Hi - is there a easy way for someone to explain the calorie indicator...what it means, what units its expressed in? I am readying too much and getting confused.
I guess it really does not matter. All calories used in the part of the Garmin ecosphere I am familiar with are kcals and gross. They are "The large calorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie, nutritionist's calorie, nutritional calorie, Calorie (capital C) or food calorie (symbol: Cal) is approximately the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. The large calorie is thus equal to 1000 small calories or one kilocalorie (symbol: kcal)." Gross means that they include both your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and any additional calories you are burning specifically as a result of engaging in whatever activity you are measuring.
Are kcals the same as the calories reported on a food label? Does Garmin include kcals burned through an activity (using the HR monitor) in the daily kcals? Thx.
Essentially a kilo-calorie is a Calorie as reported on the food label and the Calorie burned as reported by you device to Garmin Connect. There are slight definition differences between many of the calorie terms listed in post #8, but you can think of them as meaning the same until you get into a very technical discussion.
Not all Garmin devices determine Calorie burn the same so there may be some disagreement. And even among same devices you will see disagreement due to different factors, such as how a persons HR behaved as effort perceived by the device changed.
There will always be a lot of argument whats accurate and whats not. Similarly you can't be guaranteed that every apple you eat has the same number of Calories either, even if they weigh the same. But over a long period of time, it all likely averages out.
Thanks for your commonsense answer VOICERESPONSE. I intend to recycle your last paragraph often.
[email][email protected][/email], Yes, Garmin includes HRM based kcals in its daily totals. If all you do for exercise is walk or run, you don't really need the HRM as the VF does a great job of converting both kinds of steps to caloric expenditure without the HRM. As soon as you hop on a bike, strap on your skates, jump in your rowboat, or step on the elliptical machine you better fasten on your HRM as well or you will get screwed out of nearly all of the calories you are about to burn.
