COVID-19 Recovery Analysis - Garmin Body Battery vs Whoop Band 4.0 - Can they detect illness?

[@matthewmackay3354]

Glad you all had mild cases, and hope vaccines and natural antibodies keep you safe. Regardless of where people stand on Covid, we can all agree that being fit and a healthy weight can lessen the damage. Nice to see a Covid conversation that is not politicized. Miles of smiles in 2022!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! Yes, I was nervous to post this one. I didn't want to have a political nightmare on my hands but fortunately people have been pretty objective and just interested in the data. As it should be! thanks for watching and happy new year!

[@tomwerner352]

Got Covid unvaccinated beginning of November. Had a whole week with Bodybattery slightly going over 20. And I really felt that. Also resting heart rate bumped up from 58 to 78. The heart rate took around 2 weeks to return to normal and body battery recharge to over 80 also took more than two weeks. Gladly SpO2 was always within a good range 😎

[@JustinKortuem]

I've had almost the exact reaction with body battery and resting heart rate

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@Nonixification]

SpO2 is useless on these devices, I got a fenix 5x Plus

[@tomwerner352]

@@Nonixification It’s at least an indicator. Not nearly 100% accurate. I compared to a real SpO2 device and it‘s always 3-4% lower

[@DieterPetereit]

@@tomwerner352 which one is lower?

[@iBrA1MAN]

I think this is actually very valuable scientific data, thanks for sharing this. Hope your family gets better 🙏🏻

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! I found it super interesting and figured there must be more nerds out there like me lol.

[@thomashall41]

I only have a vivoactive 3 but I had Covid 3 weeks ago. I was amazed at how the watch picked it up. My heart rate and stress levels showed it clear as day and also tracked inline with my body temperature. The analytics were really fascinating.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing! Glad you’re feeling better.

[@EditioCastigata]

4:00 That’s how a normal day looks like for me, a high-pulser. Save for the night, with way more in the orange. As you said, treat those readings with caution. HRV (ideally after waking up) might say a bit more, though!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I wish Garmin displayed the raw HRV data instead of hiding it behind the Body Battery. HRV is certainly a good metric to keep an eye on!

[@koravilla3089]

Got COVID as a vaxxed person probably about a week ago. Was interesting to see that on my worst days (fever, sweats, lethargy) it was all orange throughout the day and sleep. My active calories interestingly went wayyyy up, and considering I spend that time on the couch, it was interesting to see how it was responding to my increased HR during my fever period. RHR spiked for a couple days, from about 42 to 55, but it's back down again. My body battery was shocking too, I was getting a top of 20 in the morning, and 5 in the evening. edit: Like you, my SpO2 was...fine. The biggest laugh I had was waking up, and my watch telling me to spend 10 hours recovering because my sleep had been so bad (stress all the way through I saw).

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Super interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[@callan888]

WOW! Super interesting!!! Exactly the kind of info a nerd like me looks for. Happy you and your family recovered with no ill effects. Thanks Dave.

[@Regnisab]

My watch informed me of a 10bpm hr increase, and my fitness age went from 45 to 50, overnight, and in one week I was at 58, I am 61. Since recovering from Covid, I am back to 46. It told me I was sick before I knew it or felt I'll

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I hope you feel better soon!

[@aparagarwal1234]

Wow, those are some interesting stats. My wife was tested positive on Dec 29th with mild symptoms.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Hope shes OK!

[@OskaRusty]

Interesting video good to see you are ok. I'll have to show my brother-in-law as he got C19 on xmas day and wears a Garmin Fenix solar 6s pro. He was telling me his RHR was in the 90's when its usually in the 60's.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! RHR is certainly an indicator that something is wrong. Hope everyone is doing well!

[@KwyjiboVanDeKamp]

I recently discovered the same thing. I use a Forerunner 945 LTE and was suffering fever, headache etc. for at least 3 days. I felt absolutely sick and thought I was dying. 🤒 The data from the watch shockingly was reflecting that perfectly. High stress level up to peaks of 100 which leads to a low body battery and bad sleep. Also the HRV was damn low. Now that I'm feeling better things starts to get back to normal. I always thought body battery, stress etc. are just some nice marketing gimmicks but it actually works. Thanks for your video! Interesting to know that other people discover the same.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I felt the same way about some of these metrics “That’s just a marketing gimmick!” But it turns out it can be quite useful!

[@saso551]

Everything is true. Similar behavior with my Garmin Instinct which I wear all the time 24/7 for about 2 years. Great video my friend, every illness reflects on body battery and higher rest heart rate by 15-20%.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing!

