What is this Body Battery I keep talking about?
Well, it’s Garmin’s way of tracking our energy levels.
Here is how Garmin puts it on their website:
Garmin’s Body Battery™ measures (0-100) the amount of energy reserves you have throughout the day.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/health-science/body-battery/
- A higher number means you’re charged up for activity; a lower number means your battery is drained and you might need a break.
- Rest and good sleep charge your Body Battery. Strenuous activity, high stress and poor sleep can cause it to drain.
- Food intake, as well as stimulants like caffeine, do not directly impact the measurement.
- Wearing your device continuously day and night will lead to a more accurate Body Battery reading.
How does it work?
This image does a nice job of explaining how the Body Battery tracks our energy throughout the day:
Yeah, but is it accurate?
In my experience, yes.
I’ve had a Garmin for almost 10 years now, but when the Body Battery metric first came out, I was skeptical.
I did a lot of research on their algorithm and watched as it changed. Sleep quality used to be their top factor in their algorithm, but once they started tracking heart rate variability (HRV), they quickly realized it was a better predictor of energy and I agree.
Regardless of the research, I also tested it out on my own. I was originally tracking my energy with subjective measurements taking morning, noon, and night on a scale of 1-5. I continued to do this for months after the Body Battery metric came out, but I kept an eye on this new measurement. After seeing it correlate strongly with my own subjective feelings, I finally began to trust it.
Is it perfect?
No. But what is?
It doesn’t know what you’ve eaten. It can’t track your caloric intake. You could be starving and the only way Garmin would know is by your stress levels and HRV.
But it’s pretty darn close. And it’s a lot easier for me to track than taking a subjective measurement of an unseen, internal feeling three times a day.
So that’s why I use Garmin’s Body Battery measurement so frequently in this blog. I apologize for the concession if you don’t have a Garmin. Please just translate it mentally to a generic measurement of energy on a scale of 0 – 100.
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