Garmin steps issue

maryjaquiss
maryjaquiss Posts: 307 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I’m having an issue with calorie adjustment for steps with Garmin. The number seems to be totally random (see pics). Is MFP doing something clever or has it just gone haywire?bekbkux6an1n.png
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Replies

  • maryjaquiss
    maryjaquiss Posts: 307 Member
    Just to add, this is the only calorie adjustment - I’m not logging any additional exercise.
  • Clairin
    Clairin Posts: 95 Member
    I use the garmin hr+ . Any replies to do with the garmin & mfp Im interested. Thanks for posting.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    The screen shots you gave aren't actually the ones that can be used to discern anything.

    Tap and hold on that Adjustment and get pic of the details behind the math.

    And while looking and if the time of sync is recent - confirm the Garmin system says that really is about the same daily burn.
    Mention that too.

    And you can go back and view past days.
    On those days time of last sync should be 11:59pm.
    And daily total should match what Garmin said the daily burn was.

  • APPYMAMA22
    APPYMAMA22 Posts: 11 Member
    I'm having a similar issue w/syncing w/my Vivosmart 4 (which I LOVE, btw). MFP is always off (and significantly below) my generic burn. I haven't tried comparing it after the day is over. But it's just never right in the moment. It does pick up the clocked activities though. Since I don't tend to eat my calories back, I'm fine with it being wrong about the generic burn. But it is kind of annoying.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,108 Member
    Your Garmin probably calculates your calorie burn based on your activity throughout the day, not only the number of steps you take. So if you take a bit more steps, but the rest of the time you lounge, you might get a lower calorie burn than taking a bit fewer steps but being more active throughout the day.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    APPYMAMA22 wrote: »
    I'm having a similar issue w/syncing w/my Vivosmart 4 (which I LOVE, btw). MFP is always off (and significantly below) my generic burn. I haven't tried comparing it after the day is over. But it's just never right in the moment. It does pick up the clocked activities though. Since I don't tend to eat my calories back, I'm fine with it being wrong about the generic burn. But it is kind of annoying.

    3rd party accounts only sync when current daily calories is 100 higher than last sync.
    So it will only match exactly 20 - 24 times a day depending on your daily burn obviously.

    What do you mean my generic burn, I know that's not a field name - you mean daily burn?

    So why are you wearing a device that can see all your activity and have a better daily burn estimate - but not allow MFP to correct itself to it and adjust your eating level?

    MFP and the devices are trying to teach a life lesson regarding weight management most people fail to understand.
    You do more you eat more.
    You do less you eat less.

    In a diet to lose fat a tad less in either case. Unreasonable amount less include some muscle mass in there too.
  • Inspirationalwaterjug
    Inspirationalwaterjug Posts: 384 Member
    Sometimes mine will double sync and triple sync. So it’ll say I burned like 7800 calories in a day
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    heytimsla wrote: »
    Sometimes mine will double sync and triple sync. So it’ll say I burned like 7800 calories in a day

    It syncs constantly, as I mentioned in my most, 20-24 times daily, or more.

    You manually logging workouts in MFP?

    What is the "it'll say" - Fitbit or MFP?

    You looked at the exercise diary and the details as prior post mentioned?
  • Inspirationalwaterjug
    Inspirationalwaterjug Posts: 384 Member
    It’s usually just multi sport days. It can’t distinguish between a triathlon and all three events separately sometimes so till put one miltisport in then each leg separately
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    heytimsla wrote: »
    It’s usually just multi sport days. It can’t distinguish between a triathlon and all three events separately sometimes so till put one miltisport in then each leg separately

    So Garmin is sending 4 workouts?

    Yes, that would be a problem.
    Because the time stamp for start/duration is really only important for workouts going out from MFP to tracker accounts so they don't double up things.
    MFP doesn't use the time stamp for it's calculations - double workouts same time/duration will get doubled, and then the tracker will handle it correctly.

    Garmin has had issues in the past where it did send the same workout multiple times though, not the specific case you mentioned.
    I guess during a race it would include the transitions in there too.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    Your Garmin adjustment is based on the number of calories you burn - not the number of steps you take. Even if you managed to take exactly the same number of steps on two different days, you’ll very likely burn a different number of calories (faster be slower movements for example).

    So the adjustment isn’t random. You’ve burned a different number of calories on each day and your adjustment is reflecting that. These step counts aren’t very different and a difference of 100-ish calories over all the movements you make in a day really isn’t all that crazy.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,393 Member
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    Your Garmin adjustment is based on the number of calories you burn - not the number of steps you take. Even if you managed to take exactly the same number of steps on two different days, you’ll very likely burn a different number of calories (faster be slower movements for example).

    So the adjustment isn’t random. You’ve burned a different number of calories on each day and your adjustment is reflecting that. These step counts aren’t very different and a difference of 100-ish calories over all the movements you make in a day really isn’t all that crazy.

    Yup. I had about 1000+ steps less today than yesterday but got a couple hundred MORE calories. Why? I spent 4 hrs deep cleaning my kitchen, which didn't yield alot of steps but was a *kitten* ton of work.

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