Bug in calorie count cycling?

I only got 651 calories for 42 km in 1:50 h in cycling; Strava says it sould be +/- 1.300 calories (based on the Garmin data). Fenix 5 Plus, current software.

Anyone else having the same bug? Anyone knows where to report this to Garmin, I can't find it...

Cheers
Peter

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I am having the same problem with my new 5 Plus while mountain biking. Wearing my old Fenix 2 side by side with the 5 Plus and both connected to a Scosche Rhythm heart rate monitor and a garmin speed sensor, I am getting a large difference in calorie counts for a typical 45 minute ride. The difference is about 20% with the Fenix 2 consistently reporting the higher calorie count.

I strongly believe that 5 Plus is reporting incorrectly or at least lower than is realistic even if the 2 is on the higher side.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Just wanted to follow up with some concrete examples to this issue. I wore both the 5 plus and my old fenix 2 on this mornings ride whereby each was connected to the same heart rate monitor (Scosche Rhythm +). The 5 plus reported 413 kcal on an approximately 45 minute ride and the 2 reported 578 kcal on the ride. Thats a 40% difference from the fenix 2. Something is not right here. See the two activities below:

Fenix 5 Plus: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2881465990

Fenix 2: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2881624870

I am pretty sure that the 5 plus is way off as I am a 40 year old male, 5-9, 205 lbs, 30+ bmi. All my other trackers in the past always reported kcal over 550 for this exact ride.

Does anyone have any input into why this is happening and are there any settings I can change so that the 5 plus more accurately reports the total calories burned?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Same on my side, my rides are severely underestimating my calorie burn (even when used with HRM - but no power meter). Anyone found an answer? I've reported it to Garmin but no helpful response yet.

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago in reply to Former Member

Figuring out calories is always tricky so it is always a good idea to understand what goes into calculating the calorie burn on your watch. Once you have a good understanding of the math behind the calories burned, it is always a good idea to check the hard numbers you are giving it. For example, a lot of people forget to upgrade their Activity Class after the first time they have setup their user profile for the device. Since Activity Class is a measurement of how frequently and how long you train any given week, most users set the Activity Class at their current level when they first start working out but as we get better at it and start enjoying each workout more and more, we start working out more often. So, it is suggested that you log into your account, and look at your user profile again to make sure it still fits your personal lifestyle at this time. (Device Icon > Device Settings > User Settings)

0 unixcrab over 6 years ago in reply to Former Member

Out of interest, I did a 4.5hr ride yesterday with a F5+ (SW 7.60) on my wrist and a Wahoo Elemnt head unit. Both were fed data from the same HR strap (HRM-Run) and the same power meter (Shimano R9100) and the activities were started and stopped on each device within 1 second of each other. The F5+ reported 2297C and the Elemnt 3177C, a difference of 880C. Also of interest, Strava calculated the "Total Work" as 2265kJ which correlates closely with Garmin's Calories.

0 unixcrab over 6 years ago in reply to Garmin-Heath

That first link to Firstbeat is broken...