Data nerdery! I bought my first smart/sportwatch

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Replies

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    I'm still going strong with my old Moto360 (Gen 2) and don't mind the data output (I use that data instead of MFP's calculations for the CO in CICO). However, this Garmin vívoactive 4 looks like a potential next move.

    Keep keeping us posted 🤓

    I kind of suspect that Garmin might release a VA 5 in the third quarter as the VA 4 was release in the Q3 of 2019. If not urgent it might be worth waiting it out. I bought mine just because of Fitbit to be honest :D
    Still a few things to get to use with. I went for a walk today to test the exercise tracking, and somehow seem to have started a cycling activity. Oops. Thanks to that I won't get my steps for today.

    I turned off auto-workouts so there would be no guessing and dealing with it later.

    But it doesn't count the steps if it thinks it was cycling?

    What if you correct that later online, or perhaps on device, to correct type of workout?
    Do daily steps increase?

    I know the steps from my VF3 still count toward the day, even though I'll sync in a FR310XT bike ride for chunk of time that has tons of steps. Calories will be replaced, but steps and distance walked not touched.

    But that could be the difference for another Garmin device sync.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    edited February 2021
    heybales wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    I'm still going strong with my old Moto360 (Gen 2) and don't mind the data output (I use that data instead of MFP's calculations for the CO in CICO). However, this Garmin vívoactive 4 looks like a potential next move.

    Keep keeping us posted 🤓

    I kind of suspect that Garmin might release a VA 5 in the third quarter as the VA 4 was release in the Q3 of 2019. If not urgent it might be worth waiting it out. I bought mine just because of Fitbit to be honest :D
    Still a few things to get to use with. I went for a walk today to test the exercise tracking, and somehow seem to have started a cycling activity. Oops. Thanks to that I won't get my steps for today.

    I turned off auto-workouts so there would be no guessing and dealing with it later.

    But it doesn't count the steps if it thinks it was cycling?

    What if you correct that later online, or perhaps on device, to correct type of workout?
    Do daily steps increase?

    I know the steps from my VF3 still count toward the day, even though I'll sync in a FR310XT bike ride for chunk of time that has tons of steps. Calories will be replaced, but steps and distance walked not touched.

    But that could be the difference for another Garmin device sync.

    You can't add steps later. The explanation I found is that some health providers in the US and Canada use those devices to track the activity of their insured (YIKES!) and if you can fake steps you defraud your insurance (YIKES!).

    With regards to the body battery and stress thing: For me it seems to work quite well. Of course not in the sense of: oh noes, I'm a 50/23 whatever, but as a trend it might be useful. The breathe tracking is spot on during daytime. So I guess this feeds back into body battery/stress.
    One good thing I noticed: Compared to Fitbit the running calories are rather good for me. I got 192 calories for 3km running. I would have used a slightly lower number, but a) I don't know whether this is gross or net, and b) Fitbit would have given me 250 or so. And the overall calories fit quite well for me as well, something that Fitbit never managed. But of course that's very individual, and other people might find Fitbit a better fit.

    One thing I like less is the Intensity Minutes. I mean, I get a freaking multiplyer for pretty much everything. I don't know whether intense exercise minutes count more than just exercise minutes for health, but ... Need to see if I can change the settings.. maybe to intense = HR > 200 :D
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    You said because it auto-logged a cycling activity the steps didn't count.

    You can't delete that activity and have steps remain?
    Or reclassify the workout as walking and the steps remain?
    I reclassify a synced in workout often. Can do it through web account at least.

    That's not manually adding a workout later. That does cause flakiness in general - in those cases I'd like to do like Fitbit allows - tell it the chunk of time - let it use all the stats it already had, nothing new entered.

    And Fitbit did the same thing for manual workouts, because of challenges, not insurance.
    If you manually added a distance, it backtracked the steps based on stride-length setting - it still does.
    But those no longer can count towards challenges and other things.
    Because yes, people entered big distance, small stride-length, and got big step counts in challenges. So sad.
    So they cheat other ways now.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,034 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    I'm still going strong with my old Moto360 (Gen 2) and don't mind the data output (I use that data instead of MFP's calculations for the CO in CICO). However, this Garmin vívoactive 4 looks like a potential next move.

    Keep keeping us posted 🤓

    I kind of suspect that Garmin might release a VA 5 in the third quarter as the VA 4 was release in the Q3 of 2019. If not urgent it might be worth waiting it out. I bought mine just because of Fitbit to be honest :D
    Still a few things to get to use with. I went for a walk today to test the exercise tracking, and somehow seem to have started a cycling activity. Oops. Thanks to that I won't get my steps for today.

    I turned off auto-workouts so there would be no guessing and dealing with it later.

    But it doesn't count the steps if it thinks it was cycling?

