Step count active calories

I just purchased my watch. I walked a brisk pace 2.2 miles this am. My calories were 283. My big issue, and will probably cause me to return it today, is the steps. It says 5,384, for 2.2 miles. Nope, way off. I brought my reliable phone step and calorie with me and it shows steps at 3,554. Much closer. Not acceptable to me. The time and the distance were good. Calories OK. But steps which are important for me is a deal breaker. Like all other things about the watch. Responsive, OK selection of watch screens, touch sensitivity is almost too good. The walk workout readings were very easy to see during my walk and I have a messed up left eye and have cataracts in both. If I can see it, just about anyone can.  I will stick with using my older unconnected smart phone. Better accuracy, still uses GPS, Bluetooth and headphone jack, can still call 911. 

A mile for many people is right about 2000 steps, so 5384 steps for 2.2 miles is probably as accurate as 3554 steps for the same distance. It all has to do with how long your walking stride is.  Are you including the steps you take outside the 2.2 mile walk?

Hi Sebastian

My name is David, and I am experieincing a similar thing to you in that Active Calories (when Im not training) are inaccurate. For me my primary metric that i track is active calories as it is a helpful guide to how much activity Im doing as i do a bit of cycling too. So I agree when I am training and have the Venu registered to a specific workout it will register active calories properly, however when I am walking and doing my standard daily tasks, it is completely inconsistent in the way it tracks active calories. For example, if I am walking between the two offices I work at (10 minute walk) sometimes it'll track at about 3-5 active calories per minute (which is around what it should be for my age/weight/height), and other times it wont track any active cals at all (i'll watch to see the change in active calories after each minute). It wont track any active cals even though I've walked non stop for the whole minute! Very odd. I dont understand why I get such differnet active cal results from walking. Every other variable is kept relatively constant (i.e. the amount of stepping I am doing and my HR).

Garmin any ideas as to why this is happening?

It seems all new devices are affected by this. Maybe related to new HR Sensor or Algorithm. 

I bought a forerunner 245 music 2 weeks ago and its exactly the same. On Friday i had about 8800 steps and not even 200 active calories. What a joke. 

I know that heartrate also plays part in calorie calculation but even with lower heart rate that is way too low.

Apart from that i have the feeling the new hr sensor has problems with short movements. 

For example if i stop several times between the steps HR hardly goes up and thats the cases where no active calories are counted. Like on work where i have these short movements very often. I wore the vivosmart4 for comparison and whil his goes up to the 90s for a short moment forerunner 245 goes hardly over 80 like its not able to this . And thats why the vivosmart 4 counts way more calories and is closer to reality. 

I mean come on. A busy working day with close to 9000 steps and not even 200 active calories?? This is ridicoules. Makes the calorie count completely useless. 

Just an example which everyone can test and which shows there is somethkng wrong.

Do some weightlifting without starting an activity. The sensor is completely off then. You can deadlift as hell and it wont go over 90. 

So for me it seems like a software glitch with the hr sensor in normal mode.

I am having the same problem with my new Venu 2. On a normal active day I am only getting about 75 to 100 active calories. Has any one find a solution to this calorie undercounting.