Linking to Garmin Connect (double counting calories)

bmg3ef6drs66.jpg

You get up early in the morning and take an easy jog. Garmin estimates the calories (362kcals) but, somewhere between Garmin and MFP, another 46kcals are added in for your steps. But, these steps were almost all due to the jog, so this is pretty much BS.

I can tell you that by end of day there will be additional kcals for incidental steps. I generally don't eat them.

Replies

  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    I find this extra calories diminish throughout the day as it estimates your activity based on your morning steps. Mine including those extras have been pretty spot on since I have been letting Garmin track all my activity. I have neg calories enables and I am currently set to sedentary. My activity level is closer to lightly active, but I found the neg calorie adjustment to be a real head game so I picked something that would always adjust up.

    So yes the projection at that moment may be wrong by IME it has been super accurate by end of day.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    edited September 2019
    That’s not how it works.

    The “steps” adjustment has nothing to do with steps. That’s just the line on the entry. If you click on that “steps” entry and then click again-it will bring you to a screen that shows the actual calculation.

    How it works is that Garmin connect sends mfp your total calories burned for the day. If the day isn’t yet over, it estimates how many calories you’ll burn for the day. You can see both of these numbers by clicking as mentioned above.

    Mfp takes the Total calories burned that it gets from Garmin connect, then subtracts out what it expects you to burn For your activity setting plus any workouts logged on mfp (anything you logged manually or anything that transferred from Garmin connect).

    The difference Between those is your Garmin connect adjustment - which is the number displayed on your “steps” line.

    What the 46 calories means is that Garmin is estimating that your total overall calorie burn for the day is going to exceed whatever mfp thinks you’ll burn (for your activity setting plus workouts) by 46. It has nothing to do with steps at all.


    The whole idea of linking the tracker is to take the guesswork out of determining your actual “life” activity level. Workouts are generally pretty easy to estimate (within reason), but are you active? Lightly active? Sedentary? What about the days that are not your norm? What about those days you garden for 6 hours? Or chase the kids more than usual? The idea is that the tracker is handling that for you. Of course it’s accumulating calories for incidental activity-that’s sort of the whole point.
  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    I mean, you say you don't eat them, but 46 calories is pretty negligible for most people anyway. Sure it adds up over time I guess, but honestly, 90% of people are not going to be hugely influenced by such a small thing. It's hardly worth worrying about one way or the other.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,515 Member
    The 46 was added in just after the run. I hadn't done anything else! Now it's up to 146.

    Here's a few other days (workout + incidental):

    Mon: 0 + 407 (normal work day)
    Tues: 358 + 475 (jogged in the morning, not much else)
    Wed: 484 + 466 (jogged in the morning, not much else)
    Thurs: 359 + 614 (jogged in the morning, not much else)
    Fri: 473 + 183 (swam at lunch, not much else)
    Sat: 0 + 776 (went kayaking)
    Sun: 367 + 1002 (jogged in the morning, then mowed the lawn, you'd think I hiked up Mt Washington!)
    Mon: 0 + 778 (a bit more yard work)

    Note that MFP estimates my daily calorie needs as ~2000kcals. If I added all the calories Garmin wanted me to eat, I'd be a blimp!