Mileage from Garmin transfers but not calories

[jbachandouris]

The Garmin Connect app syncs my runs to my Apple Watch (although it's always called an outdoor run and I can't change it to indoor), but not my calories.

I ran 3 miles and it recorded 37 calories; not even active calories. The Garmin watch (FR 225) shows I burned over 300 calories.

If I run on the treadmill with both, it doubles my activity time (1 hour instead of 27 minutes).

Apple is replacing my watch for other reasons, but I'm not sure this is a hardware or software issue.

 

[PatrickNSF]

The Garmin Connect app syncs my runs to my Apple Watch (although it's always called an outdoor run and I can't change it to indoor), but not my calories.

This has been happening all summer during the watchOS betas. I think the issue is that Garmin is incorrectly reporting calories to the Health app.

I had the same thing happen today for a run in which I wore both the AW Series 2 and my Garmin.

 

[exxxviii]

The Garmin Connect app syncs my runs to my Apple Watch (although it's always called an outdoor run and I can't change it to indoor), but not my calories.

I ran 3 miles and it recorded 37 calories; not even active calories. The Garmin watch (FR 225) shows I burned over 300 calories.

If I run on the treadmill with both, it doubles my activity time (1 hour instead of 27 minutes).

Apple is replacing my watch for other reasons, but I'm not sure this is a hardware or software issue.

I think it is a design issue. It is awesome to see my Garmin minutes transfer in to the watch. My workout calories from the Garmin appear in Health, but not on the Activity app on the phone and not on the watch. I have not seen the doubling up, because I do not wear my AW much while exercise anymore. I will go back and look for that...

 

[PatrickNSF]

I think it is a design issue. It is awesome to see my Garmin minutes transfer in to the watch. My workout calories from the Garmin appear in Health, but not on the Activity app on the phone and not on the watch. I have not seen the doubling up, because I do not wear my AW much while exercise anymore. I will go back and look for that...

Just checked my Garmin transfers again. Garmin workout calories transfer to Health under "Activity Energy" at 11:59 PM for the day, but the Total Active Energy field in the Garmin Workout show an absurdly low number. Looks like a Garmin/Health app bug to me.

 

[exxxviii]

The root may be that Garmin does not break out active calories from total calories. But, on the surface, it looks like it is doing something. Here is what I see in Health from my workout yesterday. The weird thing in Health is that the calories number in the the "Active Energy" tab is different from the Active Calories in the Workouts tab. (Workout is about 1,000 calories lower.) Neither has Resting Energy, like an AW activity. And even stranger, the numbers in the Activity app do not match anything in Health.

 

[PatrickNSF]

Yeah, it's a but confusing. The Garmin site shows me having 1,094 cals for a run and 248 for daily steps, giving me 1,342 total. It's reporting 1,263 as Active Energy to the Health app. Likewise, it's only reporting 1 calorie as part of Workout in the Health app (which shows up in the Activity app).

 

[exxxviii]

Given this all just began appearing in the betas, I bet they sort it out before the end of October.

 

[PatrickNSF]

Given this all just began appearing in the betas, I bet they sort it out before the end of October.

You're a much more optimistic person than I am!

 

[exxxviii]

My theory is that Apple gave everyone a design spec a while ago when they introduced Health. The Garmins have been sending data according to this spec. Then, when Apple realized that one-way activity data movement is suckish, they began extracting data from Health and shoving it through Activity on the phone to Activity on the AW. In the course of this, Apple probably exposed problems in their original data integration spec with Health, and I would bet anything they did not tell anyone. By now Garmin knows, and has been asking the Apple developers what the heck is going on. As soon as Apple figures out what they did, and Garmin stops laughing, Garmin will update the data transmissions to meet the new spec.

 

[PatrickNSF]

I don't know...given how terrible Garmin firmware is for the first 6 months of every new watch release, I think you're giving them too much credit!

 

[exxxviii]

I have been in the opposite camp. My 735XT has been perfect. And my Edge 520 has been perfect, except for one reboot during a ride that did lose anything. But I have read of the frustrations of others, particularly with the 920 and Fenix 2.