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Calorie count way out on forerunner 235 since I connected MyZone HR monitor

Former Member over 5 years ago

Ok so I've seen lots of people have had this problem but haven't seen any solutions, I wondered if anyone has heard anything from Garmin themselves?

Before I connected my HR strap there was no issue at all with calories or training level but since I have connected the strap it's saying I've burnt barely any calories!

As an example, last week I ran a half marathon and according to my MyZone HR monitor I burnt 1894 calories. My watch, and therefore my Garmin and Strava apps, say that I burnt 370 calories for the same run!

This has happened on every single run since I connected my HR monitor. I'm tempted to just not have them connected but the whole point is that it's meant to make my stats more accurate, not the exact opposite!

Any solutions? Thanks!

0 trux over 5 years ago

Garmin devices calculate the Calories by comparing your HR during the activity to your average resting HR.

Not sure how exactly you connected the HR strap, whether you disbaled the built-in HRM, but from what you tell, it seems to be indeed related. Is it a Garmin strap? Is it connected over ANT? Can you read the HR from it on your watch HR widget? If the watch cannot read the HR directly from the belt, it cannot properly calculate the Calories either. Or, if you turned-off the built-in HRM, and use the belt HRM only during the activity, the device cannot record your resting HR, hence showing very low Calories burn. Similarly, even if the buil-in HRM continues to work, and you do not wear the watch 24/7, the resting HR cannot be measured properly, hence the resulting Calories burn would be false too.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

No help from either Garmin support either, they just say because it’s a 3rd party belt they can’t help. It’s simply an issue with how they calculate calories and there must be lots of people in the same boat. Very frustrating!

0 trux over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Could you post some data to look at? A link to an activity, and a screenshot of your Average Resting HR report would be useful for that purpose.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to trux

Check out my cycling activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday

resting hr is 50

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to trux

Thanks trux, the first two screenshots are from my MyZone HR monitor. The first shows my resting HR of 50, the second shows a 5 mile run where I burnt 651 calories and the third is from my Garmin app which says the same run burnt 80 calories!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Also, this shows that my watch has a very similar resting HR for me than my strap, although I don't wear it all the time.

0 trux over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thanks for the screenshots, but I need to see what is recorded in Garmin Connect. The best way would be tapping the Share symbol on the screen of the concerned Activity, and posting the link then here.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to trux

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4919665562?share_unique_id=4

Hopefully this has worked... This is the same run.

0 trux over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Yes, that's better. Could you tell what was the resting HR for the same day (Tuesday)? The above screenshot is not from that day

0 trux over 5 years ago in reply to trux

.. and I'd also need to know your age and weight for the calculation (exactly as entered into your watch's user settings), if you do not mind posting it here. Weight shown on the screenshot above is 73kg, but the question is whether it is in the user profile on the watch exactly the same. It can influence the results.