Garmin Index Smart Scale setup and review

Contrary to what my wife may say, I don't have a eating disorder.  

I am interested in keeping my weight stable. I can lose weight pretty easily when running a lot, and can also pack on some pounds when I let my diet go to shit. Lose weight, my clothes don't fit, gain weight, my running slows and my joints start to creak. Over the past decade, I've ranged from a high of about 195 to a low of about 163. Right now, I'm in the 165-170 range for a 72 inch tall guy, which puts me at a very healthy BMI of 22.6. I'd like to stay around this weight.

A scale does help me track my weight - sending a signal if I'm going too far in either direction. A wifi scale is helpful to me --  I bought a Withings scale a few years back and found I was more likely to use it regularly with an online feedback loop in place. The scale flaked out almost a year ago - it didn't seem to work even with new batteries, and I was not interested enough to try and fiddle with it beyond an unsuccessful reset. When it worked, it was fine, but I like the idea of consolidating as much health tracking under one roof to make it easier to follow with one app.  

I pretty much live in the Garmin world -- tracking steps, sleep, intensity minutes, and total activity minutes in one app (I am also a big Strava fan, but that's for my running miles for the most part). So of course, I was very excited to read about the new Garmin smart scale from DC Rainmaker. His mini-review was promising, so I bought immediately from Amazon once it got stocked.  

I'd like to add a few things to Ray's review for those unboxing on Xmas:

- The setup was very easy in terms of connecting to the Garmin app for Android, but a little funky during the part where you connect to your wifi network (you have to do both). The app worked flawlessly, but the scale wasn't communicating with my home wifi network using the standard Verizon router. My network displayed in the menu, I selected it, I pasted my password, and waited for the connection. Even though the scale was feet away from the router, it didn't successfully connect.  I did a manual connection -- entered the SSID (network name) and then entered the password - and this worked.

- Garmin Connect mobile has a two device connection limit, and I have a Vivosmart HR + 920XT with bluetooth on and connected. Once I successfully connected and weighed, I turned off my bluetooth on my 920XT watch so I could connect the scale. This is no big deal for me, but it would be a nice feature to be able to connect three devices at once.  

- The scale is good looking - better so than the Withings scale, and has a nice set of stats, including BMI, body fat, % water, muscle and bone mass. I like the way it displays in Garmin Connect mobile.

- The scale seems to only display your last weigh in during any given day - LIFO (last in first out).

- Garmin says you should not weigh yourself within two hours of eating, drinking, exercising or bathing.  I guess that would rule out my entire day.  

So far, so good.  I'd definitely recommend for data weirdos who like the Garmin family of tracking devices.  


This post would suck without photos.

 Weigh-in (pre-run, with shorts on, to spare all of us any unpleasantries)

Recognizing me as MPB (midpackbiped) 

Shorts-on BMI

Shorts-on body fat %

Percentage water - definitely not dehydrated

Bone mass in pounds (should be 15% of my body weight - about 24 pounds -- but not sure how accurate this is, and I am small boned)

Intensity Minutes - Can you get them from an elliptical (and how does a treadmill run work)?

Yes, and here's how.

I started using the arc trainer elliptical machine at a 15 level resistance, working my way higher in order to keep my HR over 100.  I continually increased the resistance level up to a 25 in order to keep my HR above 110, below 120.  Since I was creating an activity, I wasn't monitoring the Intensity Minutes meter (IMM) during the session.  

Total elliptical time: 30 minutes
Total IMs: 31 minutes 

I was getting near 100% "Moderate" exercise minutes from an "easy" exertion elliptical session, keeping HR 100-120 (max 134) for the entire workout.  

The Strava heart rate chart from the elliptical.  

While on the treadmill earlier in the day, running at an average pace of 10:19 and as fast as an 8:20 minute/mile, keeping my HR above 130 (max 157), I was getting mostly "Vigorous" exercise minutes (22 minutes of vigorous, 13 of moderate exercise).

Total treadmill time: 35 minutes (incl. 3 cool down)

Total IMs: 57 minutes.

The Strava heart rate chart from a treadmill run.  

Please check out my final post on Intensity Minutes and the VHR in general: http://www.midpackgear.com/2016/01/vivosmart-hr-final-wrapup-and-some.html

Intensity Minutes -- Can you get them from treadmill walking?

Yes, and here's how.

I started walking on the treadmill at 3% incline, 3 mph.  A couple of times the Intensity Minutes meter (IMM) started flashing, but it wasn't a sustained flashing.  

I raised the speed to 3.8 mph, at which point the IMM stayed flashing continually, which was at about 20 minutes (my pulse was around 102 at that point).

The meter was running.  After the 30 minute mark, I started reducing the speed (I had earned 10 IMs).  It continued earning IM minutes until the speed was down to 3 mph, at which point the IMM stopped flashing -- around minute 37.

Total walking: 37 minutes
Walking before IMM continuous flashing: 0 to 19 minutes (speed <3.8 mph)
Walking while IMM continuously flashing: 17 minutes (speed = 3.8 mph)
Total IMs: 17 minutes

(the point at which the IMs started counting -- getting cred for the previous 10 minutes where the meter had been continuously flashing)



Please check out my final post on IMs and the VHR in general: http://www.midpackgear.com/2016/01/vivosmart-hr-final-wrapup-and-some.html

Vivosmart HR - resting heart rate

I find my VHR does a remarkably good job of nailing resting heart rate (rhr) day in, day out. 

