I love the Body Battery. I find the Stress Level fairly accurately reflects how knackered I feel after a workout, and when I'm injured or coming down with a bug.

The hard part about comparing these sleep metrics is that there's no good way to see which one is more accurate. (like you mentioned) There is that guy The Quantified Scientist who uses some research equipment to estimate sleep accuracy. Generally my feelings on Whoop aren't that great. I do think it's a great simple number for people to get a basic feel for recovery. I just don't think they're the only game in town anymore. (keep in mind, I've never tested Whoop so . . .) I also don't like adding more subscription services. Great video and great overview Dave!

Ended my subscription but I still use my Whoop band as a HR monitor when I’m out riding my bike. $30 a month was outrageous.

Keep up the great content! 30$ a month is absolutely insane tho lol

Great side by side comparison! Thank you! I used the Whoop for a year, then bought a garmin instinct solar, used em both for a month, both similar data, I really liked the Whoop but had to part with the $30 month, with the whoop I have to charge the battery, then charge my strap once a week, or sooner. I love my garmin instinct solar, it will run forever. Never have to worry about a low battery will run for a month or longer just on sunlight.

I've just bought a Garmin 745 and absolutely love the Body Battery feature. I'd also been having exactly the same thoughts about this being almost identical to Whoop - without the monthly cost.

DUDE!! You read my freaking mind. This video comes at the perfect time.

Thank you for confirming my Garmin purchase for an overall wellness perspective. I don't train for anything specific but like to treat my body well between life and work. Garmin meets all my needs.

Garmin’s Body Battery seems the more intuitive concept to me = easier to understand. PS: I thought that Garmin is quite expensive, but Whoop is even more expensive!

I use very accurate tool for measuring about 20 parameters of Heart Rate. It is called MySASY. It uses HRM chest strap and accuracy is 1/1000 sec. I made some data exports yesterday and I have found that during last 30 days there were 14 peaks (best and worst results) in MySASY. And Garmin Body Battery has the same peaks in 12 of these 14 days. Amazingly accurate.

I bought a 2nd hand fenix 6s, took me a week to stop checking my whoop. Have just stopped my subscription. Body battery is brilliant. The only thing i miss is the journal and the weekly and monthly reports.

in all honesty, this kind of content is really informative and very useful for any smartwatch owners to learn the function of their device in their everyday life aside from the fitness functions. This also help potential buyer to identify whether their targeted device is a 'wacky kids toy' device, 'slight accurate' device or a 'professional athlete accuracy' device. thanks for the great and useful video!

I had this same question last year and ended up with the Garmin 945 :) Now that they’ve improved the sleep tracking, I’m happy with it. It seems that the Whoop is a bit inconsistent. Some users say it’s flawless, some say it isn’t accurate at all. 🤷🏾‍♀️ At $30/mo. it should be perfect 24/7!

Interesting comparison and a fair review. For me, body battery is a comprehensive roll-up of multiple source metrics and just easier to conceptualize. I also value the integration with training load and recovery.

The subscription model of the Whoop band is its biggest drawback when you compare it to Garmin or the Oura Ring.

After watching your video I think BB from Garmin makes much more sense.. I was considering getting Whoop but now Im sure its completly not worth 30$/month.. Its not really about throwing whatever data you can at your customers.. but giving them something intuitive, simple and useful..

This was the first your videos that I’ve seen. It’s great! You do a great job explaining the differences. I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4 which replaced my Apple Watch, which was useless. I see ads for the Whoop and wasn’t sure if it would provide any better data than my Garmin. This video settled it for me. My Garmin has been very useful and has done a great job recognizing activities, stress and recovery. Thanks for making this video!

I got a Garmin Venu SQ a couple of weeks ago and wasn’t really aware of the body battery. I’m a 68 year old and do a bit of bike riding. A lot less than when I was racing competitively but I still like to keep a good pace. I’m finding the body battery quite good. At the moment it’s afternoon and it says 35, just up from 30 this morning. I had a ride yesterday of 40 kms and probably a bit harder than necessary. 😀 It’s good to know that there’s a reason for me wanting to just chill out today.

Garmin also has the load metrics (anaerobic and aerobic) for a given activity which I have found helpful to review after the fact. I have never used a whoop band and it seems like a great idea but many reviewers have said the HR data just isn't accurate which defeats any belief in a heart rate based metric. In a separate question, how did each device line up with how you are feeling?

