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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.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    with a run of 5688 steps, 5,2kms I had 517 Calories -> Ok
    Daily Steps of only 880 (I know I was lazy ....) , I had 220 active Calories .... No Way either !!


    did that show a distance for those steps (excluding the activity ones)?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Yes 0,66 km !

    The problem is even higher when doing some biking activities. In those cases I got some distance of the biking activities on the smal amount of steps

    Heure Pas Calories actives Durée Distance Type d'activité
    10:18 1.430 2:06:11 45,86 km Biking
    Steps 2.977 1.335 -- 28,67 km --

    Here GC is estimating almost 30 kms for 3000 steps .... Would mean 30m per Step !!
  • Here GC is estimating almost 30 kms for 3000 steps .... Would mean 30m per Step !!


    Woaahhhhh you must either be huge or have very strong leg muscles... or maybe you are Hulk? ;)

    But hey, I did 1,4 Km without a single step... I'm Superman! :rolleyes:

    Seriously... this stuff is unusable currently.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Yes 0,66 km !


    Here GC is estimating almost 30 kms for 3000 steps .... Would mean 30m per Step !!


    Yes the calculation appears to using the 28km triggering from cycling movement as steps (say 35,000 based on 80cm stride length @ about 37 Kcal/1000). I think "cycling" and "other" activities synced to GC has an issue because if I add an activity manually into GC direct e.g. weights, it thinks the steps taken during that session are daily steps but does not calculate the calories for those steps i.e. it knows to ignore them for calorie purposes for the duration set in that manual activity. This does not appear to be the case when using the "running" activity (except when there processing limitation on upload and sometime loses the duration part and then ends up double counting which happened to me a few days ago)
  • It's really bad....:mad:

    two days ago I had roughly 2000 steps and 1,5 Km with 55 act. calories.
    Today about same steps and distance, but 221 active calories!

    No workouts on those days....

    Average HR (daily) was maybe a tad higher today and two days ago I had no readings for 3 hours while charging. But this cannot be the explanation for such a big difference in calories.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    This night even worse for me . I think I'm sleepwalking !!!! The watch is telling me 799 steps at 0:00 am where I was in bed .... And for 799 steps, I have 720 calories !! I'm burning calories like hell

    This is in so many way unacceptable from Garmin , they ar not able to manage a simple function the competitors can handle with 80 dollars products !
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Weird.....Are these calories under non-activity steps or are do they include BMR? and do you have the correct time zone you are actually in under GC/Settings/Display preferences? It should be zero at midnight.
  • Yesterday seemed to be a pretty good day. Stats:

    Run: 8,374 steps, 359 calories, 5.01 miles
    Daily Steps: 8,182 steps, 154 calories, 3.58 miles
    Totals look accurate as well. Matches with watch and iphone app.

    Today, not so much...

    Run: 17,392 steps, 750 calories, 11.02 miles
    Daily Steps: 5,335 steps, 209 calories, 3.60 miles (as of 4:45pm)
    Totals look accurate and data matches with watch and iphone app.

    I just can't see how 5,335 steps can be the same amount of miles as 8,182 steps and can burn 55 more calories.

    I still have not hear back from Garmin from my ticket, but will report when I do learn something new.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Today again very bad day ..... 57 kms of cycling and 10300 steps.....

    For the Cycling Acivity I get 57,8 kms and 1522 calories -> Ok

    For the 10300 steps I get 44,41km and 2550 active calories ! -> HA HA HA

    I was wondering if I shouldn't let the watch at home while cycling and only use strava or endomondo on the Phone ....... would be a pity, but do not know how to do other ....
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Weird.....Are these calories under non-activity steps or are do they include BMR? and do you have the correct time zone you are actually in under GC/Settings/Display preferences? It should be zero at midnight.


    What do you mean with BMR ?