Accurately tracking additional activities with FR235

Hello,
I am interested in the 235 not only for running. In fact, running wouldn't be my main use of this sportwatch.

Can you answer some questions I have, having concerned that your are using the gadget not for running exclusively.

1. What about steps, sleep and kcal burned accuracy?. Do you think they’re pettry accurate?.

2. I’m also interested in the daily kcal expenditure accuracy. What can you tell about that?.

3. Summarizing: Is this device a good activity tracker?.

Onyone who has this watch and use it with actvity 'other' for strengh training what do ypu think about that?, is accurate in kcal burned?


Thanks!

Hi,

This is my non-professional opinion as an FR235 user.

1. I have worn two other trackers on the opposite arm (on different days) to compare steps, sleep and kcal burned. On the steps, there can be a difference of up to 500 with the Garmin being consistently lower than the others. It's hard to say which is more accurate. I would tend to believe Garmin because it is a runners watch so accurately tracking steps would have been an important development criteria but if I leave the Garmin at home and wear my other two trackers on each arm, their step counts are usually much closer to each other than my Garmin.
Sleep tracking has been pretty useless for me. Most days the watch does not record the correct times asleep and it does not catch sleep outside of the defined period in CG. So if I take an afternoon nap for about an hour or so, its just shown as inactive time but not recognized as sleep.
As for Kcal, I connected both my trackers to an HR chest strap and used them for exercises like running where again there are usually differences of 50 - 100kcal between trackers. This could just be the differences in the algorithms used. I don't think either of them are accurate (no tracker is) but I am satisfied that the Garmin us good enough.

2. The daily Kcal expenditure takes into account your steps but the device does not record stairs climbed and is limited in what activities you can record (Just Indoor/outdoor running and cycling and "Other") so the chances are you might be doing other activities where the watch cannot accurately track your calories resulting in your daily kcal being somewhat inaccurate. I can confirm this in comparisons with my other trackers which indicate higher kcal burned on most days depending on how active I was during the day.
An example of this is being somebody who works on the 6th floor of their building and walks up and down the stairs at least 4 times a day burning more calories in the process. The extra calorie expenditure would not be known by the watch. (Keep in the mind though, the FR235 is a runners watch, general activity tracking is really just added benefits for a pricy watch)

3.This device is well built, it has comfortable replaceable bands but the screen is too dim and there is no option to adjust brightness. The device is great for running and even cycling but the all-day heart rate needs some tweaking. The general daily activity tracking is an added benefit and I think it is accurate enough for most people. As for the lack of additional activity profiles, for such an expensive watch, I really wish Garmin had the option in GC to add profiles that could be synced to the watch rather than limiting us to "Other". I have yet to find a decent app for strength training and swimming but I believe the watch is more than capable of tracking those activities if it had an appropriate activity item. With ConnectIQ, there is potential for a developer to create apps for the missing functionality but I'm not a developer and rely on others to develop the apps which may never come.

Overall, I think the FR235 is a good product with a lot of potential and plenty of flaws. The hardware is okay but the software could use a lot of improvements and Garmin could do a lot to make the product more complete and therefore better value at the relatively high cost of the product.
I am not using my FR235 very frequently and wish I rather had a Vivoactive HR (not available in my country yet) which would probably suit me much better for a range of workouts.

Hi,

This is my non-professional opinion as an FR235 user.

1. I have worn two other trackers on the opposite arm (on different days) to compare steps, sleep and kcal burned. On the steps, there can be a difference of up to 500 with the Garmin being consistently lower than the others. It's hard to say which is more accurate. I would tend to believe Garmin because it is a runners watch so accurately tracking steps would have been an important development criteria but if I leave the Garmin at home and wear my other two trackers on each arm, their step counts are usually much closer to each other than my Garmin.
Sleep tracking has been pretty useless for me. Most days the watch does not record the correct times asleep and it does not catch sleep outside of the defined period in CG. So if I take an afternoon nap for about an hour or so, its just shown as inactive time but not recognized as sleep.
As for Kcal, I connected both my trackers to an HR chest strap and used them for exercises like running where again there are usually differences of 50 - 100kcal between trackers. This could just be the differences in the algorithms used. I don't think either of them are accurate (no tracker is) but I am satisfied that the Garmin us good enough.