My resting rate is in the 44-48 range, and usually happens within two hours of waking. I have been fascinated about the jumps during the day.

Sometimes getting up for coffee will result in a jump to over 100. An overnight awakening will show a rate jump to 70 or so. 

It's not a smooth graph. This is from Tuesday. The exercise and sleep periods are pretty clearly marked on the top of the graph.  To the left of the first alarm clock is a sleep period; to the right till the "zzs" is a waking period.

You may be interested in DC Rainmaker's post on rhr.

Vivosmart HR review -- more about Intensity Minutes on an arc trainer and stationary bike

This will be the final IM post for a while.  I'm having problems repeating patterns, which makes me think this is an algorithm issue not an exercising issue.

Today, I did 20 minutes on the arc trainer with an HR above 100 and got 15 minutes on the VHR and 10 minutes on Garmin Mobile and Garmin Connect web.

I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike -- hitting 130 hr -- and got 0.

I'm back to my original post -- this is an interesting metric for Garmin to introduce, but the lack of consistency of earning these minutes with similar time/pace/effort shows its not yet ready for prime time. 

For now, I'll be sticking with the total activity time widget on Garmin Connect web (unfortunately not shown on Garmin Connect mobile) to compare cross-activity exercise.  

(PS: It would be great if Garmin Fitness could make web and mobile consistent with each other, both in terms of metrics and look and feel).

Vivosmart HR review -- intensity minutes on a treadmill walk (0)

More experiential data this am:

Notes -- 

Went for a 40 minute treadmill walk.  
Earned around 4800 steps, 0 intensity minutes.
My HR was bouncing around 80-95, but had one spike (probably inaccurate) to 134 (when I started on the treadmill at a slow speed).
Started around 2.5 mph and worked up to 3.3 by the end, 0 incline with 3% by the end.

The IM meter started flashing a couple of times, but clearly not enough activity to kick it into counting.

Conclusion: a walk may or may not kick in the IM count.  I successfully had it count on an outside walk with some significant hills - distance of 1 mi, time of about 15 minutes.  A 40 minute walk on the treadmill didn't work this time.

More and final thoughts for now: http://www.midpackgear.com/2015/11/vivosmart-hr-review-more-about.html

Vivosmart HR review - intensity minutes part ii

I seemed to have maligned intensity minutes prematurely in my previous post.

From reading the Vivosmart HR (VHR) subforum on Garmin forums, I learned from a supermoderator that:

1) Intensity minutes can be triggered by arm movement/heart rate increases
2) There is no magical formula for how fast, but it requires significant heart rate increase (70% of maximum was one theory offered) to get the meter running.
3) People have earned intensity minutes on stationary bikes.  

I tried 15 minutes on a bike earlier this week, getting my HR averaging 118 to a max of 139, but failed to earn any minutes.

20 minutes on the arc elliptical earned me minutes, with an average HR of 108 and a maximum of 139 the same day.

So, either the bike session was too short, non-arm movement activity requires higher heart rate to trigger counting of intensity minutes compared to arm swinging like walking or running or elliptical, or...

Today, I did a bike session that was more intense.  I got average up to 121, max of 148, and did a bunch of hard one minute intervals thrown in.

And voila - I earned vigorous intensity minutes (vigorous are given 2:1 to moderate minutes according to Garmin Connect) -- I got 55 intensity minutes for 30 minutes of stationary biking - not quite 2:1 but close.  

Mr. Science was intrigued - exactly what is the point where it kicks the intensity meter to the point where it starts counting?  And where do vigorous minutes kick in, vs moderate minutes?

So I got on the treadmill and started a slow walk - around 2.5 mph, keeping my hr below 90. Even after 10+ minutes, the IM didn't start counting -- I started and it remained on 391 minutes. But at around 11:21, it started flashing (indicating the meter is either ready to count or actually counting)

Flash on.

Flash off.

But by after 14 minutes, the IM finally showed progress.  It hit 411, up from 391 (20 IMs in 14:40 minutes, meaning there was some counting of vigorous minutes in a walk that would not be considered vigorous by many of you).

At 26 minutes, the IM hadn't made much progress -- 414 after 26 minutes.  

A manual and VHR pulse check showed I was bouncing around in the 70s and 80s, so I decided to take things for a spin at minute 29:00 and do 20 at a run pace -- the VHR showed around a 7:55 pace, but it was definitely over 8:00 per mi by feel.  

I got my pulse going 125+ for the run but as high as 141 by the end, earning 28 IMs for a 20 minute run -- around a 1.5 ratio, so it though I was doing vigorous minutes for almost half the run which I would say is about right -- I did have to step off to tie my laces at one point.

To answer my questions:  I think that you need to plan on 10-15 minutes of walking at a brisk pace, 10+ minutes of running, or around 15 minutes of biking to trigger intensity minutes.  You don't have to start an activity for this to happen -- VHR will be activated from arm swing and/or increased H.  And for vigorous minutes to kick in, I think the supermoderator's comment that you need to be north of 70% maximum hr is probably right.



And day three of charge #2 comes to an end with still about 1/3rd of the battery life left -- on daily activity creation or hr broadcasting, with notifications, with weather screen, and fairly constant wrist play.  Get your minds out of the gutter.

 Back to resting (HR), even though Sunday is long run day.

See newer post: Intensity Minutes on a treadmill walk