Yesterday, I logged a 13 mile walk as a "run" using my 235. I logged it as a run, as there is no hike or walk activity selection. I used my footpod and Garmin ANT+ Chest strap, as these are far more accurate than the watch (they need to fix this). I recorded just shy of 13 miles and 31,000 steps, and was dual gps'ing with GPS and GLONAS. All was well and good until this morning when I looked at my connect sync and noticed that it claims 30 miles and doubled the calories. It appears to me that it is taking the total steps and adding them into the formula after already logging them in the activity. This is incorrect. I noticed that my assumed active calories was also roughly doubled. This seems like it can be easily addressed, and MUST be. Has anybody else noticed this. Also, why no "hike" or "walk" activities?
I do have read/write permissions between the two. I just now turned those off
If you also had Write permission on under Connect/steps I think you will now find that the step data on Apple Health will probably make more sense if you carry your phone with you whereas it will probably have been showing high step count too. Personally I see little value in Apple health given GC and MFP works OK.... well most of the time :). When I use a chest strap with BT & ANT+ capability I sometimes use iSmoothRun and export that into GC and do not save anything from the FR...it puts the steps of the run into daily steps rather than the activity but does not count the calories for them again (it uses the HR strap for that and puts those under activity).
I have got 2 devices connected on one GC account and it does (not surprisingly) double count distance but not steps.
Just checked back a week or so and all my Daily Steps distances are "believable".
I however seem to have zero daily steps showing in this same GC Activities section even though the total seems to include what it would have been. That sounds like a GC bug not a 235 one.
I have got 2 devices connected on one GC account and it does (not surprisingly) double count distance but not steps.
Just checked back a week or so and all my Daily Steps distances are "believable".
I however seem to have zero daily steps showing in this same GC Activities section even though the total seems to include what it would have been. That sounds like a GC bug not a 235 one.
In the case of GailNestor it did not double count the steps either. It did however take the "apparent" steps, which I assume came from the Apple HK link, for that distance and calculated a calorie burn for it... or Apple sent that burn(?). All previous data shows it is consistently incorrect and yes must be a GC issue, probably in the way it handles that data from Apple.
The footpod and cycling step overcounting cases may be something similar or in the case of cycling a bug in the cycling activity.
I'm back from my run. Sad to say, I was really tired today and only made it 14 miles instead of 16. After disabling my Apple Health app, I still have the problem.
Again, the distance and calories are impossibly high with the Daily Steps, but they are not greater than the running activity. Therefore, it's not a complete duplication.
I'm just frustrated. Hopefully Garmin will somehow be able to figure it out.
One more thing of note. In the GC phone app, calories show 1,350 resting + 1,557 active = 2,907 total. The 1,557 matches what GC desktop says (which includes that really high distance and calories count for Daily Steps.
On my 235 watch on the Steps screen (the one after the HR screen), it shows 24,610 steps (same as on app and desktop), but it shows 15.5 miles (14.14 from the run + a much more realistic 1.36 miles from walking). The same screen also shows 2,037 calories burned. If I take the 1,350 resting calories from the GC app and add only the 990 calories from running, I still get 2,340 total calories instead of 2,037 shown on the watch.
I have similar confusing issues with calories. But as suggested, it seems to be a GC issue.
The way I see GC working is it lists calories/steps for each activity performed.
It then adds an adjustment for the 24*7 tracking stuff outside of these activities. Again, steps and calories. For this line the steps and calories are not related. E.g. I did 70 mins on a turbo trainer without activating an activity on the watch and was credited 915 calories for 2444 steps. It seems therefore that GC is taking account of the increase heart rate and crediting calories as no actual activity was logged. However, when I imported the fit file from Zwift for that activity it added another 971 calories to my total which appears to be a duplicate.
GC should be ignoring the 24*7 data for the time period that the imported exercise covered. Fitbit does this pretty well. I guess in this case the good news is that originally GC awarded roughly the right amount of calories for the activity based on HR alone but unfortunately effectively doubled it when the file was imported. So for now if you don't want doubled calories, don't import external data. That means though if you want a log of all activities you need to record them somewhere else like Strava.
