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?
Garmin connect is definitely doing some post processing of the data which is causing all the errors. I'm not certain if general activity tracking calories are based solely on HR + steps or HR + something else but whatever it is GC is messing it up.
I've been keeping an eye on my watches numbers directly on the watch throughout the day. It seems the steps and calories seem quite acurate and plausible. The distance usually is as well. Its only on Garmin Connect where it's all a mess which is really letting down the watch.
If you take the current calorie count showm on the watvh and subtract calories for tracked activities and pro-rata BMR calories, then calories for general activity seems plausible.
For example it's 8:30pm right now and my watch shows:
10262 steps and 2845 calories
My daily supposed BMR is 2184 so roughly 1865 at 8:30pm [(2184/24) * (24-3.5)]
My tracked activity for today totals 755. So total 'other' active calories = 2845-1865-755=225.
225kcal seems plausible for me having had a fairly easy day outside of my workout with probably a pretty low HR for most of the day.
Garmin Connect on the other hand shows something completely wrong. The steps widget matches the watch fairly closely for both kcal and distance while the full steps pages is just plain weird and totally wrong.
I don't know why Garmin engineers can't see this or fix it. Its so obvious. If the watch is supposedly doing the right thing, then Garmin Connect is making the watch look bad by messing up all the calculations.
Here is an example of how GC seems to be inflating the calories:
Look at the picture of my last 4 hrs HR tracking. Note the two (erroneous) spikes following the main activity that was done this morning. Now GC has allocated 720 calories for the hour indoor ride. I'm happy with that. BUT it has allocated over ten thousand steps. Apparently an error according to the help desk and perhaps a different topic for conversation.
Now look at the steps line. Zero steps (maybe due to the erroneously added indoor ride steps) but 430 calories. If you look at the HR trace you will see that GC has only imported the two large peaks and plotted a lone across them which presumably means it now assumes a constant HR of 139 bpm for over 30 mins. For this it has allocated the 430 calories.
The trace on the watch is much more granular than GC meaning it is actually recording the HR data at reasonable intervals but it seems GC is filtering a lot of this out and coming up with the wrong answer....
The helpdesk advised there is a new version of Garmin express released (I sync through this) which may fix some of these issues. I will check after tomorrows early ride :-)
By the way, anyone know how to post pictures as opposed to links?
Garmin connect is definitely doing some post processing of the data which is causing all the errors.
Even though you don't quite show if there are any steps related to an activity in your numbers, I agree that the processing of data is affecting reports. My days are quite predictable and there is no chance of me burning another 500+ calories one day and not the next, outside of runs. i.e. consistent, whether conscious effort in steps measured by step count formula or the modest elevation of HR they cause. Having said that, today appears close although there should be no reason that the line of non-activity daily steps x stride is not equal to daily distance.
Garmin connect is definitely doing some post processing of the data which is causing all the errors. I'm not certain if general activity tracking calories are based solely on HR + steps or HR + something else but whatever it is GC is messing it up.
That's what I'm leaning towards with my issue - I've noticed my watch is recording fairly accurate HR data. But when it syncs, the graphs don't match up AT ALL.
That's what I'm leaning towards with my issue - I've noticed my watch is recording fairly accurate HR data. But when it syncs, the graphs don't match up AT ALL.
Is that straight HR line in GC giving you a big active calorie calorie credit in the additional steps line?
It doesn't look like it. That straight line was when I ended my workout, showered, got ready for work, commuted, and got to work and answered emails. I took the watch off to shower, but for the rest of that time period I was wearing it.
It just seems to be missing the HR data my watch is reporting. In the "last 4 hours" graph, that line wasn't there - but it seems like the watch wasn't syncing then. GC seems to default to 142 BPM whenever it's not actively syncing?
I also have the calories discrepancy on some days between watch, widget, steps page, connect mobile, etc...
I sent information a few times to garmin and after a couple of back and forth I finally got confirmation that they are working on a fix:
"Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I am happy to continue assisting you today.
At this time, we have determined that the discrepancy in your calorie data between Garmin Connect Mobile and Garmin Connect on the computer, is an issue that we can recreate with accounts in-house. We have created a case regarding this issue that will be researched by the Garmin Connect Subject Matter Experts, and then be further researched by Garmin Connect engineers.
If we are in need of any additional information from you, or have any additional information to provide to you in the meantime, we will contact you via email. We appreciate your patience on this matter and hope this does not create any inconvenience to you. We will work hard to get this issue solved as quickly as possible. "
In the meanwhile, I found confirmed many times that the calories from the widget in the dashboard is correct and every once in a while an offset is created vs the full steps page, so for myfitnesspal I add a "quick calories" equal to the offset, just to help me eat correctly and I remove it at the end of the day. A little pain, but manageable.
The good news is that I have now 2 months of data proving the that the calories expenditure calculated by the 235 is really accurate, so the fundamentals are good, we just have to get the little bugs sorted out.
I also have the calories discrepancy on some days between watch, widget, steps page, connect mobile, etc...
I sent information a few times to garmin and after a couple of back and forth I finally got confirmation that they are working on a fix:
"Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I am happy to continue assisting you today.
At this time, we have determined that the discrepancy in your calorie data between Garmin Connect Mobile and Garmin Connect on the computer, is an issue that we can recreate with accounts in-house. We have created a case regarding this issue that will be researched by the Garmin Connect Subject Matter Experts, and then be further researched by Garmin Connect engineers.
If we are in need of any additional information from you, or have any additional information to provide to you in the meantime, we will contact you via email. We appreciate your patience on this matter and hope this does not create any inconvenience to you. We will work hard to get this issue solved as quickly as possible. "
In the meanwhile, I found confirmed many times that the calories from the widget in the dashboard is correct and every once in a while an offset is created vs the full steps page, so for myfitnesspal I add a "quick calories" equal to the offset, just to help me eat correctly and I remove it at the end of the day. A little pain, but manageable.
The good news is that I have now 2 months of data proving the that the calories expenditure calculated by the 235 is really accurate, so the fundamentals are good, we just have to get the little bugs sorted out.
Good news they are looking at this. Can I ask what data is inaccurate? I think you are saying that the watch is correct but witch out of GC PC and GC mobile is wrong? Or is it both of them?
My experience has been consistent with this:
the total calories number appears in (at least) five places:
Watch itself (accurate)
Web dashboard steps widget (accurate)
Web Steps Page (Inaccurate)
Web Reports (Inaccurate)
Android App (Inaccurate)
On some days they are all the same and everything is fine, bit on some days 3, 4 and 5 are inflated by some weird double counting. I thought it was related to activities, but I found at lease one day in which the problem happened and I didn't log any activity.
Myfitnesspal reads the inaccurate number, so on the days when the problem happens it will tell you to eat more, if you don't realize that double counting is happening.