[@richardhancox3780]

I had been tracking my own Garmin data during having COVID myself. My body battery was also down to 5 for the two days at the start where I tested positive. Stress levels increased and resting heart rate up too. Interesting to see that others are getting the same data, thanks for sharing this.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@TheMitchellShields]

This kind of video when you show connect data and talk about it is VERY helpful... I jumped from a 2016 forerunner model to a Fenix this Christmas, so there's lots more data that I am just not familiar with how to read yet. Thank you!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@UltraDad]

Great idea for a video and very engaging. I’m glad you all are bouncing back and sorry you got it. I had a breakthrough infection back in August myself when delta swept through. Symptoms sound familiar. Hopefully in a couple years all of this will be a distant memory. By the way…48k subs….awesome growth!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks Dan! It was bound to happen with 4 kids in different schools lol. Just happy the symptoms were mild. Happy new year!

[@rodin-06]

Been wearing a Garmin Fenix 5 pretty much since they were first released. Sure enough, just as you're explaining here, the Garmin has noticed a change some hours before I have... Notably the gentle rise in resting heart rate and then the rise in 'stress' as Garmin calls it. Each time I have gone on to discover I have a cold. I've not had the pleasure of getting Covid, but it's great you've done this. Nice illustration of the biometrics working. Not quite studied my data as you are here, but you're spot on. The data collection works and represents something real. Good video 👍🏻

[@ChaseTheSummit]

It's pretty interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing and watching the video.

[@TrailMinded]

Really interesting info. We just went through something similar. We are also in MA and our oldest was in a test and stay at school. He was positive first but it took a while to trickle through our family. I stayed covid free but I have had it before while the rest of my family has not. Glad to hear that you’re all on the mend now.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Hope your family is recovering well! Oddly, our 3 year old dodged it but everyone else got it. Seems like the younger you are the less likely it is to get sick 🤷‍♂️

[@Kelly_Ben]

I'm glad you and your family are doing well, that must have been rough, especially over Christmas!! Reading these comments makes me want to bang my head into the wall. My body battery averaged 35 or less for the last 2 years. I always thought that was amusing- I mean, what does Garmin know?? I work 2 very physical jobs 55+ hours a week, and rarely get more than 5 hours sleep. But hey, I'm holding my own, right?? I just had a minor heart attack before Christmas... at 43 years old. Now hearing/ seeing that people normally have much higher body batteries... talk about ignoring red flags!! I'm headed over to check it out now.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oh wow! A heart attack is no joke. I hope it was caught early and you’re recovering.

[@Kelly_Ben]

@@ChaseTheSummitThanks! It took 3 hours to get a room because they were so full, but it looks like the damage was minor. Hopefully I'll be back to gentle easy runs in a few more weeks, with some serious changes to my workaholic lifestyle. I checked back through my body battery history... it was below 30 most days for the 4 weeks before, and in single digits numerous times. 😵 Thanks for making me pay attention to that metric!

[@tim2oo6]

My Body Battery behaved the same when I took the third dose of vaccine and had side effects the next two days. Also had the same huge drain and almost 0 recharge when I had a two day cold with fever in October. It actually never properly recharge up until now, when I had 3 weeks of vacation. Before that I had 100% everyday. Body Battery is really a great tool to see if something is wrong with you, wether it’s Corona or work stress or a simple flue. Glad to hear, you and you’re family are all fine and recovered pretty quick.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I wish I paid closer attention to Body Battery when I got my doses. Thanks for sharing.

[@chrischrischris801]

These patterns also appear when you get a cold/flu (low body battery, higher heart-rate and stress in combination with feeling a bit sick/tired/stressed). It is a nice-to-know but I would not rely on it to much but you can use it to decide to take it more easy/early sleep ect. Good to hear you and your family recovered well.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

For sure, not just a COVID thing but I thought it was interesting. Thanks for watching.

[@dimitris7505]

Glad you are all ok, very interesting data coming from the Garmin and looks easier to read comparing with the Woop. I hope that Coros can catch up with that kind of information too...

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! It would be nice to see COROS roll out something similar. For now, you can track your HRV on the Vertix 2 that's about as close as it gets.

[@jk6869]

That’s awesome. Thanks. I have the Garmin Vivoactive 4 only because it integrates with other health and longevity services I use. However, I hope that soon Garmin will feel Whoop nipping at their heels and let us get into the data points behind Body Battery so we can do more in depth analyses and nuanced decision making.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I agree, I specifically would like to see the raw HRV values. Not sure why they hide that stuff!

[@CaliJerS15]

Great to see your data to compare to mine. I also had COVID over the past few days and interested in what my Garmin recorded. Glad your family is doing well. It is still working its way through my house.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Hope you're feeling better!

[@aarononeill3]

With the fitbit I saw it, resting heart rate started elevating, super clear that I was ill, 50 resting hr to 62 during covid.

[@leonidasleontis]

Good to see that you have recovered mate, you look great

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@gymhodgson]

Saw much the same 3 days LFT negative - headache 22/dec, cough 24th THEN LFT+PCR positive Xmas day! Vivosmart 4 body batt reflected this too.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@RobertHeinsch]

Very informative video, as always! And completely confirms what I could observe with my own COVID infection over the Christmas holidays. Never had a body battery as low as 5 on my Fenix before. And for the first two days the stress levels were off the charts, now it’s slowly getting better. Keep up the great work and good to know that you and your family have recovered as well!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

It’s odd that Garmin doesn’t let it go lower than 5 lol. I hope you’re recovered! Thanks for watching.

