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Calories Burned query

Hi,

Quick question regarding the Calories burned calculation. I have noticed that when you change the activity type, say from running to cycling the calories burned for each activity remains the same.

This I do not undersatnd. Surely when I complete a 10K run it's not exactly the same amount of Calories burned as 10K cycle ride???

Any ideas please?

Thanks,

Chris.

0 schinder over 11 years ago

You're talking about Garmin Connect? Changing the activity does nothing because Garmin Connect doesn't "calculate" calories. It uses the number that the device gave it.

0 Chris.Prentice over 11 years ago

Hi Schinder,

Yes, apologies - Garmin connect.

I see, so in this instance, it is the forerunner 210 watch which obviously does the calculating in this regard and the connect software just 'presents' the info correct?

So, next question, could I not use the forerunner on my bike to calculate the calories burned, in other words can I not change the mode to cycle?

Presumably, the forerunner just simply assumes your 'running' and calcualtes accordingly?

Thanks....

0 schinder over 11 years ago

Unless the Forerunner 210 has a cycling mode, it probably assumes running, since it's a running watch. Similarly, an Edge will assume cycling. In my experience, calorie burn as estimated by Garmin devices is most closely associated with heart rate, so I doubt it makes that much difference, anyway. If you're using an HR belt, it'll see your heart rate and estimate accordingly. If you're not, it'll just use some lame calories/mile or calories/minute estimate.

For fun, you should try uploading your tracks to several web sites with free signups and see what they tell you about calorie burn. You'll soon see that none of the formula they use are very accurate. For example, from my mountain bike ride today, the numbers are 1043 (Garmin Connect via my Edge 800), 1351 (Strava), 1186 (RunKeeper), 1502 (RubiTrack 3), 1510 (Ascent) (the last two are Mac OS X applications). These are all computed from the same track recorded by the Edge 800. I haven't a clue which one is closest; I generally use the lowest number. If I had brought my Fenix along it would have recorded its own track and given yet another number for calorie burn.