Body Battery Frequently Asked Questions

The Body Battery™ energy gauge is a feature that uses a combination of heart rate variability, stress, and activity to estimate a user’s energy reserves throughout the day. It records and displays a number from 5-100, representing the individual’s energy level.

For a complete guide on how Body Battery works, see the following write up from our Health Science page: Body Battery Energy Monitoring

 

Which Garmin Watches Have the Body Battery Feature?

Select the list below to reveal models compatible with this feature.

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Why Is My Body Battery Still Low After Sleeping or Relaxing?

Your perception of how you feel and the cumulative effect of stress and sleep quality may not always be in alignment. This is especially true if you have multiple days in a row that hit the upper or lower limit of the Body Battery. Other factors including but not limited to the ones below during sleep or relaxation can cause higher stress levels and result in a lower score.

• Bright lights

• Consumption of alcohol or other stimulants

• Excessive physical activity

• Exhaustion

• Extreme temperatures

• Loud noises

• Pain

• Sickness

• Tossing and turning or waking up frequently at night

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What Does Charged and Drained Mean?

For compatible products, charged and drained are displayed in the Garmin Connect™ platform, showing how many points of Body Battery were recharged or recovered vs. how many were spent or used up. Ideally, there should be a similar level of each at the end of the day, indicating a balance of activity and recovery. Too much of one without the other is not recommended.

The charged and drained numbers are shown for a 24-hour period starting and ending at midnight. Garmin Connect can also display user-specific messaging giving insights about how much your Body Battery has charged or drained since bedtime or waking up for the day. These insights are designed to give you a glimpse into a narrower timeframe instead of the more broad information over the entire day. 

 

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My Body Battery Appears to Be Stuck at 5%

If you have a new device, or if you recently reset or restored your device to its factory default settings, it may require 5-7 days to learn or re-learn your body. During this time, you may see the Body Battery stuck at 5%. If you reset the watch (again), this 5-7 day period will start over. After about a week, the Body Battery should charge and discharge as expected.

For some Garmin devices, the analysis driving your Body Battery and track all-day stress levels can lose the calibration needed to provide personalized insight. In these occasions, you may see your Body Battery drain to 5 and stay there until the analysis has enough data to recalibrate your physiological baseline. This personal recalibration process can take several days.

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What Happens When I Do Not Wear My Watch?

The Body Battery metric will estimate the charging or draining during short periods when the device is off. If you do not wear it for several hours or longer, the value will reset based on a model and continue from that point once worn.

After wearing the device continuously for a full day, the values should correlate closely to what your Body Battery should be. The more you wear it, the more accurate it should be.

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How Is Body Battery Tracked If I Wear Multiple Watches?

If you alternate between devices throughout the day, the body battery data in Garmin Connect will only be from the watch set as your Primary Wearable Device. However, you will still be able to see body battery data on the watch widget/glance screen from the non-preferred tracker during the time it is worn.

Body battery does not utilize TrueUp so you may see a difference between the body battery stats from one watch to the other.

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What If I Train With Another Garmin Device That Does Not Have Body Battery?

We recommend wearing your watch along with your other Garmin device to ensure continuous Body Battery measurements. Information recorded from a device that doesn't feature Body Battery will not be included in the Body Battery calculation.