[@CalvinCooke18]

Your stress out cause cause of the media 🤣🤣🤣 tip …turn it off and go about your daily life

[@YurySysoev]

@@ChaseTheSummit I also had as low as 5 for body battery in the middle of the illness, but it never got any lower. What needs to happen to have it lower than 5? :)

[@jamesb.walker9177]

Well spotted, the Garmin body battery is a really nice tool indeed. I also feel a very big change on the battery when having a few drinks. Apparently the body stress a lot to get rid of the alcohol. Can't be good to anyone.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Yes! Alcohol definitely has a huge impact on HRV and Body Battery. It's odd how even a single glass of wine can show high stress all night. I wonder if that's exaggerated a bit? Thanks for watching!

[@jamesb.walker9177]

@@ChaseTheSummit I am so happy to hear that it is not only to myself it happens! Exactly, one or two glasses of wine really have a havoc on the stress (body battery). It somehow has to do with the small increase heart rate during sleeping. or the age perhaps?

[@alfromtx245]

Very interesting. I'm on day 7 of covid. On day 1, when I was feeling the worst, my Garmin stress levels were showing to be through the roof. It wasn't actually a stressful day, but my body seemed to have figured out that something was wrong and was trying to fight it off. Stress returned to normal during the night, which corresponds to when my fever broke. Body battery was down to 5 percent the first night and only increased to 28 percent by the next morning. Resting heart rate was 11 bpm higher than usual. It took 3-4 days, but the body battery finally returned to more normal levels. Resting heart rate is a little high (between 2 and 5 bpm), but is returning to normal. I really hope that nobody gives you a hard time about your video. You didn't make it political or say anything reckless. I think it was very informative.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Fortunately no one has given me a hard time so far!

[@alfromtx245]

@@ChaseTheSummit It's been a couple of weeks and I feel really good. Energy level continues to improve. Body battery hitting in the 70's most days. I'd prefer upper 80's or higher. But I'll take what I can get. However, for some reason, I'm just not feeling tired. Literally, almost not at all. Even when I should be. When I put myself in bed, I don't have any trouble sleeping. But it's like the "you're tired...you need to get some sleep" alert is broken. Who knows??

[@alfromtx245]

@@ChaseTheSummit Really interesting. Almost 3 months post day 1 of covid and everything is back to normal. Body batter is in the 95-100 percent range almost every morning. Stress levels are much lower and they are taking less time to return to normal after working out. Also, I noticed that a lot of social interactions were registering as highly stressful post-covid. This is back to normal as well. Hope you're doing well!

[@MattSwain1]

Interesting indeed. I do find that body battery on my Fenix 6 does reflect my health and sleep quite well. The overnight resting heart rate number is a good metric for those who don’t have the body battery feature because even after my recent booster jab I could see that was inflated by a few beats for the following couple of nights. Resting HR was one of things that lead me to quitting alcohol as again that showed up in my resting heart rate overnight. Glad you’re recovering well

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! RHR is definitely good to keep an eye on.

[@stavell]

Exactly matches my observations with Garmin's Body battery! Been through couple of flues + COVID19 recently and first thing to notice even before I feel bad was the low body battery score and increased resting HR.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! It would be cool if Garmin built in some sort of alert when things don’t look right for people who don’t monitor Body Battery regularly.

[@KleinerDrache]

great to hear you all survived that with mildly symtoms and now recovered mostly. And thanks for passing that small but important information around to look a lil bit for indications for what is maybe going on. even if there wasn´t any event in real so your body had to work with something inside of itself. Hope you all had otherwise a great start into the new year than it hitted on christmas. have a great start into the new week!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@mrjoshuagordon]

After my last Ironman my toe started hurting a few days later. Body battery went to 5, stress constantly at 99, resting HR up by 50%. Next day I went to the ER in insane pain. It works. I don't wear my watch anymore though unless I am running or open water swimming. All the metrics sort of drove me insane over a few years until I cracked.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Whoa! That’s wild. I sort of agree that if you obsess over the numbers it can lead to a state of confusion. Thanks for sharing your story!

[@tnan123]

Very interesting overview to compare the metrics these platforms provide. Glad to hear your family is doing well and recovered from the virus. Happy new year.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thank you!

[@athineospt]

That’s so right review! Thanks mate and I thought all these days that my garmin body battery was broken. I am positive on COVID and this little machine did realized it earlier than I felt it!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Sorry to hear that! I hope you feel better!

