Why is the Garmin forerunner 35 so inaccurate?

angela4332

I just bought a Garmin Forerunner 35. So I took 1000 steps and it says I earned 209 calories. That seems very high. I usually get around 13000 steps a day. So at the end of the day it says I have over 1400 calories left to consume. Can anyone please tell me how to insure that I am getting accurate info from this device? I used to have Fitbit Blaze (it quit working after almost 2 years) and it seemed on target and I never worried about over consuming. I have my calorie goal set at 1330, I weigh 146, 5' 3"and am very active. Any help would be aporeciated. I have had the device for 3 days and am already frustrated. I depend on calorie counting as I lost 68 pounds so far when using the fitbit. I have also turned on negative adjustments in MFP. I thought I woukd give the Garmin a try after reading reviews. Thanks guys!

dewd2

The foreruners are designed for runners. They excel at tracking your runs and keeping your training history. I'm not so sure they do well at anything else.

One thing to try is in Garmin Connect under Account Settings, click on User Settings and play with the Activity Class. I had to make adjustments a few times until I finally got something accurate (after several weeks of experience and weigh ins).

MeanderingMammal

dewd2 wrote: »

The foreruners are designed for runners. They excel at tracking your runs and keeping your training history. I'm not so sure they do well at anything else.

The 35 is one of the early integrated GPS and step trackers. It's built around the VivoSmart accelerometer assembly, which I've found was pretty good for step tracking.

The MFP interaction was a bit glitchy when I have the VivoSmart, but seems much better now.

What I would say is that the HR aircraft on the newer devices does seem to lead to elevated estimates. I can't recall offhand of the 35 has an on board Elevate capability.

angela4332

Should the activity class be a higher or lower number? I have it set to 6 now.

Meandering, what is elevate capability and how do I check that?

Thanks both of you for the replies!

MeanderingMammal

Elevate is the Garmin optical HR. It's nothing to do with it being optical, but HR isn't particularly meaningful at low intensities.

deannalfisher

is that 209 cal including your just normal body calorie burn (I dont' know if Garmin factors that into overall or not) - my FITBIT does - so I see steps and I see not only calories from steps, but what my body burned just existing in that time period

angela4332

What it shows is this
1330(starting calories for the day)+209[active]=1539 remaining. That transfers to MFP. Since I have my garmin synced to MFP it shows that as my exercise calories.
So I had taken 1000 steps and boom, i get 209 extra calories. So it increases my remaining calories. If I had only taken 1000 steps with my Fitbit it never even showed calories gained until I was well over 4000 steps.
Maybe it will not ever be accurate and I will just have to not account for steps/walking exercise. But then that defeats the oyrpose of the Garnin.

deannalfisher

the 1330 is probably your BMR base - that is the too survive you need x calories, every breath, movement etc that you take - gives you more calories to burn - so yeah, you could have easily burnt 200 calories in just general movement

your MFP and GARMIN will deconflict each other, but it doesn't happen until the end of the day - when it says your activity in MFP is x, garmin said y - subtract the 2 to get the difference

heybales

Steps equals distance.
Distance and time is pace.
Pace and weight is calorie burn.

If the steps were accurate - was the distance?

It has adjustments to make that more accurate.

And Garmin is sending over not total daily calorie burn like Fitbit was - but rather just the workout calorie burn - if you are describing where the 209 calories is showing.

Are you saying the device or Garmin app says this workout by itself was 209 calories?
Or the adjustment on MFP ends up being 209 calories (which could be increase of daily burn like Fitbit too)?

angela4332

I don't know much about it at all. All I know is in the garmin app it shows 209. That uploads to MFP. And that is what I see in MFP. So everything that shows in the Garnin app show in MFP. My excercises (steps)transfer from Garmin app to MFP. So I am not sure how to get accurate numbers or if they are already accurate. I guess I wont take into account any exercise and just watch calorie intake all day and make sure I do not go over the 1330.

angela4332

Ok as it sits right now.
Here is what Garmin shows
Goal: 1330 calories + 398 active=1728 adjusted goal
Remaining calories=1728-1008 cal. Consumed=720 cal left.

MFP shows this: 1330 calorie goal-1008 calories consumed+218 exercise=540 calories remaining.
Total steps with Garmin: 3651=218 remaining calories
So why the difference in the 2 apps?
Sorry for all the questions, but I do thank you all for helping!!

angela4332

Sorry on that last line it should say 3651 steps= 218 calories added. With remaining calories for the day, 540

dewd2

I see what you are saying now. Sorry for being dense....

I never really paid attention to Garmin's calorie count. I only sync it from MFP for completeness. I just checked mine and it is different. MFP shows I have 683 left while Garmin shows 671.