2. The daily Kcal expenditure takes into account your steps but the device does not record stairs climbed and is limited in what activities you can record (Just Indoor/outdoor running and cycling and "Other") so the chances are you might be doing other activities where the watch cannot accurately track your calories resulting in your daily kcal being somewhat inaccurate. I can confirm this in comparisons with my other trackers which indicate higher kcal burned on most days depending on how active I was during the day.
An example of this is being somebody who works on the 6th floor of their building and walks up and down the stairs at least 4 times a day burning more calories in the process. The extra calorie expenditure would not be known by the watch. (Keep in the mind though, the FR235 is a runners watch, general activity tracking is really just added benefits for a pricy watch)

3.This device is well built, it has comfortable replaceable bands but the screen is too dim and there is no option to adjust brightness. The device is great for running and even cycling but the all-day heart rate needs some tweaking. The general daily activity tracking is an added benefit and I think it is accurate enough for most people. As for the lack of additional activity profiles, for such an expensive watch, I really wish Garmin had the option in GC to add profiles that could be synced to the watch rather than limiting us to "Other". I have yet to find a decent app for strength training and swimming but I believe the watch is more than capable of tracking those activities if it had an appropriate activity item. With ConnectIQ, there is potential for a developer to create apps for the missing functionality but I'm not a developer and rely on others to develop the apps which may never come.

Overall, I think the FR235 is a good product with a lot of potential and plenty of flaws. The hardware is okay but the software could use a lot of improvements and Garmin could do a lot to make the product more complete and therefore better value at the relatively high cost of the product.
I am not using my FR235 very frequently and wish I rather had a Vivoactive HR (not available in my country yet) which would probably suit me much better for a range of workouts.

Thanks for your extended answer. What I think is that the Vivoactive HR will fit better for my needs, due to nowadayas I'm not going out to run everyday, but I practise a lot of strength training (almost everyday), and I do some sprints, HIIT, someday I jump the rope and others I go out for a walk. I also try to be active (what a pity my sedentary job doesn't allow me to be more active), and I want something more or less reliable in terms of steps and kcals burned.

For what you said, I understand that the 235 is a runner watch with activity tracking, althought that is not the best feature of the device. (¿?)


Thank you very much.

Thanks for your extended answer. What I think is that the Vivoactive HR will fit better for my needs, due to nowadayas I'm not going out to run everyday, but I practise a lot of strength training (almost everyday), and I do some sprints, HIIT, someday I jump the rope and others I go out for a walk. I also try to be active (what a pity my sedentary job doesn't allow me to be more active), and I want something more or less reliable in terms of steps and kcals burned.

For what you said, I understand that the 235 is a runner watch with activity tracking, althought that is not the best feature of the device. (¿?)


Thank you very much.

Great, based on the activities that you mentioned, I agree that the Vivoactive HR would be a better fit for you. It has also received consistently good reviews so I'm sure you will be happy with it.

Back to my original topic, has anyone found any apps that work really well for Strength training, HIIT and Swimming?

Great, based on the activities that you mentioned, I agree that the Vivoactive HR would be a better fit for you. It has also received consistently good reviews so I'm sure you will be happy with it.

Back to my original topic, has anyone found any apps that work really well for Strength training, HIIT and Swimming?

I use it for my runs (4/week) with total satisfaction. I've downloaded a couple of apps from Connect IQ that may be of use. One is Hike that is reliable when you go for more than a simple walk. The other one is Swim but it only tells you the distance swam in openwater, it doesn't track your HR and gets a little crazy when swiming in the sea; in a open pool it's useless unless it's a long pool (more than 25 m and those are hard to find).
Since I usually swim twice a week I'm beginning to consider The new 735 but and I'm working in my wife's aproval 😜 . She doesn't see the need of replacing a 6 months old watch.

Back to my original topic, has anyone found any apps that work really well for Strength training, HIIT and Swimming?

sorry but no.
I use it everyday for Hiit and 2 times da week for just strength training, and it's waaaay off.
It doesn't go well with interval training, even for runs;
The FR235 only it's useless if you wanna know the calories you burnt in those activities.

now,
I bought the Wahoo Ticker X to go with it and its a little better but then you see the huge difference between the two in calculating the calories.
Even with the chest band the garmin is WAY lower on calories.
i'm content, but not completely happy tho.

sorry but no.
I use it everyday for Hiit and 2 times da week for just strength training, and it's waaaay off.
It doesn't go well with interval training, even for runs;
The FR235 only it's useless if you wanna know the calories you burnt in those activities.

now,
I bought the Wahoo Ticker X to go with it and its a little better but then you see the huge difference between the two in calculating the calories.
Even with the chest band the garmin is WAY lower on calories.
i'm content, but not completely happy tho.

I also have the Wahoo Tickr X which I have connected to my Garmin for improved calorie calculation but as you've said, the calories appear to be way off for non-running and cycling activities so my FR235 is really not useful to me for this purpose.

I have switched over to my Polar with the HR chest strap connected and am able to record much better strength training stats that appear to be more realistic but I am somewhat disappointed because I do not want my data scattered and had hoped to use only one tracker for everything. Unfortunately, it seems I can only use it for running and cycling because it is quite useless for everything else.