Garmin and negative adjustments - I think it's gone wonky

VintageFeline
VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I've tried looking on the Garmin forums and it seems there is an issue with adjustments I'm just not sure how much of an issue.

I had negative adjustments turned off for a while as I just lowered my calorie goal manually to 100 per day lower to allow for logging and exercise inaccuracies. Then this week I have upped my daily activity quite a lot (adding on some time on one of those mini stepper things in addition to my Fitness Blender workouts) and thought I'd turn it back on and see what happens. I left my calorie goal adjusted.

Well, before if I sat on my backside all day aside from exercise it would only take maybe 50 calories from me. As of this week, it's taking anything up to 150 calories a day off me. As a female that's quite a lot. When added to my manual 100 downward adjustment that 250 per day potentially. I have always found my burns to be accurate enough so I might be undereating with that adjustment.

So now I'm having a dilemma. Should I just turn off negative adjustments or put my calorie goal back to normal or both? It's set to sedentary FYI because outside of exercise I very much am sedentary.

I'm probably overthinking this but waiting 6-8 weeks to see what the trend is to know if I'm losing too quickly is just too long (I need that long because I lose in fits and starts on the scale).

Replies

  • LaReineDesPixels
    LaReineDesPixels Posts: 105 Member
    I am using the Garmin as well. So far I am losing the extra lbs while using it but I always wondered about the calorie adjustments. For me it was more the exercise, when I go to the gym it tells me the calories burned beforehand and it makes the adjustments entering that I've been on the treadmill or something like that. Sometimes I wonder if that is WAY off! I believe if you consume much more than the steps calculated there will be no negative adjustment..

    Its a little weird I would like to find out more as well.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    My exercise has always been pretty spot on, I use a chest strap, Vivoactive and GymTimer. So the adjustments generally are totally fine for me (I have 440+ days logged so plenty of data).

    But they changed how they arrive at their calorie goals before purposeful exercise this year and from what I am gather that's causing issues but I can't find anyone with my exact question on the negative adjustments and if they're fair or excessive.
  • G8rRay
    G8rRay Posts: 89 Member
    I use Garmin vivosmart HR+ for activity tracking and Garmin FR 620 for endurance running. I was using negative adjustments before getting the vivosmart and MFP seemed to be adjusting as I had expected. But, recently, per my FR 620, I burned about 900 Calories from a run and MFP showed that I had a negative adjustment; i.e., in MFP I have daily Calories set to 1600, sedentary (because, other than running workouts, I'm sedentary) and the negative adjustment indicated that MFP calculated between 1400 C and 1500 C!

    After the second time that week that MFP adjusted my intake for the day at less than just sitting (when I was actually running for 70 to 90+ minutes), I turned off the negative adjustment feature in MFP. Life is good, again. :smile:
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    Garmin (I have a Vivoactive with chest strap) syncs, but the negative adjustments were nuts when I chose Garmin as my daily step tracker. I now use my phone, even though my phone is typically 4000-5000 less than my Garmin because I don't have my phone on me all the time when I run around my office.

    It was taking hundreds of calories away when I used Garmin as my daily step tracker, no matter what kind of exercise I did or didn't do or how many steps. I sync the activities. And when I add yoga to MFP, it syncs back to Garmin. But I now use iPhone as my step tracker. All is well. :blush:
  • rosecropper
    rosecropper Posts: 340 Member
    I just turned off the negative adjustment in garmin. After a 60 mile bike ride & hour of other exercise on Friday, garmin tried to deduct over 500 calories from the burn calculated by mfp because it didn't think I got in all my steps for the day!
    Pretty much every day, garmin records my CICO differently that mfp. I would end a day under net calorie goal according to mfp, then wake up the next morning with a negative correction from garmin that pushed me over my net daily goal. Grrr! :#
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Okay, I feel all vindicated now! I have turned off negative adjustments.

    It has always been a little different with the calorie goals but it was never this out of sync. It seems the change in their calorie calculations is causing a headache for everyone (there's some threads about it on their own forums).

    Cheers all!
  • singletrackmtbr
    singletrackmtbr Posts: 644 Member
    Unfortunately Garmin doesn't care. This issue started way back in May. Despite all the complaints they haven't fixed it or commented on it.
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