Garmin Vivosmart hr step

Mistya81

Hi there,

I just picked up a garmin vivosmart hr and have previously never used a step counter. I'm concerned it's grossly overestimating my calorie burn. Check out my diary.... Today I did a spin class and it's adding up my steps and I'm at over 1000 calories. Seems too good to be true... Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

WatchJoshLift

I dunno.

Briantime

Sounds too high. One suggestion. Make sure your profile information in the Garmin app is correct as your stats like she and weight will impact your calorie burn.

MeanderingMammal

Odd that it's counting a spin session as steps. I can do 90 minutes on the turbo and get a move warning.

As above, confirm your settings

teebeegeebee

I use my vivofit just as a step counter rather than for excercise on static machines...count them seperately

Tacklewasher

This is why I gave up my Vivosmart. Software is crap, especially if you track an activity. Just use it as a step counter and don't try to track activities with it. Even walking it double counts.

You can read about it's issues here. https://forums.garmin.com/forumdisplay.php?556-vivosmart-HR-HR

I've gone with a Vivoactive HR and it does not have the same issues.

WalkingDeadFrank

Spend the extra money and buy the Vivoactive HR.

MeanderingMammal

Mistya81 wrote: »

I just picked up a garmin vivosmart hr and have previously never used a step counter. I'm concerned it's grossly overestimating my calorie burn. Check out my diary.... Today I did a spin class and it's adding up my steps and I'm at over 1000 calories. Seems too good to be true... Any thoughts?

What's just occurred to me, responding to another post, is the issue of where you're taking that from. Assuming that you have Garmin Connect connected to MFP and you have negative calorie adjustment enabled, then taking a calorie estimation from your diary is dynamic.

I hadn't appreciated when I first responded to this that you were taking this from MFP, which estimates and changes your target over the course of the day.

If you look under the exercise tab you'll see that there is both an exercise calories element and an adjustment element, which accounts for that.

What I'd also observe is that the VivoSmart HR is a step tracker that can record HR data in a generic activity. Using HR for something like a spin class is going to give you a significant overestimation of calories expended.

Noting the two points immediately above, I'd observe that both the VivoSmart and the VivoActive use the same underlying software for reconciliation.

atky90

A spin class could burn that many, depending on length. I do bouldering and can burn 600+ an hour if intense. You can also log on to Garmin Connect on the internet on your PC and customise your step and stride length, instead of the average that it is set up with

laureltn

I have the Vivoactive HR (got it for Christmas) and I'm seeing some weird results, especially with outdoor walking. Two days ago I walked with my dog. I did it in 1:16:XX and the calories awarded was 359, which is a lot higher than any online calculators I've seen. Today I walked 3.6 miles in 1:14:34 on the exact same course. It said I burned 470 calories.

I am a 130-pound woman. I can't get it to award me that many calories running 3.6. And 30 seconds a mile difference sure doesn't seem worthy of that much of a difference for the total.

It gives me way too many for strength training too, I think. It seems way more accurate on calories running, whether indoors or out. I LOVE the device, but I have serious trust issues with the active calories being sent over and MFP keeps screaming at me to eat more.

lokihen

I disconnected my Vivoactive HR from MFP and enter my exercise manually. I love the heart rate monitoring and step counting, but ignore the calorie estimates.

Tacklewasher

laureltn wrote: »

I have the Vivoactive HR (got it for Christmas) and I'm seeing some weird results, especially with outdoor walking. Two days ago I walked with my dog. I did it in 1:16:XX and the calories awarded was 359, which is a lot higher than any online calculators I've seen. Today I walked 3.6 miles in 1:14:34 on the exact same course. It said I burned 470 calories.

I am a 130-pound woman. I can't get it to award me that many calories running 3.6. And 30 seconds a mile difference sure doesn't seem worthy of that much of a difference for the total.

It gives me way too many for strength training too, I think. It seems way more accurate on calories running, whether indoors or out. I LOVE the device, but I have serious trust issues with the active calories being sent over and MFP keeps screaming at me to eat more.

What do you have your activity level set at in Garmin Connect? Maybe play with it a bit. It seems to make a difference.