I thought this was a great idea for a vid the moment I saw the thumbnail. I’m definitely on the Garmin side here. $30 per month is crazy!

Great video, thanks. Have been wondering about this for a while. I have Garmin and will be sticking with that system. Plus if I have something on my wrist 24/7 would like it to at least be able to tell time. Above all, just some metrics to reinforce how you feel. Typically you know when you are too tired to do that really hard work out and when you are really fresh.

i'm both brand user, and i think whoop is more accurate if you are training for a specific event, and you have to train hard, whoop can help you to chose the right days to do the rignt workouts, while if you are in a fitness maintenance period body battery is more than enough. just my thought

Good video. You missed quite a few points that make the Whoop special. 1. The battery life (5 days) which keeps you focused on your daily/weekly activity than the technology itself 2. The straps option: this is, for me, the most crucial component. You compare running activities where you should have also reached gym workouts or outdoor workouts and see the accuracy of both. I do boxing and grappling. My whoop has an armband made for this kind of activity 3. The tracking itself. You only compared the automatic monitoring, but how the manual tracking is performing? The rest is excellent, it’s your opinion, but I felt a little short, lol. Cheers

I’ve had the whoop for awhile now and got over the 30 a month so I switched to the basic venu sq that cost 150 and it seems from your video I could get just about the same data. Thanks!!!

Nice real review, I’m keeping my Garmin

Thanks for the video. I really enjoyed it. I think I'll pay a bit more attention to what my body battery says and not work out too hard on days when it's low. I usually think I sleep OK but very interesting to see your sleep pattern vs my 70 something YO one! Often not a lot of deep sleep. Overall I got a bit more trust in the device as a result of seeing this.

Whoop vs Polar ? Polar seems to have readiness and recharge too

I think you nailed it in the last comment of the whole video...you can look at the Garmin and see the data. There's nothing to look at on the whoop strap itself.

You need to note that in your comparison, you don’t even mention all the extra features a Garmin watch has over the Whoop band. Garmin has GPS, activity tracking, smart notifications, etc. I’ve been using a Garmin Forerunner 955 since it was released 10 months ago, and love it. It’s extremely insightful in my triathlon training, and really impressive in it’s predictive evaluations of my body condition. On more than one occasion has the body battery or training readiness been lower than expected, and then to have illness symptoms manifest the next day. It’s by far my most valuable training tool.

I know I'm spamming you at this point, but this was the next on my autoplay. Today, July 8, 2021, I've finally decided to ditch the Whoop once and for all. Cancelled my subscription, pulled the band off and put it in the watch box. I'm going all in on my Garmin Fenix 6 sapphire. Ultimately, for $30 a month, the value just isn't there. I appreciated seeing this video (again).

I went from WHOOP to Garmin Fenix 6. And I can see that I get lot more from Fenix 6. But most of all I can connect HR strap to Fenix 6. That is impossible in WHOOP. I just love my new fitness and recovery trucker that is really accurate.

Garmin fenix 6 has body battery and also sleep rating widgets, which are very useful combined together.

It was good idea to compare those together.

Super helpful. After watching this I know I should upgrade my Garmin watch to one with this body battery feature. Thanks!

Just bought my Fenix 6X pro....man!!! it is AWESOME!!!!!

I have had a Whoop 3 for a couple of years and it definitely helped me. I subscribed before HRV recovery was a thing with other makers. I will be migrating to Garmin as my sub with Whoop is coming to a close. I appreciated this comparison a lot and this gives me confidence and some direction on what to expect, Thanks!

Sir pls, pls leave the music in the beginning of the video with your voice. Cool video and full of information. Thank you

I love the body battery function, and have used Garmin watches for over 10 years. Thing is: I just don't want to wear the same watch all the time (i.e. my Fenix in the office), but you kind of have to if you want consistent results on the body battery measurements, bc these also don't carry over well between say a Vivomove you were during the day, and the Fenix you were whioe working out. I also want to be able to mix it up between my nicer Withings watch and my more casual looking Garmin Vivomove watches. And all my nice other watches (dress, diver etc.) also have been in the drawer for too long. Therefore, for me the Whoop band is a very attractive alternative. And if I look at what I spent on Garmin, Polar and Withings gear over the years, a Whoop subscription does really not look that expensive at all to me. Just my two cents. Thanks for the great video.

