Fitness watches/ trackers

[stampsx2]

^^^ this sounds great. I wish it wasn’t $40/month. I’d love to know more about my sleep and when the whoop strap considers me recovered from training at the gym.

I have a hard time believing people in Calgary are burning over 8,000 calories. That would seem unrealistic to maintain. I don’t see the body being able to handle that kind of intensity for very long.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

^^^ this sounds great. I wish it wasn’t $40/month. I’d love to know more about my sleep and when the whoop strap considers me recovered from training at the gym.

I have a hard time believing people in Calgary are burning over 8,000 calories. That would seem unrealistic to maintain. I don’t see the body being able to handle that kind of intensity for very long.

Yeah, that seems bonkers. Unless they are running marathons on the regular?

Could be actual athletes too and not regular people. Competitive cyclists, runners, et al could be burning that much on ramp up days.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Yeah, that seems bonkers. Unless they are running marathons on the regular?

Could be actual athletes too and not regular people. Competitive cyclists, runners, et al could be burning that much on ramp up days.

I’ve burned close to 8,000 calories on a race day (long course triathlon). But never that much on a training day.

Edit: that is for the entire day, not just the race.

[Oling_Roachinen]

My last marathon I burnt under 4500 the entire day with the marathon accounting for roughly 2000 of it. I'm not a huge guy and it wasn't the most intense marathon ever but there's pretty much no shot of me burning 8000 in a day.

[Slava]

Lol, yeah I don't know how they managed that. I just posted it for interest sake, but I'll look again later tonight and see what the leaders look like.

[Wastedyouth]

I was just guessing.

I think I have been riding enduro some days, hard core for like 4-5 hours and still I only burned 4300 cals for the whole day.

How you could get to 8k boggles my mind.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Phelps was eating his 12,000+ calories during his training and Bjornsson needs 10,000 to maintain his strength so it's not like a number that is unbelievable but you're talking about the top tier calorie burners in the world getting that.

[Ironhorse]

I think some applications over estimate as well. If I forget to wear my heart rate strap, I've noticed that Garmin Connect will usually be 20-30% higher than if I do. Perhaps it assumes an "average guy" heart rate that is a lot higher than my actual one.

[opendoor]

8K calories is on the high end of what Tour de France riders burn on the longest stages. It's basically doing 5+ hours of effort putting out power that very few people are even capable of for 20 minutes. Or something like 8-10 hours of lower intensity exercise (lower intensity being relative of course, we're still talking 6-700 calories an hour).

Cycling is a good because with a power meter you can precisely measure the watts and multiply that by normal human efficiency (usually 24-25% with outliers on either side) to gauge calories burned. So a Tour de France rider doing 300 watts for 5 hours is about 5,500 calories, plus whatever they burn the rest of the day. 8K is possible, but it's pretty extreme for non-elite athlete. I'd assume that that figure is just an overestimate of a still very extremely strenuous day.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by opendoor

8K calories is on the high end of what Tour de France riders burn on the longest stages. It's basically doing 5+ hours of effort putting out power that very few people are even capable of for 20 minutes. Or something like 8-10 hours of lower intensity exercise (lower intensity being relative of course, we're still talking 6-700 calories an hour).

Cycling is a good because with a power meter you can precisely measure the watts and multiply that by normal human efficiency (usually 24-25% with outliers on either side) to gauge calories burned. So a Tour de France rider doing 300 watts for 5 hours is about 5,500 calories, plus whatever they burn the rest of the day. 8K is possible, but it's pretty extreme for non-elite athlete. I'd assume that that figure is just an overestimate of a still very extremely strenuous day.

Good info! Thanks!

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I think some applications over estimate as well. If I forget to wear my heart rate strap, I've noticed that Garmin Connect will usually be 20-30% higher than if I do. Perhaps it assumes an "average guy" heart rate that is a lot higher than my actual one.

Do you have a wrist based heart rate watch? Everyone cautioned me about these things overestimating but I found very minimal difference between my wrist monitor and my chest monitor.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

Do you have a wrist based heart rate watch? Everyone cautioned me about these things overestimating but I found very minimal difference between my wrist monitor and my chest monitor.

No, I have the Forerunner 920Xt, which does not have wrist based HR. I use the Garmin HRM Tri chest strap to monitor heart rate; it also does run dynamics.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well bearing in mind, I've really only had this for about a week now. But the sleep aspect is really good, both in terms of the tracking and the metrics as far as recovery. I do like that for sure.

