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Calories Burned seems incorrect............

6259363
28 days ago

I recently switched to a Garmin Forerunner 165 - just this week. I had been using a Fitbit Versa 4 for the last couple of years and liked it. However, as time has gone on, I've noticed the Fitbit and App are starting to go way downhill....and eventually the GPS stopped working entirely. I've noticed that the Garmin - when compared to my Fitbit - seems to calculate my "Calories Burned" much differently. For the same activities per day, I'm burning about 1,000 calories less per day when compared to my Fitbit. I don't know if the Fitbit has been incorrect this whole time......or if it is the Garmin. I've entered in all my information correctly - age, gender, weight, height, etc. However, I've only had my Garmin about 5 days so far. I've checked the Garmin Connect app - and everything looks okay....my stats, etc. But the Calories Burned figured are depressingly less when compared to my Fitbit. Is this normal?? Which one is normally more accurate?? I've noticed that my physical activities with the Garmin are underreporting my Calories Burned by about 150 per hour(cycling, running). But it really seems to be off during rest. By the end of the day, I'm about 1,000-1,200 calories less per day compared to the Fitbit. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong on the Garmin.....or if the Fitbit was just way off. 

  • 0 27 days ago

    What is your 7 average Resting HR? It plays an important role in the calculation of Active Calories. Also the Max HR, and then of course the accuracy of HR during the day and during activities is important as well.

    However, if you primarily have problems with low Resting Calories, then either you did not enter the body parameters correctly, or you have unrealistic expectations. Resting Calories are constant (as long as the body parameters do not change). You can verify the expected Resting Calories with some of numerous RMR online calculators (look up RMR calculators, not BMR - the Basal Metabolic Rate is lower than Resting Metabolic Rate). Although the calculators use similar algorithms, the results vary. However Garmin's Resting Calories values are typically slightly higher than at most of the calculators.

    If you find some important discrepancy between common RMR estimates, and the Resting Calories shown by Garmin, then double check your body parameters (especially the weight). 

  • 0 27 days ago in reply to trux

    Oh, thank you, thank you! My resting heart rate is 51. My Max is 177. However.....using the RMR online calculator(thank you!), it looks pretty accurate to what Garmin is using. When combined with my Active Calories, it kept coming up with a figure I "thought" was too low. However, after viewing the RMR calculator, I'm realizing my Fitbit was probably being overly generous with my "Calories Burned" per day number. In reality, I do believe the Garmin is more accurate - especially when comparing my Active Calories with those of, say, machines at the gym(my Fitbit always had me burning more calories, even though the gym machines had my weight as well). The online RMR calculators had me in the 2,000 calorie per day range. Fitbit, I believe, was closer to 3,000 per day....from my experience with it. That would explain the 1,000-1,200 calorie difference per day.