Question about Garmin Vivofit.

thinthought
thinthought Posts: 99 Member
edited November 9 in Health and Weight Loss
So when I use my garmin vivofit it tracks my steps and when i load onto my garmin connect ap it shows for example 5000 steps and then below "1900 calories" which I assume means those 5000 steps has burned those 1900 calories. But on my watch it is showing only 940 calories burned. Can anyone explain why that is? Why does the watch now register the same burn as the ap registers. I have synced the two which is how my app knows I did the walking… I can't find the answer elsewhere online.

Replies

  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    I just got the vivofit for Christmas and I believe this is because Garmin, unlike MFP actually shows how many calories you've burned for the whole day. MFP and fitbit count down to tell you what you have left, Garmin does the opposite. If it says 1900 calories then that is what you burned with your 5,000 steps and being alive. I heard there is a problem with Vivofit syncing with MFP right now since the last website change. They aren't actually syncing to each other right now.
  • Arden252
    Arden252 Posts: 7 Member
    My Vivofit is syncing with MFP ok, but something very strange is happening when the data is fed into the Fitbit app which you are supposed to be able to use.
    But the relationship between steps and calories burned seems really erratic as you can see from the figures below:
    17 Dec - 8311 steps = 1754 cals
    19 Dec - 7710 steps = 1633 cals
    22 dec - 8544 steps = 1654 cals
    25 dec - 8746 steps = 1650 cals
    26 dec - 4815 steps = 1582 cals
    28 dec - 10314 steps = 1689 cals
    As I'm fairly sure I was a lot more active today than on the 17th (and that I'm about 4 lbs heavier after Xmas so should burn more calories!) the fact that 8311 steps seems to burn 65 more calories than 10314 steps doesn't make a lot of sense to me...

    To add to the confusion, the Fitbit dashboard has been saying I've used around 1760 cals per day throughout - even on days when I only did around 5000 steps. But yesterday when I had time to do over 10,000 steps it only registered that I burnt 1339 cals!!! meanwhile the calorie chart seems to be suggesting I should need 2089 cals per day. None of it makes sense to me...
  • Chenoachem
    Chenoachem Posts: 1,758 Member
    I don't know if you have seen this yet but it might be helpful:

    https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?77121-vivofit-calories-way-off

  • lalepepper
    lalepepper Posts: 447 Member
    edited December 2014
    While I certainly can't explain the calorie discrepancies, I can explain why you're getting such high "burn" numbers. The Vivofit takes in to account the amount of calories you burn just living, called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), in addition to any activity. That explains why you're getting 1,900 calories - you didn't burn 1,900 calories just walking, but 1,900 combined between your walking and just living.

    The app can also be a bit confusing - if you're looking at your calorie budget, it will tell you how many calories you can eat for the day and still reach your goals. However, your watch tells you in real time how many calories you've burned at that point in the day. If you were to look at that number at midnight, it would be 0, but would slowly increase every minute, even if you stay perfectly still. IIRC, calorie counts for activities don't show up with that number until you've synced.

    As for differences even when your steps are lower than other days, it's possible the Vivofit accounts for the pace you're walking. Of course walking at 4 MPH will burn more calories per mile than walking 2.5 MPH. I haven't synced my Vivofit in about a month, but didn't experience any glaring inconsistencies in the 8 months I used it every day. Like any calorie counting tool, all it can do is make an educated guess.
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