be so many other issues as well, some of them maybe related to that modules being limited problem. I wonder if they are working on that?

At least we can say for once it's not a FR235 problem, but that's just a cold comfort. The whole GC experience is part of any of those products. So if they can't get it right... :mad: