On my Dashboard, the estimated calorie burn for a 45-minute snowshoe hike averages around 150, when the activity is downloaded from my Forerunner. If I enter exactly the same activity manually, calorie burn is closer to 350, which actually seems more reasonable. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
On my Dashboard, the estimated calorie burn for a 45-minute snowshoe hike averages around 150, when the activity is downloaded from my Forerunner. If I enter exactly the same activity manually, calorie burn is closer to 350, which actually seems more reasonable. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
How did you record the activity? Did you wear a HR monitor? Is there an elevation profile for the activity?
Agreed your 350 sounds more reasonable or quite possibly too low - depending on how quick and how much effort you expended. For me a steady run on trail and road for about 45 minutes will burn 700 - 800 calories averaging 155 heart rate (my max is probably about 180). Assuming that your snowshoe hike is not just a gentle stroll I would have expected something not to different.
- but as per abcd_1234 were you using an HR monitor - the calories are calculated I believe largely based upon the HR measures - possibly with a modifier depending on the activity type.
If you enter a manual activity the calorie defaults to a very simply defined value which seems to be purely based on time/distance/activity type
i.e. if you enter one 45 minute 5 mile hike with a HR of 120 and a second with 45 minutes 5 miles and elevation gain of 500 M average HR 165 you will get the same calorie calculation.
There are a huge number of threads on here about the calorie calculations and about how very difficult it is to get an accurate measure even under laboratory conditions.
The best you can hope for is some sort of broad brush comparison day by day but only if you use a HRM
No, I don't use a HR monitor, and I don't believe my Forerunner 15 records elevation. So either way (manual or uploaded), the calorie burn is a rough estimate - it just seemed odd that they would be so different.
Elevation is calculated in connect or training centre except for the garmin devices that have altitude sensors. but it is heart rate that is the main driver along with duration