I would go with MFP for now and if things seem to be off make adjustments. FWIW, even though I'm closer to an 8 or 9 for activity class, I have it set to 5. I also have my activity level at MFP as Sedentary. I came to these settings after a few weeks of tracking. I kept making changes until I started losing as predicted.

jennybearlv

Other Garmin users have made posts about this issue over the past week or so. It only seems to effect HR devices. I think the built in heart rate monitoring is overestimating your calorie burns. Look up your manual and turn of the HR sensor. Let us know if that fixes the problem.

angela4332

Thanks guys, you have all been very helpful! I will try all suggestions!

heybales

So if that 218 for exercise in MFP matches a workout synced from Garmin - then this is different than Fitbit.

Fitbit sends over total daily calorie burn - so in your example MFP would have received the whole 1728.

MFP would take that daily burn minus what it expected you to burn at this point.
If I knew your deficit I'd know what MFP expects you to burn, 1330 + 250 or 500 or 750 or 1000.

It sounds like that difference was 218 unless that was a specific workout.

So MFP did correct itself to the potentially more accurate Garmin (Garmin device sees what you actually do, MFP you told it your activity level from 4 rough choices right or wrong).

You need to go to your Exercise Diary tab for getting the full story and deciding what if anything has gone wrong.
Click on the "i" for the Adjustment and list all the info that is given.
Plus any workouts showing in the list along with the adjustment.

It could merely be that they are both estimating the final daily burn total as different, you do have 1/3 of the day left at the time of that post, almost 8 hrs.
Garmin seems to know about your MFP eating goal, and added on extra activity from something (398 calories) - but that would imply they know what activity level choice you made on MFP.

I'll bet it ends up correct by the end of the day.

Just like Fitbit - you don't want to follow 2 roads to the same destination - aggravating and confusing.
Garmin for all movement related info and goals.
MFP for all food related logging and goals.

Meelisv

My Garmin Fenix 3 estimates around 200 calories per 10 000 step's. Probably takes into account my age and weight too. And number in app an on MFP are identical. However I don't have negative adjustments enabled in MFP, since I have found that it messes with results.

firef1y72

Weird, I find that my Garmin FR35 always gives me far fewer Calories than my Flex 2, somewhere in the region of 500 fewer a day. It also takes the activity level you have set on here in to account in deciding how many Calories you have a day. So if you have very active set on here then it'll give you however many Calories that is to start with and then add your Active Calories to that number. So you might want to play with your activity level on here to work out your starting point each day.
Although technically I'm extremely active, I have mine set at Lightly and it's brought my Garmin number considerably closer to Fitbit. But I've taken 4000 steps so far today and the FR35 has credited me with a massive 30 Calories, it would have given me more had I recorded a walk of 4000 steps, rather than just mooching around.

heybales

Thank you for verifying what it seemed was going on - So Garmin Connect does take the base eating goal.

Once your daily burn based on whatever activity goes above that base eating level, it starts adding on extra calories to eat.

And it still must send a total daily burn over to MFP to do normal math with, hence the reason MFP has an adjustment that is different.

Garmin is figuring out adjustment based on eating goal.

MFP is figuring out adjustment based on estimated daily burn (which the eating goal comes from too).

And the both estimate the rest of the day differently. Actually, Garmin seems to be doing it for that point in time - you have 720 left based on activity up to this point in time.

MFP is estimating rest of the day based on your choices of activity level, then math on what is left 540.

angela4332

So I turned off HR and lowered my activity level down in both MFP and Garmin. And I think that works. At least it does not show an excessively high amount of calories left for the day. So everyone thank you so much for all the helpful advice! You all are great

jennybearlv

angela4332 wrote: »

So I turned off HR and lowered my activity level down in both MFP and Garmin. And I think that works. At least it does not show an excessively high amount of calories left for the day. So everyone thank you so much for all the helpful advice! You all are great

Glad you worked it out. FYI the Garmin activity level doesn't actually do anything. I've been told it is used for some other devices, but not Garmin's activity trackers. Every Garmin I've had underestimates and I have fiddled with those activity numbers plenty of times. Nothing ever happens.

elbon5555

Myfitnesspal has deleted a number of foods that I have added. This is not acceptable. I'm not going to be constantly entering the same foods over and over. Does anyone have a solution?

heybales

elbon5555 wrote: »

Myfitnesspal has deleted a number of foods that I have added. This is not acceptable. I'm not going to be constantly entering the same foods over and over. Does anyone have a solution?

And this has to do with the Garmin FR 35 because ......

I'm probably not going out on a far limb here - if inability to pick the correct Discussion board and start or reply to the correct topic is carried over to using the Food diary - there is probably no problem with foods being deleted - it's a usage issue.