    What if you correct that later online, or perhaps on device, to correct type of workout?
    Do daily steps increase?

    I know the steps from my VF3 still count toward the day, even though I'll sync in a FR310XT bike ride for chunk of time that has tons of steps. Calories will be replaced, but steps and distance walked not touched.

    But that could be the difference for another Garmin device sync.

    One good thing I noticed: Compared to Fitbit the running calories are rather good for me. I got 192 calories for 3km running. I would have used a slightly lower number, but a) I don't know whether this is gross or net, and b) Fitbit would have given me 250 or so. And the overall calories fit quite well for me as well, something that Fitbit never managed. But of course that's very individual, and other people might find Fitbit a better fit.

    One thing I like less is the Intensity Minutes. I mean, I get a freaking multiplyer for pretty much everything. I don't know whether intense exercise minutes count more than just exercise minutes for health, but ... Need to see if I can change the settings.. maybe to intense = HR > 200 :D

    The burns you see for exercise are gross burns, so with a fully synced device you'll see a lower increase of your calorie intake than that burn: the BMR calories included in the exercise burn are taken away again in the calorie adjustment (to avoid double counting).

    As for intensity minutes, I think you can change both your max heart rate and heart rate zones (but I don't know if changing the zones will change how many active minutes you 'collect').
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Not sure if they still do it - but the running calories used to use a ratio of calculated based on distance & mass which can be very accurate, except elevation changes, and HR-based.
    So it really was a pretty good estimate.
    Now that was using a Forerunner too though, with Firstbeat and HR-strap.
    Never know how those things change to different device usage.

  • SuzanneC1l9zz
    SuzanneC1l9zz Posts: 451 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    I'm still going strong with my old Moto360 (Gen 2) and don't mind the data output (I use that data instead of MFP's calculations for the CO in CICO). However, this Garmin vívoactive 4 looks like a potential next move.

    Keep keeping us posted 🤓

    I kind of suspect that Garmin might release a VA 5 in the third quarter as the VA 4 was release in the Q3 of 2019. If not urgent it might be worth waiting it out. I bought mine just because of Fitbit to be honest :D
    Still a few things to get to use with. I went for a walk today to test the exercise tracking, and somehow seem to have started a cycling activity. Oops. Thanks to that I won't get my steps for today.

    I turned off auto-workouts so there would be no guessing and dealing with it later.

    But it doesn't count the steps if it thinks it was cycling?

    What if you correct that later online, or perhaps on device, to correct type of workout?
    Do daily steps increase?

    I know the steps from my VF3 still count toward the day, even though I'll sync in a FR310XT bike ride for chunk of time that has tons of steps. Calories will be replaced, but steps and distance walked not touched.

    But that could be the difference for another Garmin device sync.

    One good thing I noticed: Compared to Fitbit the running calories are rather good for me. I got 192 calories for 3km running. I would have used a slightly lower number, but a) I don't know whether this is gross or net, and b) Fitbit would have given me 250 or so. And the overall calories fit quite well for me as well, something that Fitbit never managed. But of course that's very individual, and other people might find Fitbit a better fit.

    One thing I like less is the Intensity Minutes. I mean, I get a freaking multiplyer for pretty much everything. I don't know whether intense exercise minutes count more than just exercise minutes for health, but ... Need to see if I can change the settings.. maybe to intense = HR > 200 :D
    As for intensity minutes, I think you can change both your max heart rate and heart rate zones (but I don't know if changing the zones will change how many active minutes you 'collect').

    Yes you can change max heart rate and zones. I have to because I'm on a med that lowers my heart rate quite a bit. Intensity minutes are calculated as moderate = zone 3 and intense is anything 4+ so changing the max and zones changes how it records those too.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    I'm still going strong with my old Moto360 (Gen 2) and don't mind the data output (I use that data instead of MFP's calculations for the CO in CICO). However, this Garmin vívoactive 4 looks like a potential next move.

    Keep keeping us posted 🤓

    I kind of suspect that Garmin might release a VA 5 in the third quarter as the VA 4 was release in the Q3 of 2019. If not urgent it might be worth waiting it out. I bought mine just because of Fitbit to be honest :D
    Still a few things to get to use with. I went for a walk today to test the exercise tracking, and somehow seem to have started a cycling activity. Oops. Thanks to that I won't get my steps for today.

    I turned off auto-workouts so there would be no guessing and dealing with it later.

    But it doesn't count the steps if it thinks it was cycling?

    What if you correct that later online, or perhaps on device, to correct type of workout?
    Do daily steps increase?

    I know the steps from my VF3 still count toward the day, even though I'll sync in a FR310XT bike ride for chunk of time that has tons of steps. Calories will be replaced, but steps and distance walked not touched.

    But that could be the difference for another Garmin device sync.