I also find that the strain is interesting, and it's just a bit different than other devices. It doesn't measure steps or standing or anything like that. Instead as you do things throughout the day, it figures out how much strain you have put on your body. Then it gives you a goal, after which it says that you're adding to your fitness. It gives you an optimal strain, and bases things off that. It intertwines that with the recovery, which basically depends on how long and the quality of your sleep. I really do like that.

The two things that I also like that I was sure that I would not are the groups and the "journal". The journal is something that you get prompted to do every morning, and it basically tracks whatever you want to track. The list for options there is enormous, and I'm partly just curious to see the correlation between sleep/exercise and some of the things that I'm tracking there (caffeine, for example). The groups are basically endless and I just joined some for pure interest. The groups track differing things and you can see where you rank. I like that because I'm a competitive person and I will try to "win" for sure. I had the lead one day in Calgary, but other people are super active. The Crossfit group has people doing insane things (the leader today has burned 7,910 calories...and I'm basically 13,000th!)

It's not perfect though. For me (iPhone), I have to keep the app open to keep it updating. If you close your apps regularly, (which I do), this can be a bit of an issue. It runs in the background, so it's not a big deal. And if you do close it you'll get a reminder to open it up and update at about the 3 hour mark. And the one other thing is the activity tracking. It senses activity when you are working out, but it doesn't seem to know what you're doing, so you have to open the activity and pick what you did. It's not the biggest issue, because my Apple Watch can't seem to figure out that I'm working out unless I specifically start a workout (one day I did a full F45 class where I normally burn 500-600 calories and forgot to start it, so the watch had me at like 150-200, which is a little questionable!).

Overall, I think it's really good. You can get a lot of data, and if you're interested in that kind of thing it's a great tracker. It takes 30 days for it to be fully calibrated, so I still have a few weeks to get to that point. I don't know if there are specifics that you want to know, or anything like that, but ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

Finally got mine today, pretty excited to integrate it to my life!

[Tron_fdc]

Anyone used the Garmin Fenix 6 Solar?

I've been waiting quite some time to find a watch with all the features of the Fenix that isn't the size of disco ball on your wrist, and has a decent battery life.

I can't stand jewelry on my body, so although I would love to have some shiny piece of bling like an Omega, I would either lose it when I take it off to go skiing/biking etc or smash it when I crash. The Fenix looks like something I could maybe get used to, and is durable enough to handle my carelessness.

Also kind of wondering how well it integrates with my iphone, and runs apps like Strava and Spotify.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Anyone used the Garmin Fenix 6 Solar?

I've been waiting quite some time to find a watch with all the features of the Fenix that isn't the size of disco ball on your wrist, and has a decent battery life.

I can't stand jewelry on my body, so although I would love to have some shiny piece of bling like an Omega, I would either lose it when I take it off to go skiing/biking etc or smash it when I crash. The Fenix looks like something I could maybe get used to, and is durable enough to handle my carelessness.

Also kind of wondering how well it integrates with my iphone, and runs apps like Strava and Spotify.

My Garmin Forerunner 945 is basically the same as a Fenix 6 except it has a plastic housing. The pro is that it's much lighter but the con is it's also less durable. The Fenix series is a total tank of a watch. Regarding integrations, it seamlessly works with Strava, Spotify and others.

[squiggs96]

I had a Whoop strap, but I returned it after the 30 day trial was up. It was good at tracking sleep, but that's about it. The heart rate monitor is nowhere near as accurate as it should be. I wear chest strap HRMs at Orangetheory and while I ride my bike. I spend a lot of time in both places and the output is different. When I was riding on Zwift I would have the Zwift app attached to my chest HRM and I had my iPhone open with the Whoop data. There are many times during a ride that the HR is the same, but Whoop spikes and drops way more. If I am in the normal riding position both HRMs will show 140 bpm. If I sit up on my saddle my Whoop would drop to around 105 bpm. If I put my hands over my head to stretch it would go under 100 bpm. My chest strap would still show me around 140 bpm and might even be a touch higher. The calories from activities are not close. I have hundreds of rides on my bike. Garmin, Zwift, and Strava both have different formulas for calories, but they are usually close. A 90 Zwift ride will normally be in the 720-800 calories range, depending on exertion and sleep levels. Whoop had all of these rides over 1,000 calories. It's just not true.

