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"Active Calories" and calories burned from activities don't add up.

Former Member
Former Member over 8 years ago
I've tried reading through the threads but I didn't find one with this specific issue.

I have a FR235, OHR, all that lovely stuff.

I've noticed that my 'active calories' compared with what an activity says I burned are not the same. EX:

This morning I ran 4 miles and the activity says I burned 390 calories. Later, I went for a walk and tracked it, burned 50-odd calories. But garmin connect isn't adding those two up correctly.

390 + 59= 449.

Connect lists my active calories as 410 though? It may be a watch issue as the watch face itself reflects the 410 calories instead of the 449, but I find that odd overall.

Any one else experience this issue?

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  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    Thank you for a detailed response but for me I still cant see how mine can be correct. 

    I have had the watch for a week and it has been getting progressively worse. 

    Today I did a 35k run, it said I burned 1817 calories. My treadmill said 2400 calories. I assume it calculates me lower as i am 63kg with a high vo2 max. My active calories after run was 985. Total 2145. I have 35700 steps for the day. How can this be correct? 

    Yesterday I had 15000 steps and only 211 active calories. 2077 in total. I know this is incorrect as I eat 2800 calories a day and have been for a while with no weight gain. According to Garmin I was 800 calories in surplus yesterday! 

    I have the 935 and this is so disappointing when you part with £300. I have searched online a lot regarding this issue and cannot find a solution. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    Your reply is clear and very interesting, but the formula is slightly incorrect. It should be:

    Total Calories burned during an activity = BMR for the time of the activity + Active Calories

    because it doesn't make sense talking about RMR during an activity.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to pagheca
    pagheca said:
    because it doesn't make sense talking about RMR during an activity.

    Perhaps it does not, but Garmin uses RMR instead of BMR anyway, so the RMR is in the formula for that reason - because Garmin uses it. In their definition the Active Calories are those burned in the excess of RMR, not above BMR. Makes sense to me - people are interested how much more they burn when they excercise in comparison with the rest, not in comparison with some abstract BMR value, not telling them much.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    That's correct, but there is a simple relation between the daily RMR (the one shown by Garmin) and the daily BMR, useful for example to suggest the correct energy intake: 

    BMR = RMR / (1-T/24)

    where T is the time in hours spent during "activities". In fact one can assume that BMR = RMR + BMR * T / 24.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to pagheca

    It does not really matter what the relation between BMR and RMR is, because Garmin simply uses only RMR. The previously given formula used by Garmin, Total Cal = RMR + Active Cal is correct for the data in Garmin Connect. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to trux

    Hi Trux,

    I'm hoping you can show me where I have gone wrong on this.  I've tried to apply your maths to my numbers, but it is not adding up.   

    - I went for a swim today for an hour and 17 minutes that my garmin venu SQ logged into connect as burning 1027 calories.

    - Garmin connect states that it is a total of 2410 resting calories for this day based on my RMR + sedentary to light movement.  

    So, 2410/(60*24)= appx 1.7 resting calories per minute.  I spent 77 minutes swimming so 77*1.7= 130.9 resting calories.  So my active calories for this workout should be 1027 total calories - 130.9 resting calories = 896.1 active calories.  

    However, when I look at my calorie details for the day, it only lists 551 active calories.  

    I had expected it to show the 896.1 + whatever extra I spent walking around.

    Can you please find the error in my logic?

    Thanks in advance.  Live long and prosper.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Please see the FAQ below for more on this subject:

    Calorie Terminology

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-Kevin

    Hi Kevin,

    First, thank you for your quick response!  I reviewed the calorie terminology prior to my original post and again right now.  As far as I can tell, it does not contain any clarifying information and has been properly applied to my above calculations.  If you see anywhere I have miss-applied the definitions and/or miscalculated, please let me know. 

    Thank you again for your time and patience,

    Live Long and Prosper