Great video! Excellent concept and execution

The Quantified Scientist channel compares these things scientifically. Worth checking out. Looks like the body battery works entirely on stress. Low stress it goes up and higher stress down. I use both a garmin and polar watch and both give different sleep data from when i go to bed and get up and the break down. Wrong data is a waste of time so I don't worry about either unless they agree in duration at the same time which is once in 2 or 3 weeks.

Nice detailed comparison. Topic is very good. I like my Fenix 6. Of course you pay much for it but there are no more costs. Greetings from Germany

Best review in youtube abot these two products. Highly recommended

I'm currently conducting an experiment with my Garmin Body Battery metrics. I've been using Garmin Body Battery for a couple of years now and I think it really give a good indication of my stress and recovery levels. If I have a few alcoholic drinks the night before, the body battery will definitively pick that up and I'll have very poor sleep and recovery. But here is the experiment I'm conducting. I am tracking whether being in a social environment is more stressful to me than doing an fairly arduous workout. The test is whether my recovery is better and stress levels are lower when going to the gym a full to do a 60 minute workout and then a 6 mile run vs if I just go out and socialize with people. So far, just socializing with people is more stressful on my body and negatively impacts my recovery significantly. I am also tracking if I have alcohol or not during the social interactions. As this amplifies the lack of recovery. But I don't drink every time I socialize. And I'm even combining the workout/socialization into a single category to test that...e.g. going to the gym then a run club meetup w/ and w/out alcohol. I think using this type of data could lead to better myers briggs type personality tests. haha. I'm totally an introvert but I do like going out and being social, it just takes a huge toll on me. Especially if I'm stressing over introducing myself to a pretty girl. My real goal is to see if I can set a baseline stress level for social interactions and then over time reduce my social anxiety and see if this is also reflected in my heart rate/body battery metrics. Lol. jeez.

With Garmin you can dive into your sleep or stress readings or just look at the body battery number. It also has the HRV Stress reading you can take

Thanks for your Video! It was really helpful! I love my garmin fenix 😁

They performed in a very similar way, but that's all whoop has. The Garmin does so much more 'live' via the watch.. Oh and you can tell the time with it! Whoop has a huge marketing department and lots of pros who they pay to wear it. 5 years from now there will be lots of unused whoop bands in kitchen draws as folks wake up.. But just my thoughts..

I have had the whoop 3.0 for a year and stopped using it because of the subscription, the fact that the data was kind off overkill for me and that I did not use all the data to plan my workouts. I did use the data to understand why my workout went as it did and I found it an eye opener to see what effect certain behavior had on sleep, recovery and workout and that Whoop connected the dots for me in notifications like: “The last 2 weeks you used magnesium it had a 10% better recovery” Or The last 5 times you had alcohol your sleep was 10% worse” But after all too expensive for the way I used it, but for those working out at the top level and searching for that last bit to squeeze out and optimize the ratio between working out, nutrition and rest it’s a great piece of gear.

I have both and like you get similar data.... I do really like the whoop app and the fact it's far easier to read, recovery % and strain required based on the above.... Cheers for your insight. 👍

lol, I was looking at the Whoop site for like 10 min and couldn't even figure out what it WAS. I thought they were just swappable bands for some bigger tracker.

This video helped me make one of the biggest decisions of my life thank you man this was very helpfull

Good video. I'm a swimmer and I have noticed the data differences between apple watch and garmin swim are huge, particularly on open water swims

Thanks Dave. It is a Great video. Your user perspective videos really do help.

Thank you Chase, this was helpful. I have been doing research on purchasing a watch. I am leaning towards a Garmin

Thank you, i like hoy you do this kind of Versus 👍🏻

I'm very wary of subscription models and i love my Garmin Fenix, so I'm biased for sure, but your video was super helpful, thank you. I don't think people realize that subscription models are modern day slavery, whereby you never own things. I have a Fenix 3, it's arguably old AF, but it still functions perfectly well. Stop paying for whoop, and you have nothing left.

It's about $40 for an Australian monthly access. That kinda money i would rather put towards a good watch and a pair of shoes

I believe I bought my Garmin 945 for $550 with coupon in June 2019. It's still working today with all the new Garmin software updates. If I had bought Whoop at the same time/duration I've had my Garmin 945, that's $30*24months=$720 TCO on Whoop today. Also, I can't use it for running as there is no watch face to provide feedback on heartrate/pace/etc real-time, right? Correct me if I'm wrong here. As a runner it's a no-brainer which I would buy again. The Whoop looks like "fun" as far as stats go, but I couldn't justify both when Garmin provides similar stats plus does more.

