Because Wahoo and Garmin each keep their own zone settings, and neither side takes over the other’s. Wahoo uses the zones set in the Wahoo app and writes them into the ride file; Garmin uses the zones in your Garmin profile and on your watch. The same ride, with the same heart rate, can therefore land in different zones on each side.
Where does Wahoo keep my zones?
In the Wahoo app. Wahoo’s page on heart rate, power and pace zones describes zone sets you edit under your profile, with a threshold heart rate from which the zones can be calculated, and separate sets for different workout profiles. The bike computer records with the zones set there.
Where does Garmin keep my zones?
In your Garmin user profile, on the watch and in Garmin Connect. According to the Forerunner 570 owner’s manual, the watch sets default heart rate zones from your user profile, you can set separate zones for sports such as running and cycling, and you can adjust them on the watch or in your Garmin Connect account. Physio TrueUp shares power zones and FTP between compatible Garmin devices; Garmin’s page names no other maker.
What did we find in the files and the profile?
The two sides do not even have the same number of zones. On 27 September 2026 we read two ride files from a Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM, two Zwift files fetched from Garmin Connect, and the zones in our Garmin Connect profile:
| Source | Heart rate zones | Power zones |
|---|---|---|
| Wahoo ride file | 5, each with its upper limit in bpm | 6, each with its upper limit in watts |
| Zwift file via Garmin | none | none |
| Garmin Connect profile | 5, each with its lower limit, for a default setting and for cycling | 7, each with its lower limit, plus FTP |
Six power zones on one side and seven on the other cannot line up one to one, and a limit stored as the top of a zone on Wahoo is stored as the bottom of the next zone on Garmin. None of the four files held time in zone, so time in zone is always calculated from the records and the limits, never read from the file.
Which zones does Nabe show for a ride?
Nabe takes the limits in this order:
- The ride file, if it carries zones, as Wahoo files do.
- Your Garmin Connect profile, if Garmin is connected: the cycling zones, otherwise the default ones.
- Neither: the ride detail shows a sentence with the reason instead of an empty chart.
Nabe keeps the zones from your Garmin profile for 30 days and then fetches them again.
Why does Nabe prefer the zones in the file?
Because they are the limits that were set on the device when you rode. If you raised your threshold since then, an old ride still shows the zones it was ridden with. The Garmin profile is today’s setting and the fallback for files without zones.
How do I make Wahoo and Garmin agree?
Set the same limits in both places by hand: in the Wahoo app for the bike computer and in Garmin Connect or on the watch for Garmin. Because Wahoo has six power zones and Garmin seven, the power zones can only be made to agree at the limits both sides share.