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StreetStrider: setting calories/min on Garmin 935

I have a StreetStrider elliptical bike. I have set it up as a activity on my Garmin 935. Calories are important to me. I use it as a gauge to compare workouts in different activities. For me, 100 calories equals 1 mile running, or 3 miles biking, or 1/4 mile swimming and my Garmin 935 agrees. But my Garmin 935 has no clue as to an accurate calorie burn for a Streetstrider. It thinks I'm on a bike, but  a Streetstrider is about 30% harder (upper body use and standing in the wind) than a road bike with no wind, and 60% harder into the wind.  Is there a way to set the calories per minute for my activity?

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  • over 3 years ago in reply to sambiondo +1 verified
    I thought maybe by turning off the heart rate monitor, Garmin would revert to a formula like in has to do with swimming

    Yes, you can try that, if you do not care about the HR data.

    When…

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  • Garmin devices with HRM do not care what sport you are doing - they calculate the Calories by comparing your HR during the activity to your average resting HR. That makes much more sense than using some fixed coefficients according to the sport discipline. It is the effort that decides, and not just the name of the the sport you do. 

    If the resulting Calories do not meet you expectations, then you either do not wear the watch 24/7 and it cannot properly acquire your average resting HR, or the HR monitoring during the activity does not work correctly (you may need to check the fit of the watch). Or you expectation are simply wrong.

  • Yes, I am aware of Firstbeat's heart rate algorithm. I have run 90,000 miles in my 67 years, so I'm guessing it's not just that my "expectation[s] are simply wrong". What I read from your response is that I should turn off the heart rate monitor. Will myGarmin then revert to kilojoules/hr to determine calories?

  • I have run 90,000 miles in my 67 years, so I'm guessing it's not just that my "expectation[s] are simply wrong"

    Sorry, it was in no way meant offensively, and I did not intend to put in question your experience. I reffered to the expectations based on some Calories values taken from tables for diverse sport disciplines in general documents about fitness or sports.

    What I read from your response is that I should turn off the heart rate monitor.

    It is the exact opposite that I wrote - you should use the HRM 24/7, never turning it off. That allows the device correctly collecting the resting HR, and then comparing it to the current HR during the activity.

    Will myGarmin then revert to kilojoules/hr to determine calories?

    Sorry, I do not understand what you mean. Kilojoules are SI units, while Calories are not, but they both describe the same thing - the energy. I do not know whether your Garmin device uses also kiljoules, since on my Garmin watch I have no choice to select kJ vs kcal - it displays all values always in Calories only. But if your device displays kilojoules, I see no reason why it should switch from kilojoules to Calories.

  • Thanks. No, I didn't take it offensively, I meant that I have a very good idea of the calories burned versus the activity and effort and that the Garmin process of determining that is too far off to trust.  I estimate the MET value at about 8.0- 9.0. ( from The Compendium of Physical Activities 2011 ) Using a  Casio's online calorie calculator for cross country skiing ( the closest thing to Streetstrider ) which is not dependent on heart rate, I get about 700kcal/hr. My Garmin 935 calculates about 40% lower than that. I thought maybe by turning off the heart rate monitor, Garmin would revert to a formula like in has to do with swimming ((MET x body weight in kg x 3.5). which would be more accurate, because I think Garmin uses kilojoules (work) (which converts 1:1 with kcal) when it has a power input ( like my Quarq  Crankset  on my bike) to calculate calories.

  • I thought maybe by turning off the heart rate monitor, Garmin would revert to a formula like in has to do with swimming

    Yes, you can try that, if you do not care about the HR data.

    When using HRM, then there are couple of other factors that may play a role in the calculation of the total energy, besides the proper capture of resting HR: your personal data (age, gender, weight, height, and the activity class - in the User Profile), and then also the appropriate values in the HR Zone settings.

  • because I think Garmin uses kilojoules (work) (which converts 1:1 with kcal)

    No, 1 kilojoule is 0.24 Calories. More properly Calorie (with uppercase C) is in fact kilocalorie (or also kcal, sometimes not really correctly kCal). And the exact value is 0.239006. In reverse direction 1 Calorie = 4.2 kilojoule (more precisely 4.184)

  • Yes, the activity class is editable...that's the next best solution. Thanks

  • Three years have past since this post. Now there are other options but liked your thread of post and wanted to know what you thought. I use a HR chest strap, and the STRAVA app. I set it on back county skiing and work the street strider for 10 to 20 miles... depends on what I'm feeling. It is the only selection I think is close to the numbers results. I'm 240LBS and 6'1". I exercise moderately  

    I am going to incorporate a Garmin Fenix 7 into the mix starting this week.to get some additional reads and number crunch.

  • Three years have past since this post. Now there are other options but liked your thread of post and wanted to know what you thought. I use a HR chest strap, and the STRAVA app. I set it on back county skiing and work the street strider for 10 to 20 miles... depends on what I'm feeling. It is the only selection I think is close to the numbers results. I'm 240LBS and 6'1". I exercise moderately  

    I am going to incorporate a Garmin Fenix 7 into the mix starting this week.to get some additional reads and number crunch.