[@juanpaologonzales8859]

I just recovered from COVID. I saw the same patterns with my Garmin battery and resting heart rate. Kuddos!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@fitgearhunter]

I’ll summarize - Garmin’s BB killed Whoop’s Recovery. Kidding! This is a really awesome video. I do think the fact you can see so much more continual information with the body battery is so much more valuable. With Whoop you get nothing other than those nightly summary points (RHR and HRV single numbers). Some of those stress scores on Garmin in the middle of your nights sleep are crazy high! So glad you shared this and soooooo glad you were eating both. Awesome awesome awesome. And I think you know this but 5 is lowest score possible for BB.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

lol, Thanks Hunter. I do like how Whoop displays raw HRV data. Not sure why Garmin hides that behind Body Battery but I suppose it works for them! Yes, I've hit the 5% body battery before and it doesn't go any lower. You'd think they'd allow it to go to 0% like an actual battery eh? Maybe with future firmware updates. Thanks for watching!

[@Riverpeth]

@@ChaseTheSummit I assume they thought about this, but then someone likely pointed out that a Body Battery of 0% seems to imply death, lol

[@nimagholipour]

I had the same experience. This is why I believe Garmin forerunner 245 or new Garmin devices have accurate sensors.

[@Ejohns1004]

Pretty sad that KZbinrs need to tell people that they aren't a doctor when talking about if their watch measured anything different when they were sick. I love my Fenix 6X. This thing has been great and I've had more information about myself on my... wrist than I think I've ever had in my life. The Body battery is on point nearly at a 100% tick. I can see a difference when I eat well as opposed to when I don't, when I get a good night's sleep versus when I don't, weather that's due to pain or just going to bed late. It shows me when I had a freaking nightmare and how that effected my recovery. This is one of the best purchases I've probably ever made for my health as well as being basically my dream watch back when I was in the army.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Sad, yes. But it’s unfortunately what we have to do to cover our butts. KZbin is strict about what you can and cannot say on the platform. The last thing I want is for my channel to be wiped out! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@brentreilly2589]

Did you take a look at respiration rate? I have heard that is another indicator that the watch and band can highlight.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I did, oddly it stayed pretty steady through the whole experience. SpO2 also didn't drop at all.

[@amircastilla07]

Hi, I'm glad you fully recovered along with your family.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@machinized]

OMG, my fav type of vid again! Thanks so much

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing!

[@gregorypapadopoulos6301]

Absolutely right. Exactly the same with me (COVID). Training status, training readiness, HRV, body battery and stress, at their worse. I don't think that there is a better company than Garmin

[@qwer55555555]

I'm glad that you are fine now! Stay Safe! Currei'm sick as well ( not sure if covid or just some virus) i have very light symptoms, but my body battery graphs looks exactly the same. A lot of stress, and very poor sleep score (7-18). This thing is actually pretty impressive.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! Hope you feel better!

[@joris818]

I actually had covid as well last week. 2 days before getting symptoms I noticed my resting heart rate was up 10bpms, my sleep data was pretty good but body battery did go up above 66%. When my symptoms kicked in I could very clearly see stress all day!!! I was pretty sick for about 3 days, the 4th day I was feeling back to normal but Garmin kept seeing a lot of stress. The 5th day I was seeing blue stress levels so I decided to start training again. I found the Garmin (945 lte) very valuable!!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Glad to hear you've recovered! Thanks for sharing your story.

[@swampy2b]

Interesting video. Thanks for sharing! This tracks with my experience when I got Lyme disease a couple years ago: woke up feeling totally unrested and stress was through the roof. At first, I thought I’d gotten too much sun, but the fever and aches persisted. Stress was high for several days until I started the antibiotic, which also coincided with when I started feeling better. Pretty amazing how informative HRV can be.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I've heard a similar story about Lyme and body battery. I hope you're feeling better! Lyme can be rough!

[@macscott5290]

Mild covid here. Garmin 5 retesting HR up from low 50s to mid 60s. Started 2 days before symptoms. Also stress level during sleep was 2-3 times higher, again before symptoms started…

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing!

[@5minwatchreviews]

I tested positive for it on the 23rd and noticed that looking back at my runs in the few days before (and workouts at home during isolation) my HR was elevated above normal for the workouts. Also noticed my HRV was all over the place for a week or so. I use an Apple Watch to track activity. Cool video idea!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

OOf! Sorry to hear. Same day as me. Hope you’re feeling better!

[@5minwatchreviews]

@@ChaseTheSummit You too! All good here, threshold days are slightly less fun although that could have been the excess food eaten!!!

[@mirkolooser4905]

Hi everyone and a happy new year! Very interesting to see. In my case it seems that the Fenix 6 has picked up the infection very well, despite having only a mild case. My resting heart rate was elevated, my body battery was extremely low, despite lots of sleep (but very poor sleep score) and I had a very minor drop in pulse oxygen readings. The effect on my stress level was not existing (having a baby, it is always high :) ). One more pint about the sleep score, it seems I slept so poorly that the watch didn't recognize that I was asleep. The times it gave me for falling asleep, waking up or being awake during the night were way off. Thanks for the good videos, keep it up.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing! I too didn't have much of a drop in SpO2.