    One good thing I noticed: Compared to Fitbit the running calories are rather good for me. I got 192 calories for 3km running. I would have used a slightly lower number, but a) I don't know whether this is gross or net, and b) Fitbit would have given me 250 or so. And the overall calories fit quite well for me as well, something that Fitbit never managed. But of course that's very individual, and other people might find Fitbit a better fit.

    One thing I like less is the Intensity Minutes. I mean, I get a freaking multiplyer for pretty much everything. I don't know whether intense exercise minutes count more than just exercise minutes for health, but ... Need to see if I can change the settings.. maybe to intense = HR > 200 :D

    The burns you see for exercise are gross burns, so with a fully synced device you'll see a lower increase of your calorie intake than that burn: the BMR calories included in the exercise burn are taken away again in the calorie adjustment (to avoid double counting).

    As for intensity minutes, I think you can change both your max heart rate and heart rate zones (but I don't know if changing the zones will change how many active minutes you 'collect').

    I can change the impact on intensity minutes somewhere and tie it to s hr zone. Just can’t find the settings anymore: no synced fecive. It’s just for peace of mind.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Ah, looks like there's is some kind of learning algorithm involved in sleep tracking. The watch now manages to recognize me waking up instead of insisting my lazy surfing the net after waking up is still sleep. And it seems to recognise me waking up at night much better. It got both moments last night where I woke up for reason. Duration is not quite there, but overall this is pretty good.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Ok, that is.. interesting! I had to go to the dentist today to get a huuuge, really old filling removed that had cracked and replaced by a new one (so odd to not have a silver filling anymore!). I hate dentists, and my tendency with things like dentists that I breathe very slowly, or not at all. Don't ask. Anyway, the assistant told me afterwards she thought I first had an odd reaction to the anesthesiac because I was only breathing like 7-8x per minute. I checked the garmin app afterwards: yep, 8-9 breaths per minute. That IS pretty good. So that's some interesting verification that it's kind of reliable.
  • thelastnightingale
    thelastnightingale Posts: 725 Member
    In my experience...

    A Fitbit tracks sleep more accurately. It will pick up my actual sleep at night, together with any random daytime naps.

    A Garmin only tracks sleep accurately overnight, and cannot cope with you having broken sleep and/or napping during the day. It can also assume you're asleep if you're just being very still/chilled out.

    The body battery feature on the Garmin for me is hugely accurate, which I find frustrating because I can't seem to get my body battery up and to stay up!

    I personally find the calorie burn on the Fitbit to be more accurate.

    Fitbit customer service is better. Over the years, they've given me two free replacements (including an upgrade) and paid for shipping. I've had my money's worth. Garmin goes down more often and has more sync issues.

    I like the Fitbit for everyday use, but the Garmin for running.

    I think I'd recommend Garmin to someone who was into their running or biking, but Fitbit to anyone more interested in monitoring their sleeping patterns and counting steps.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    That is pretty good using HRV on an optical HR method.

    Now, how well does it ramp up with either HR or breathing increasing?
    Can you watch a scary movie tonight and report back? ;-)
  • MissBraeBee
    MissBraeBee Posts: 40 Member
    In my experience...

    A Fitbit tracks sleep more accurately. It will pick up my actual sleep at night, together with any random daytime naps.

    A Garmin only tracks sleep accurately overnight, and cannot cope with you having broken sleep and/or napping during the day. It can also assume you're asleep if you're just being very still/chilled out.

    The body battery feature on the Garmin for me is hugely accurate, which I find frustrating because I can't seem to get my body battery up and to stay up!

    I personally find the calorie burn on the Fitbit to be more accurate.

    Fitbit customer service is better. Over the years, they've given me two free replacements (including an upgrade) and paid for shipping. I've had my money's worth. Garmin goes down more often and has more sync issues.

    I like the Fitbit for everyday use, but the Garmin for running.

    I think I'd recommend Garmin to someone who was into their running or biking, but Fitbit to anyone more interested in monitoring their sleeping patterns and counting steps.

    What fitbit do you have? I was checking out the versa 2!

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    That is pretty good using HRV on an optical HR method.

    Now, how well does it ramp up with either HR or breathing increasing?
    Can you watch a scary movie tonight and report back? ;-)

    I just had a job interview. Interestingly, the variation range has gotten pretty much absent during the interview and now I'm back to my bigger range. It totally fits the timing of those 92 minutes. That's some scary *kitten*! I don't think I need a scary movie for tonight :D

    But yeah, whatever I write here: some device will always be good for some people, another one for someone else. And some people don't get good data out of anything. There's the Dutch saying: Meten is weten (measuring means knowledge), but there's also the German Wer viel misst misst mist (he who measures a lot measures *kitten*) so.. with these words I leave you to it and go for a run. :D