The data it gives you on your phone isn't the easiest to read. It's okay, but not great. The data on your computer is better, but it doesn't have everything it does in the app, which is frustrating. I don't think it does anything really useful. It shows my HRV while sleeping. My HRV was higher when I drank a bottle of wine in the evening before going to bed. It was lower when I worked out and didn't drink alcohol. That seems pretty intuitive to me. I don't need to wear a strap to tell me that alcohol negatively affects my sleep quality. Whoop also tells me to get 10-11 hours of sleep each day, even if I have done nothing but sit in front of a computer for two days straight.

The biggest thing for me is the HRM isn't accurate. Given that the whole point of Whoop is to track, record, monitor, and project based on your HR, it needs to be better. If all the projections for the future and graphs from the past are from inaccurate data, then they don't mean anything. This is the biggest reason I returned the Whoop strap. If they improved the sensor and allowed me to pair the Whoop with a chest HRM during workouts or partnered with Strava/Garmin/TrainingPeaks to allow their data to overwrite the Whoop data for workouts, I'd like use it again. I don't see any of those three things happening, so this is likely the last I'll use a Whoop.

Whoop focuses only on recovery and strain to generate a target to try and achieve every day, but it doesn't know what you are training for. It just posts data and tells you what condition you are in based on your HRV. It doesn't tell you if you should be lowering or increasing your training based on a competition/goal that you have in mind. My cycling training plans are built to peak during certain races and have increased loads during parts and recovery in other parts. The Whoop has none of this. Whoop will tell you how much strain you should be doing today, with no idea what your schedule is today or tomorrow. If I have a fondo race tomorrow, I'm not going to do a 15 strain day today because Whoop tells me to. It also doesn't give me an idea on what activities I should do in order to get to a 15 strain day. Is it one exercise or three?

[Sainters7]

I just assumed I'd be returning the Samsung Watch 3 I got, but I actually love it! Granted it's my first ever smart watch so I have nothing to compare it to...but I'm digging it anyway. I love the look and the rotating bezel. Plus the fitness tracking.

One issue I'm having though..I turn my phone Bluetooth on to sync with my watch, and I'm noticing when I do that, my phone battery is dying SO fast. To the point I'm having to charge it 2-3 times a day (S10). Anybody else find this? How do you combat it?

EDIT: I looked into it, sounds like this is due to using a Facer app watch face: they're known to drain your phone battery fast (but not your watch) since it uses your phone's app to mirror the watch face to your watch. Just fyi for anyone else having this issue.

Too bad, there's some great faces on there! Guess I'll use em just for the look at certain times and not sync my phone to it those days.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

I had a Whoop strap, but I returned it after the 30 day trial was up. It was good at tracking sleep, but that's about it. The heart rate monitor is nowhere near as accurate as it should be. I wear chest strap HRMs at Orangetheory and while I ride my bike. I spend a lot of time in both places and the output is different. When I was riding on Zwift I would have the Zwift app attached to my chest HRM and I had my iPhone open with the Whoop data. There are many times during a ride that the HR is the same, but Whoop spikes and drops way more. If I am in the normal riding position both HRMs will show 140 bpm. If I sit up on my saddle my Whoop would drop to around 105 bpm. If I put my hands over my head to stretch it would go under 100 bpm. My chest strap would still show me around 140 bpm and might even be a touch higher. The calories from activities are not close. I have hundreds of rides on my bike. Garmin, Zwift, and Strava both have different formulas for calories, but they are usually close. A 90 Zwift ride will normally be in the 720-800 calories range, depending on exertion and sleep levels. Whoop had all of these rides over 1,000 calories. It's just not true.

The data it gives you on your phone isn't the easiest to read. It's okay, but not great. The data on your computer is better, but it doesn't have everything it does in the app, which is frustrating. I don't think it does anything really useful. It shows my HRV while sleeping. My HRV was higher when I drank a bottle of wine in the evening before going to bed. It was lower when I worked out and didn't drink alcohol. That seems pretty intuitive to me. I don't need to wear a strap to tell me that alcohol negatively affects my sleep quality. Whoop also tells me to get 10-11 hours of sleep each day, even if I have done nothing but sit in front of a computer for two days straight.