[@pattiboman403]

I love that you did a video over this topic! It’s so interesting watching your experience and reading the experience of others in the comments. My experience with garmin body battery and Covid was completely opposite. I had Covid back in August. I was double vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine and my case was VERY mild. Outside of that very first day, I felt pretty good the whole time. My Garmin venu 2s was giving me very low stress scores, my RHR was normal in its mid 50’s, and my body battery was charged up to 100 everyday. Now a week after testing positive, I got hit with a mild fever and my Garmin definitely showed signs of stress with the low body battery and bad sleep score. After that day I was fine though. 🤷🏻‍♀️. Anyway this was super interesting. Thank you for talking about it!!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience. Strange that you got hit with a fever so long after testing positive. Think it was unrelated?

[@pattiboman403]

@@ChaseTheSummit I honestly have no idea…I was fine after that though. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

[@wildaboutwatches]

Sadly living with a stressful wife and very little sleep my body battery is regularly 5 .its exhausting. It does record sleep accurately even outside the tines put in. I didn't get to sleep until 10.30 this morning and woke just after 2.00pm. I'm going camping next week for 😴 💤 🛏 glad you're feeling better now ☺️ Good luck in 2022 happy new year to you . Looking forward to the fenix 7....

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oh interesting! I wonder why that is!

[@TonyHobbs]

@@ChaseTheSummit probably because my average sleep time for the week is 4 hours and sleep score 22 lol unfortunately

[@SuperAloeFresh]

Whoop yes. Body battery on the forerunner 55 at least is incredibly basic and pretty bad overall. It definitely can’t tell if I’m getting sick. They should’ve included the newer body battery in it 😞

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting, doesn't the app give you the same information?

[@jonathonmcmillan9410]

Nice job on the video! This mirrors my kids' and my experience with being sick the past few weeks, including most of the symptoms (minus the fever for me). However, none of us tested positive for COVID. I'm still not back to 100% in terms of my body battery recovery (hovering in the 80's from typical 95+%), my RHR is still slightly elevated (low 40s instead of high 30s), and my Garmin Sleep Score has been a little lower than before getting sick. I got back to running quickly, but now hampered by snow, ice, sub-freezing temps, and 40mph winds...

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing! Hope you feel normal again soon!

[@jonathonmcmillan9410]

@@ChaseTheSummit Thanks! I spent 2hrs today shoveling snow and feeling more energetic tonight than I have for the last week, so something is on track!

[@jeskli11]

Good video! These stats are actually still relatively okay given what covid can do. In mid-October I had pneumonia. Right before it I did a double-race weekend, where I felt amazing and performed pretty well on the first day and then quite weak, yet not absolutely terrible on the second day. It was quite chilly outside, not as much as now, but the temperatures dropped very significantly right before that weekend, so my body was clearly in shock. Body Battery in the morning was 95 on both days, but the stress score on Saturday afternoon after the first race was super high. Monday was then a day with high stress score since awake, I had a very slight caugh, yet Body Battery was still relatively in order. Tuesday morning was another stressful day with morning BB of 85, but I thought I might get rid of this ‘caugh’ by warming myself up a bit in sauna. Since that moment the stress score went over the roof and Body Battery dropped down to 5 and it stayed like that for three consecutive days. The watch didn't even register any sleep at all due to that high stress. I was a month off doing literally nothing and then about two weeks, when an hour of cycling with average power sub 100 W was the maximum I could do. In fact, the first time my Body Battery level got to 100 was about two months after the illness (and on that day I really also felt very good for the first time since the day I got it). It's a very good indicator of how things stand.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! Yes, I think I was lucky in that my experience was quite mild. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@misterb1915]

Bro I'm going for a Covid test now. Two nights ago my Garmin resting HR skyrocketed to like 80bpm. Should be low 50s to high 40s. Fever. Woke up with a Body Battery of 29, after like 8 or 9 hours of sleep. Will post here with results.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Bummer! Hope you feel better!

[@jxrxch]

sitting here in isolation I went through this whilst comparing my garmin body battery and stress levels and mine reflects very similarly. This is after i've had 3 shots too (inc. the booster in December). So luckily was a mild case but boy oh boy are the stress levels off the chart. Today as I awake and feel a bit better my body battery is up, good nights sleep and stress levels are down in comparison.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing!

[@christianewerner4755]

That’s intersting. I really struggle with the body battery. When I had my booster shot on Dec. 18 it told me I’m fine and was very high while I had a bad headache for almost a week, my blood pressure was extremely high and my heart rate was extremely low. And I often have this. I’m feeling exhausted and tired and the body battery says I did recover well and the other way around. By the way I have the same problems with the AW6 and Athlytic. Therefore I decided to listen to my body (and soul) and then decide what I can do. But happy New Year to you and glad you did recover well! Stay safe!!!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. At the end of the day how you feel is much more important than what your watch says.