Completely different comparison but I’ve had my Garmin Fenix 6X Pro for about a month now and my sleep number bed for over a year. The body battery metric is way off on nights that I wake up numerous times because of my 2 year old. I usually get about 5-6hrs of sleep a night. When I get a solid, uninterrupted night of sleep they seem to be comparable. However, on nights when I’m up multiple times, the Garmin doesn’t budge and says I’m “fully charged” even though I am EXHAUSTED. The metrics from my sleep number much more accurately capture these nights.

This is a great video! I am helping to assess whether to continue a whoop subscription after 18 months or go with Garmin. After seeing how body battery work in action i now have to help assess which Garmin is best!

Really useful thoughts and a good assessment! Recovery time and training load play a role on the Garmin/Whoop comparison for me.

As always, fantastic content. Cheers !

Thanks! Garmins body battery works without the phone and subscription? Huge advantage for me.

The subscription is just a killer man… and with such awful “lock in time” like 6 months or 1 YEAR and not able to get out of it…. Just bought the Fénix 6 from Garmin’s sale…. Hopefully it lasts a while and stands up to working in the wilderness for weeks. I think it’s worth it… so far

Ill simplify your decision. In 3 years of whoop membership youll be able to get probably the best garmin watch out there 1k+ also you don't only get a heart rate reader but way more many functions out of a watch. Unless you poop money is a no brainer. For me.

Great timing I was looking a whoop think I might pass seems expensive for what it is garmin is just as good 👍

@ChaseTheSummit im fd on all these devices that track HRV I was born with a heart defect repaired called TOF for short and have a permanent heart murmur all my devices Garmin Tactix delta solar ( fenix 6x that looks better ) and my Oura never say I recover my HRV is always 10 or under and I always feel refreshed. Just from the heart murmur I was basically born with. I was told on Garmin connect you can change baseline HRV Vo2 max rest level but didn't see where on Android. Another great video I am a long-time subscriber on multiple of my channels.

$30 a month? Nope, not me. Garmin is giving me loads of information for free... and that's why I have a Garmin on my wrist. Love my Garmin Venu 2 and the Garmin ecosystem.

I'll stick with Garmin. I think their Body Battery + sleep metrics + workout load metrics paint a pretty complete picture and no monthly recurring cost. Add to that, I am skeptical of the Woot band. Nearly every good reviewer notes its heart rate data is off. Makes me wonder how good their SW is if the data feeding it isn't reliable.

My take on comparing the two is that I end up taking my Garmin off for periods of time daily & find it just too uncomfortable to wear in bed, so the Whoop band would be a winner in that respect.

Great comparison man...think that it's all about personal views. But hmm 30$ / month is a bit expensive. Cheers

Very helpful. Hopefully Garmin will get wrist HRV one day.

I don't have either - I like the garmen shows body recharge in realtime. It also helps you figure out things like playing with your kids is actually stressful for example. I don't own either of these devices - are my conclusions accurate?

10:08 --> literally this. I can do the same activities to the tee between multiple days. Garmin's battery would more or less be the same (+/-5) but Whoop's strain would best reflect the stress experienced over those days. Seeing details on that second detected activity you described would make more sense then versus not really being able to pin point something specifically using Garmin's battery

at 7:53 both metrics are very close because whoop strain scale is 0-21 every 5 points is a 25% out of energy and it could be 75% in Body Battery Garmin Scale so 68% in garmin results is very close.

Hey man, the vid was very helpful - thanks!

Unless you're using a chest strap the HRM data is going to be variable on most of these tools this can be seen other studies, so as far as HRM goes it depends what you're training for. I think most of us are fine with getting a relatively close metric for day to day athletes will most likely be using chest monitors and other various training metrics during their day since they basically work out 8+ hours per day as that's their job.

ha you saved me couple of bucks. I was about to try whoop, but having a garmin it makes no sense to me :D Thanks!!

Dude, you really help me to choose!

Great content! I’m looking at getting a Garmin Vivoactive 4. Does anyone have any advice in regards to monitoring my BJJ / MMA sessions? I already use a Polar H10 strap on my chest.

Great vid. Tipped the scale to Garmin Fenix 6x pro for me. Thanks!