When on the treadmill, I use a Polar chest strap so I can watch my HR as I exercise. When I am done, I have compared the calories burned according to the chest strap with what GC pushes through to MFP and I find them very close.

laureltn

for some reason, the settings link is NOT at the top of any of my pages. How bizarre. The only way I could find it was searching online and then getting the link from the Garmin Connect FAQs. What the heck? Anyway, now that I have found it, the level is set at 5. I think I'll bump it up to 8 because with walking the dog, running and the gym, I'm doing almost daily. Will see what it does.

I have a list of oddities going on that I would love to figure out. I don't get push notifications when I do indoor walking or running. The notifications are there if I swipe to that page, but no push. Not even phone calls. I did when I first got the device, but not anymore. I do get them when I walk outside, though. Even with its quirks and foibles, I love the convenience and versatility of the thing. Just want to get a few kinks worked out!

thanks for the suggestion. We'll see what that does to walk calories. I also thought about putting on my 910XT and the chest strap for a walk and see what it gives me in calories versus the Vivo just for fun.

MountainHiker48

My Vivoactive HR seems pretty accurate with calorie calculations, at least from what I have seen. Yesterday I did a 4+ mile hike that included over 1,200 feet of elevation gain. It took me about 1 hour and 40 minutes and the calorie burn came out at about 680. Seems reasonably close to me.

laureltn

Well, that change in activity level didn't seem to help. I ran a mile on the treadmill this morning to get my HR up to do strength training. Got 86 calories, which is spot on. Did circuit training and it gave me too many (but it always does) at 224 calories for 35 minutes. BUT I am now, at 2 p.m., at 859 active calories. And I have a TOTAL of 6,000 steps. I helped my husband move a few pieces of furniture that weren't heavy and that's about it. I just can't fathom in any method of calculating effort/burn I am getting this much for what I did. Especially when you put it into the perspective of something I just checked. On 9/22/12 I ran 13.6 miles with 827 feet of elevation gain in 1:59:18 and -- wait for it -- burned 1,085 calories. I think the time has come to email support and see if they can figure out why Garmin seems to think I am an epic caloric furnace!

laureltn

Okay, something is drastically different today. Anybody else got that going on? I actually recharged my FitBit and wore it today. So far steps between the two devices are about 20 steps apart. Fitbit has given me 12 floors and Garmin 6 (my vivo is soooo stingy with floors). BUT the active calories is WAY down from yesterday. My calories to eat are only like 200 calories apart between Fitbit and MFP, which is the way it always used to be. I swear, I think the Garmin knew I was checking up on it. Seriously, though, what a difference a day makes:

Yesterday, 11555 steps. 1-mile treadmill run for 88 calories and 30 some minutes of circuit training for 244. The remainder of the active calories, however, ended up with a daily total of 1118.

Today, 13656 total steps. 3.4-mile walk for 334 calories. Total active calories 420. Yeah, that's a HUGE difference. And I've not sat down all day long. I've cleaned, cooked, done laundry, shopped, etc. So I can only assume that either the change in level of activity and/or something new in the algorithm is responsible. Going to wear the Fitbit again tomorrow too and see if they sync up.

Not sure what's responsible, but hope it holds!!!

MichaelJSwann

Your activity setting in Garmin Connect is based on the average hours per week you have spent exercising for the current week and the three weeks prior. Level 8 means you've averaged 7 to 11 hours per week. I am level 7, 3 to 7 hours per week.

laureltn

Well, that's the only difference I made -- changing the level -- so unless Garmin did something on their end, anybody who's getting way too many exercise calories may want to try changing it. Worked for me. I actually ended up behind Fitbit by bedtime, which never happens, so I moved it to 7 from 8 for today and will see what it does. I walk the dog almost every day, 3 to 5 miles, and then do strength every other and try to run at least 3 miles a couple times a week (more in the summer). It adds up to easily 11+ hours a week, most weeks.

Gimsteinn

Mine did that at the start as well... I just didn't listen to it. With time the "active" calorie burn decreased and it levelled out.

laureltn

That's good news. Mine was great in the beginning, though. I'm not sure if the firmware update changed something or what. But yeah, I've done this MFP thing for several years so I pretty much know what I need to eat and what I don't for losing. It's trickier when I get to maintenance for me, which hopefully will be in a few months. Thanks!