[@RyanClaytonFilms]

Super interesting 🧐. Thanks for sharing, and glad you and the fam are bouncing back!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks Ryan! We were fortunate that most of our symptoms were mild.

[@thedude9082]

Yeah. My heart was averaging 112 one day at work. Stress through the roof. Been sick roughly 3-4 days. Glad I got 945 about week before sick. Like Coros battery life but Garmin more useful.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing!

[@thedude9082]

@@ChaseTheSummit Sure thing. Haven't been able to run but watch says in recovery for training status. Was that your experience. Thanks for putting out such good content.

[@MichielVanhoudt]

I've noticed similar things, not just for covid but for any sickness I've had in the past few years. Also, the day I had my second shot I went to bed and woke up tired (body battery was low) and stress remained really high. At noon I got a message on my watch that my stress was high. Took my temp and had a slichy fever. It does pick up these things pretty well.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[@chrisbaum998]

Did you look at your respiratory rate on the Whoop during the days before, during and after you were sick?

[@noreenmccarthy5872]

Was going to ask the same question, as whoop have published articles that increased respiratory rate seems to be the one metric that is more Covid specific, compared to other illnesses, and can be seen before any symptoms are evident

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Yup, oddly my respiratory rate and SpO2 levels were pretty consistent between Whoop and Garmin over the days I wasn’t feeling well and they were within “normal range” the Whoop “dashboard” didn’t throw any red flags or anything. Not sure why, maybe I wasn’t sick enough?

[@TheDisillusioned1811]

I am just getting over some kind of "illness", tests are hard to find where I live so I just hunkered down, after 6 days I started coming back to normal. I got the Garmin Fenix 5 and I knew something was going on when I woke up after 9 hours of sleep and felt tired, my resting HR was 10 beats higher than normal. I actually put the chest strap on to check my HRV test, which I never do. It said I was at moderate stress. There was definitely warfare going on inside my body.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Hope you're feeling better!

[@sarabishop]

Really interesting especially the body battery data. Glad you and family are recovering and thanks for sharing.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@MimicGriphon]

I had a massive migraine last night and my garmin for some reason gave me 7 hours of deep sleep and no rem sleep and said my body battery charged only 10% last night. Yea I felt awful before I fell asleep but I was out like a light and feel great now...

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[@eriktred]

Thanks for being a test subject for the rest of us ;-) Glad you and your family are doing better.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Lol you know me! 👨‍🚀

[@cseszlaizsolt6573]

My garmin showed similar results back in march when I got covid (I didn't have the vaccince yet as it wasn't available for people in its 30s.) The interesting thing is my garmin picked up something was happening to my body like 1-2 days before I felt ill (I had high fever). Before the fever my only symptom was headache, which is pretty general. I feel that any deviation from the normal values in those categories (body battery, stress level, resting heart rate) could signal an illness, not just covid, because these parameters are commonly change/increase in case of any viral infection.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting data! Thanks for sharing!

[@MJJodoin]

Sorry you guys had Covid. It came through our house as well. Seems like most people that didn't get it before are getting it now. Very contagious. We were bed ridden for 3-4 days here.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Bummer! We were fortunate that it was pretty mild for our family. My wife and I got it the worst. Mine got much better but I'm still dealing with some migraine/sinus stuff. Hope you're feeling better Mark!

[@jmac13131]

Great information! Did you notice any change in pulse ox or respiration rate on your fenix 6 at this time?

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oddly no, SpO2 and respiration stayed consistent.

[@carlsimmons305]

Interesting review, I’ve got a Garmin Fenix 6, I got COVID in Oct, however just as an interest I would check my Ave RHR & have had an elevated HR since having COVID, it’s only now just going back to normality since Mid Dec. It’s hard to know how bad my symptoms were compared to others, not that I really care, however I certainly struggled to recover post negative testing. I certainly backed off my cycling as I would get banging headaches & my first 2 rides I was sick each time even though riding very easily. Thanks for sharing

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! That's a long time to have a high HR. I hope you feel better soon.

[@peterchlpek]

Good timing for this video. I got Covid during this Christmas as well and was checking my data from my Fenix6. I had fever and headache for about 2 days but those days I already woke up with 5 percent body battery and the graph remained the straight line for the rest of those days :) During the toughest night garmin was not able to record sleeping data though I was sleeping. That was quite interesting experience for me.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Yikes! Hope you’re feeling better!

[@peterchlpek]

@@ChaseTheSummit Yes I am fully ok, thanks! I was feeling better than Garmin thought 🙂

[@derrunn3r613]

First of all: good to hear that you and your family is well again! Secondly, thanks a lot for that detailed analysis, I was always wondering how good an infection can be monitored with my Garmin watch - will definitely have a close look at his when the next infection hits me.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! Hope you dodge the infections!