To get more accurate HR data you need to use the Whoop higher on your arm (close to the elbow). I've been wearing mine that way and went on a couple of runs, comparing the HR on my Fenix 6X pro and the Whoop, and both were giving me exactly the same HR values. Weirdly, I can't seem to find the Garmin's sleep score anywhere, I only have info on sleep stages, pulse OX and respiration. Maybe something to look up tomorrow. Just a final note to say that, for me, nothing beats Garmin's Body Battery. It predicted that I was becoming sick even before I knew it. On a specific day a while ago, my body battery just got depleted a lot "faster" than usual, and later that night I started to get feverish. The next 2 days the body battery did not go above 15% and, on the third day, it got a little above 40%. Again, later that day, I started feeling a lot better. Sorry for the (very) long comment. Cheers from Portugal!

Great video Dave! I like some of the features of that Garmin… haven’t seen many reviews on it but I may have to check it out!

Not used Whoop but Garmin body battery good enough. Another main aspect to club with Body battery is the Resting HR which tells me how the activities is going to be.

Yeah I think I like how simple the garmin is. More user friendly

Great review thank you

Hi great video and analysis. I used Whoop for a year but didn't keep the subscription as I also have a Gamin Fenix 5X and found the information pretty similar. As a Crossfiter I find the Whoop strap more comfortable to work out with, but it's too way expensive to pay 30USD monthly. I tried to use the strap with my Garmin during the work outs, I can pair boths but wasn't able it seems you need to keep the subscrition in order to do it.

Garmin all day for me. Couldn’t live without seeing my metrics (HR, pace, distance, etc.) real time while I do an activity. With whoop you will still need to wear a stop watch to time your run or look at your phone to navigate the trails. So in essence, it’s not just $30 per month. You need to consider the cost of a watch to time your activity or even a phone to help you navigate.

This was super interesting. I’ve been trying out Garmin’s Body Battery after deciding against Whoop based on questionable data and the monthly fee. I was already in Garmin’s ecosystem w an older FR35 that doesn’t have activity tracking features and found a cheap, used Vivosmart4. I like it and it’s given me some good insights (eg how hard travel is on my body, how little I recover overnight when I’ve had alcohol). Ultimately though, I decided to switch to an Apple Watch rather than a nicer Garmin w body battery. I’m looking for apps that will give me the same kind of readiness score. If you know of any and have tested them, another video on that would be great.

Interesting to see that the result of the two are heavily different. The main question is, are both bogus or just one... Whoop I think is not really telling much. A battery score and graph from 0-100 is much more intuitive. Why 0-21? What are these numbers?

I prefer the one time payment and the general yet targeted info provided by Garmin. You get much more info and features from that as well. I also think that whoop over analyze things for me and binds me to a subscription and does not even offer a screen. That is, I have to refer to another devise to monitor or check the status. The subscription model is not good especially that whoop is benefiting also from selling data to a third party. If this is the case the. There services should be for free. Garmin or sunto is a more suitable and feasible option for me. The watch prices should be less as well

Whoop's pricing is totally off the rails. 6 months minimum commitment on their monthly plan comes to $180, and then you get to keep paying monthly. OR you can pay $288/$324 upfront for 12/16 months with autorenewal ad infinitum at $288/year. Either way, if you stop paying, they brick your device. Meanwhile, my Vivosmart 4 cost $90 right now on Amazon. It does analogous tracking to the Whoop, does a bunch of other stuff on top of that, and will likely continue to do so unconditionally until the hardware fails.

Love the video. Side-by-side is awesome

Long time whoop user for around 2 years... just bought a garmin 245 a week ago and my calories are drastically different between the 2 devices..... not sure why. If have to think either the whoop strap tracked my heart rate a lot faster = more total calories burned in a day vs the garmin. Either way one of the watches is pretty off.

i loved the whoop but i started getting contact dermatitis and didnt want to keep playing monthly.

Wish i had this video a couple months ago when i was making the decision. Glad i made the choice to go Garmin anyways mostly bc of the one off fee and the screen. I think Whoop gets alot of its hype from all the athletes it endorses and marketing

Whoop auto-detects activity if it results in an 8 strain or higher.

Yeah I think for what it is Garmin just takes an edge on this with all their features

Great video, I just bought a new garmin watch earlier this month. But why the garmin watch can't read nap time, that's a little bit down side of the garmin watches.

This was great thank you. What Garmin would you recommend for me as I mainly lift weights and walk and with a bit of running once a week? Thanks tony

There is no comparison if one of the devices has “inaccurate hr data”