While I was typing this I did find a workaround. You can edit the activity in GC and change the calories to Zero to re-set you calories to the correct level.
I also as an experiment changed the time of the imported activity and moved it forward a few hours. The calories for the activity were left at zero, but my 24*7 tracking activity increased by around 500! I can only assume that GC is still recognising the increased HR and adding some calories in the 24*7 tracking?
Conclusion: An imported activity adds calorie credits for the 24*7 tracking due to increased HR, it also adds the number of calories calculated for the imported activity. Effectively roughly doubling it. If you timeshift the imported activity and zero the calorie count you still get increase calories for the increased HR at the time of the exercise, but you get it again as you have moved another set of the increased HR to a different day part.
I've seen cases where someone used something like "MapMyRun", and feed data into MyFitnessPal, while recording on a Garmin device that's also feeding into MFP, and numbers for activities can get screwy as a result, as MFP passes on the MMR.data to Garmin.
So, when I read this comment, I though EUREKA! a messed up multiple feedback loop between Apple Health, GC, and MyFitnessPal could account for some of the unbelievable calories per step total I have been seeing (as described in one or two other threads).
So here's what I did... (I am on iOS 8.4)
1) Settings-->Privacy-->Motion and Fitness-->turned 'Fitness Tracking' OFF
2) In Apple Health app, allowed GC to WRITE data for Active Calories, Steps, and Walking + Running Distance, but did not allow it to READ any of those data
3) In GC app, (More-->Settings-->3rd Party Apps) disconnected Apple Health, connected MFP
4) In MFP app, (More-->Apps&Devices) made sure GC was linked, and also (More-->Steps) I checked 'Don't track steps' and UNCHECKED GC
Now, this seems counterintuitive, but this does NOT prevent MFP from receiving step data from GC; in fact, MFP is still displaying step count as imported from GC, WITHOUT having GC checked as the step source 'device'! I think this is where the calorie feedback loop might have occurred. Previously, when I looked at step count in GC and MFP they were the same. However, I think there might have been some weird 'behind the scenes' compounding that occurred with GC actively exporting data TO MFP, and MFP actively importing data FROM GC, and this compounded step or activity feedback going back to GC somehow that messed up the calorie calculations. Because today, instead of seeing approximately 1 KCal credited for each step, I am seeing 604 KCal credited for 4971 steps. For comparison, here are the step calories credited earlier this week:
12.30: 2956 KCal for 6596 steps
12.29: 2489 KCal for 5572 steps
12.28: 2097 KCal for 6625 steps
12.27: 1626 KCal for 3883 steps
It will be interesting to see if today is a blip, or if it remains consistent. Also, to see the effect of a run or other 'Activity' on the calorie count total (as an aside, yesterday and Thursday, the calories credited for my run both days was reasonable and plausible, while step calories, as you see above, were way wrong...)
Thanks, Frankie_Boy! I think you may have struck upon the right combination. I have tried to follow your exact steps (1-4), and will see how tomorrow's numbers look. The only one that I could not execute was #3. When I go into the Apple Health screen, it shows 3 informational pages and there seems to be be nothing to connect or disconnect there. Under the MFP screen, I see that it is already connected via GC.
You mentioned that "MFP is still displaying step count as imported from GC, WITHOUT having GC checked as the step source 'device'!" Where in MFP can I see the number of steps shown? I must be overlooking this.
Okay, with this new setup, I am hopeful that I have fixed the problem with my calories and distance. We shall see - tomorrow. Thanks again!
Looks like yesterday was, sadly, a blip.
Today, I ran 4.7 miles, taking 8862 steps (plausible) and burning approximately 780 KCal (plausible)
I have walked an additional 4883 steps (consistent with the rest of this week, so plausible) and supposedly, burned 1049 KCal. Clearly not right. Oh well, would have been nice if I had figured it out, but it looks like Philippe guessed right... :P