[@derrunn3r613]

@@ChaseTheSummit Well, the scientist in me is hoping for an infection to get the data, but the runner in my is of course hoping to dodge all those infections^^

[@chuckhazzard7295]

Covid is better reflected in Respiration Rate than the other metrics you were looking at. Glad you feel better.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oddly, my respiratory rate didn't change by much. Thanks for watching.

[@SummitForWellness]

I've always monitored my resting heart rate to see if I'm starting to get sick or not, it's been a pretty good indicator for me. I was exposed to someone with covid so I started watching the data on my Fenix 6x. After 2 days, I woke up with my rhr up 28 beats, and my body battery tanked from 95 to 20, and even with 12 hours of sleep my body battery dropped even more. It took about 3 days before my numbers improved and once I saw the data going the other direction it was consistent with how I was feeling. Super interesting data to have!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

RHR certainly can tell a story if something is off. RHR is also part of the Body Battery equation. I find this stuff super interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[@roeslan1969]

Thank you for such an informative video. I just got my fenix 6 for exactly one month today. I would definitely monitor my body battery from now on.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Hope it was helpful!

[@ChrisShaw25]

Awesome video. Glad you and your family are doing well. I had a very similar experience with the virus and Garmin Body Battery around Thanksgiving. It was fascinating to watch the metrics and I really think it helped me manage the illness well and ease back into physical activity.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[@gunny6517]

Ouch.. Glad to see your family has SURVIVED the virus! Wishing EVERYONE a Safe and Happy New Year 🎆….. 🇺🇸

[@ChaseTheSummit]

We were fortunate, it wasn't that bad for us.

[@CarlosCandelaria]

Thank you for sharing and glad to hear you are all good and healthy.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for watching!

[@JeffLongenecker]

Did you happen to look at other metrics such as oxygen saturation or temperature readings? I work in the emergency room as a PA and I wear a Garmin Fenix 6x. I'll look at these metrics quite frequently when I'm not feeling well. I appreciate you looking into this as I've been interested to know the changes that our body undergoes with covid and what is detectable by our smart devices. It would be great if these companies would allow you to indicate when you have covid and possibly submit your metrics for research purposes. It may possibly lead to the ability to identify subtle changes in our vital signs before we can even appreciate the illness ourselves. As always, great video and insights.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I did! Oddly my findings were unremarkable. Both the Whoop and Garmin were reporting pretty consistent SpO2 levels throughout the sickness. Whoop even has a “daily dashboard” that lets you view skin temperature, SpO2, Respiration rate, etc… at a glance and will alert you if something is wrong. Oddly, I had no alerts even on the night that I had a pretty nasty fever 🤷‍♂️

[@mutebg]

I found body battery very useful, I had similar story with a flue a year ago. same when I took my jab. btw I manage to go down to 5% very often after not good sleep and a long run on next day.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Interesting! I don't see 5% very often.

[@patrickfischer8400]

funny thing. My Garmin FR 745 was able to show me my thyroid condition. I had wondered why my resting pulse rises so. Somehow it went higher day after day. Also my stress level was getting higher although I did nothing. It ended up that my resting heart rate increased from 47 bpm to almost 100 bpm and on some days I had a stress level of almost 100%. The cause was an autoimmune disease in which my immune system attacked my thyroid gland. Took me all the way to the hospital. The right doctor and the right medications were then able to treat it well. The whole thing was very good to track with my Garmin. Also, I could then see when I was fully recovered and my values were back to normal. Although the data does not directly indicate a specific disease, but you can see well that SOMETHING is wrong.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Wow! That's interesting.

[@pauldaniel2527]

Hope you and the family are well. Good video, I have a Garmin fenix 6, I suffered with covid and the body battery was pretty accurate to how I felt.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks for sharing

[@ΙωαννηςΜαριοςΣαρικας]

Really, really interesting video Dave. Thanks for sharing. And, more important, glad to hear you and your family are well.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@sebastienbrochard9812]

Interesting indeed. Did not have covid, but was really drained early 2020, and data from oura ring 2 was showing what i was feeling ... only i did not really paid attention at the time. Got a FR945 recently, and was wondering ... don't the garmin watches have temp skin measurement to track against a base line at night?

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Unfortunately Garmins don’t have a skin temp sensor. It would be cool to see that added eventually.

[@YurySysoev]

I find garmin 6 to be quite accurate with detecting illness. The higher the temperature I got the higher was the resting heart rate and the stress. When I had 38-38.9 C, stress was constantly above 90, as the temperature lowered to 37.5 stress went down to about 50. Also, as I had a doctor visiting me and checking my spO2, I found that to be equal to what garmin measured as well. All in all, despite garmin is not a medical device it can be used for monitoring your well-being and and it does it pretty accurately

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Pretty interesting data!