The biggest thing for me is the HRM isn't accurate. Given that the whole point of Whoop is to track, record, monitor, and project based on your HR, it needs to be better. If all the projections for the future and graphs from the past are from inaccurate data, then they don't mean anything. This is the biggest reason I returned the Whoop strap. If they improved the sensor and allowed me to pair the Whoop with a chest HRM during workouts or partnered with Strava/Garmin/TrainingPeaks to allow their data to overwrite the Whoop data for workouts, I'd like use it again. I don't see any of those three things happening, so this is likely the last I'll use a Whoop.

Whoop focuses only on recovery and strain to generate a target to try and achieve every day, but it doesn't know what you are training for. It just posts data and tells you what condition you are in based on your HRV. It doesn't tell you if you should be lowering or increasing your training based on a competition/goal that you have in mind. My cycling training plans are built to peak during certain races and have increased loads during parts and recovery in other parts. The Whoop has none of this. Whoop will tell you how much strain you should be doing today, with no idea what your schedule is today or tomorrow. If I have a fondo race tomorrow, I'm not going to do a 15 strain day today because Whoop tells me to. It also doesn't give me an idea on what activities I should do in order to get to a 15 strain day. Is it one exercise or three?

I thought I’d come back to this, because my experience has been quite different. I wear an Apple Watch and the heart rates seem quite similar, and if anything I find the watch heart rate is quite a bit higher than the Whoop strap. I do wear a heart rate monitor at the gym, so I’ll have to wait a month (or whatever) and see how it looks.

You can pair a heart rate monitor with the strap though, so I guess you could have both? I haven’t done that, so I don’t know how that would work.

As far as the comments about it not knowing what you train for and when to have you peak, I guess that’s true. I’m not really training for anything in particular and just want to be fit. I can’t see using the “get by” setting, but maybe one day I’ll use the peak and see if it matters. I’m not sure what you mean about the strain and what’s required though. It depends on what you do and how much exertion you have. If I lift weights, it’s a workout, but my heart rate isn’t going to be as high as a ride on a stationary bike. So if I want to get to 15 that day, I probably need to pair that weightlifting with something else. To me that seems sensible.

And in terms of calories, my strap seems extremely accurate. I guess I can’t say for sure (I’m not sure how I could know for sure), but in looking at my daily caloric burn it seems right where I would expect. I wish it was higher, but the workouts seem accurate and about right to me. If anything, when I wear the heart rate monitor at the gym I get what seems insanely high caloric burns. Like a 45 minute cardio session where I burn 600-700 calories seems high. So, one of these measures is wrong, but my money is the heart rate monitor. But I guess I couldn’t say for sure.

[Wastedyouth]

Yeah, I am finding the caloric burn calculations on the whoop to be the lowest of anything I have used.

I use both the whoop right now and my samsung galaxy 2 watch to compare. The heart rates are similar, with the whoop being slightly higher than the samsung.

The calorie counts are similar with the whoop being about 10% lower than the samsungs count.

The measurement for strain is interesting. I have topped out at 14.1 strain in a day once so far in the last week, with my average at below 10.

To get to 14.1 for the whole day I had to:

- 25 minute power strokes workout on the rower
- 70 minutes Taekwondo competition training class.

I expected my strain to be incredibly high after this, but 14.1 is considered only moderate.

This surprised me as I stacked the rowing and TKD workouts back to back and haven't worked out that hard for about 5 years. My heart rate felt elevated (125-155) (and my breathing laboured) for almost 90 straight minutes.

The night before I also had my best recovery (98%) so the workout felt fantastic.

But I was definitely surprised at how low the strain was. And apparently I need to work harder. haha!

I am more interested for the unlocking of the weekly and monthly analytics info to see how and where I can make changes.

Slava, you don't use the "get by" setting?

I use get by for any days I do no intend on training (so tues/thurs/sat) and then perform on my training days and the sleep requirements are dramatically different!

[Slava]

^ I set the default to perform, and use that everyday. But I'm totally with you on the strain. I worked what I thought was hard this morning and it was 13.5. I have no idea how that could get to 21, although I guess that's for a full day. I feel like I work harder in class than I do at home, so maybe I could get that to about 14-15, but I don't know.

The recovery does seem accurate to me as well. I had a night in the last week where I was up too late and had an extra drink or two...not at my best the next day and I think that the recovery was 12% despite a normal amount of sleep. So that was pretty interesting.