Significantly smaller heartrate and calories in Run activity, lately

don Vickers

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Mar 6, 2015
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I have been happily using my Microsoft Band since The Beginning, which is of course 17-Nov-2014 or so. I track my activities mostly using the Run activity and my most common activity is to row about 7.8 miles every day. The update about a week ago was nice and I now use the Bike activity when I bike but continue to use the Run activity when I row.

I have noticed that the Run activity has been drastically under reported heartrate and calories in the past week or so. The normal heartrate has been consistently around 120 BPM with a max of approximately 150. The calories normally are approximately 900. In the last week or so the calories have as little as 131 and the average heartrate in the low 80s.

I always the Band at the exact same position and tightness so I don?t believe there is any slippage or other positional issues.

I note that when I use the Bike activity the heartrate and calories are actually higher than normal.

Since the Bike activity does report a high heartrate and corresponding higher calorie burn it seems that the hardware is working fine but it seems that the Run application may have changed in the update of a week or so ago. My Band is at 10.2.2612.0 09 R.

Has anyone else noticed a change in the behavior of the Run activity? Could this be a hardware issue?
 

DroidUser42

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Nov 7, 2014
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I suspect there was a tweak to the HR monitoring. I was on en elliptical last night and while my hand was on a stationary bar, the HR was all over the place. But when I let my arm dangle down, it seem to pick up the HR much better. My theory is that it's designed for walking/running - so it's looking for "step" motion and trying to cancel out changes in blood flow due to steps. With my hand on the bar, it can't figure out my motion. But when I let my arm dangle, it can.

You might want to switch to using "exercise" for rowing.
 

ncharlt

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Nov 13, 2012
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I'm really annoyed by the latest update. HRM remains fine for me - after a workout, the average and peak HR reported by the band is always within 1 or 2 beats of my polar chest strap. Values during the workout are less accurate. The biggest issue I have is with the calorie counter.

I track my caloric intake and my weight VERY accurately - and have done so for a long time. My weight has been stable over this time and the calories expended as reported by the band have always closely matched the calorie intake (always within a few tens of calories). Since the update, the calorie burn is consistently under-reported by the band to the tune of about 350 calories. As I said, my intake and weight are very accurately tracked and the band is simply underestimating by about 350 calories a day.

Why on earth would someone update a system to be less accurate than the previous version? The main reason I've stuck with the band was its accurate calorie count. If that no longer exists, I might as well try something else.

If something else is happening here that I'm unaware of, why can't MS communicate effectively to explain what it is and the thinking behind it?

Disappointed
 

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