[@chrisryanmeyer33]

Going through this right now! 2 days ago my Fenix 6 data was vary similar. I felt bogged down and my RHR was almost double than normal. Last night after aches and chills, I feel almost back to normal and my RHR and stress data are about back to normal. Some days I don't want to look at my sleep score but it provides a depressing truth lol

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Sorry to hear that! Hope you feel better!

[@bluuazn]

Been a month since testing positive and.. RHR still 5-10beats higher than normal, HR spikes when i attempt moderate intensity and HRV is down from baseline 120 to 80s

[@Tha-King-Arthur]

I see these orange stripes every day except when resting. While I never really feel stressed. So I doubt whether this is completely reliable. Someone once told me that those orange stripes mean that your stomach is digesting heavy food and that this actually causes body stress.

[@amshaq007CR7]

Im glad you and your family are okay.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks!

[@JohnSherman2]

By chance, prior to illness onset, during exercise, that your maximum watch recorded heart rate had maximum spikes higher than normal during similar exercise exertion? I have found these spikes in my HR before becoming sick (Apple watch, Garmin TacTix delta).

[@ChaseTheSummit]

They were a little high yes. Hard to notice unless I was looking for it though.

[@Stringy1313]

I had the similar experience, stress completely orange the whole day, HR elevated, body battery bottoming out, etc. Unfortunately I have recovered from covid but my statistics only mildly improved. 60 days after my stress scores are high, HR is 70 resting (prior was 50) and my body battery rarely goes above 50, almost always bottoming out at 5... regardless of sleep. Sleep scores used to be in the 80 to 90s, now I can only manage 40s... Still trying to figure out how to return to normal...

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Sorry to hear that! I hope you recover soon!

[@whaleshark2625]

I'd love to see your respiratory data from both Whoop and Garmin - Whoop resp rate sickness has definitely shown up for me, but haven't been sick with the Garmin to compare on their respiratory rate.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oddly it didn't change much. My SpO2 levels also remained consistently in the high 90% range. I expected the Whoop dashboard to throw up a red flag when I had a fever but it didn't notice.

[@whaleshark2625]

@@ChaseTheSummit very interesting. Most folks have seen a drop followed by a spike up in respiratory rate in Whoop, and I was wondering if Garmin caught it, as it doesn't have the tenth of a point RPM measurement. Maybe Omicron is different?

[@maranr]

Nice idea for a video. Fascinating. I like Garmin's depiction of stress in orange. Now if they can only get some A.I. in there to tell us if we're going to throw up in the next few hours. ;-)

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Thanks! lol yeah some warning of what's coming would be nice!

[@devynramsay4511]

What is the body battery actually taking its measurements from? Sleep/ lack of, HR?

[@ChaseTheSummit]

It’s a combination of things as I understand it including resting heart rate, HRV, and sleep.

[@randomhero438]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I noticed you didn’t mention the respiratory rate, skin temperature, and Sp02 with the Whoop. I think sharing that data would have strengthened the comparison.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I should have included that stuff but oddly it was unremarkable. None of my metrics were out of whack including SpO2, skin temp, or respiration rate even on the night that I had a high fever.

[@weekendwarrior8179]

Good video. Did you answer the COVID 19 questions in the whoop journal? Also I am a medical professional (respiratory therapist) how was the SPO2 data? Definitely get the moderna/ Pfizer booster. Johnson doesn't protect nearly enough.

[@ChaseTheSummit]

I did answer the journal question. Oddly my SpO2 levels were fine throughout the whole thing. The Whoop "Dashboard" didn't even through any flags despite having a high fever for a day.

[@yay-cat]

I just had a wild 24h stomach bug and I’ll go hunt through data later but I was pleased that my venu 2s didn’t nag me to go for a walk at all yesterday when I was like dying in bed. It must have known that I would have flushed it down the loo if it misbehaved

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oh interesting! I wonder if the "move" thing is tied to body battery in some way.

[@danielhuntsman1705]

Excellent topic! I was on my trip thru top 5 covid States and my Garmin 6 showed exactly same story when I got covid on the 10th of Jan. Unfortunately positive test didn’t let me board my flight back home to Australia on 13th Jan. Isolating near LAX now and recovery is slow. Any idea how long does it take to get test to negative from day 1? Also how normal running routine influences recovery?

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately it takes a very long time to get a negative test. Some have said up to a month! I can't comment on how running has helped recovery but it certainly made me feel better to get some fresh air.

[@mikeclements4548]

Great vid - so if you could only chose 1 - which one would go for 🤔

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Probably the garmin... Since it doesn't have a monthly subscription.

[@daniellees7873]

Great vid man, really useful info for your viewers. Glad to hear you and your fam got through ok!

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Glad you found it useful! Thanks!

[@m1n1t3]

Glad to hear you’re all recovered. Question: is there a similar app with detailed stats like this on the Apple Watch, that gives you a „body battery“ score or something equivalent?

[@ChaseTheSummit]

Something like Elite HRV might give you some insight but there’s nothing quite like body battery or Whoop to my knowledge.