Stairmaster 3hr10mn - 1115 floors only 907 calories burned (with heart rate mnr)

Post a link to activity

A couple of things to check:

* That your body weight is entered correctly, including units.
* That your max HR and HR zones are correct.

It sounds a little low, but just a little. The number reported by the stairmaster seems very high. Check this:

https://caloriesburnedhq.com/calories-burned-on-elliptical/

I realize an elliptical is less intense than a cross trainer but putting your numbers in, it says 190 minutes at 140 pounds at high intensity burns 1,267 calories. I don't have or use an elliptical but I have found that at least where running and cycling are concerned this site is usually pretty close to what my Garmin reports. I do use an external HR monitor though.

How much do you eat? You said you routinely climb 500+ floors on this machine. How many calories does it report when you do that and then, how many for the entire week? Are you eating that many calories? If not, the machine is overestimating your calorie burn. If you are, then probably it's not. That's not exact, if you're active in other ways it throws it off and then of course there is your calorie expenditure just from normal daily stuff (TDEE). If that machine is correct, and you use it as much as you day, you must be eating like crazy.

How many meter (or feet) are 1115 floors on that machine?

I assume that most of the work you do goes 1:1 into vertical lift of your body weight (or rather: Into avoiding vertical descent of your body weight). So it should be possible to calculate the work you do in the machine, combined with the usual assumption of 20-25% efficiency in work done by the body.

Thanks for the responses, all. I do not have answers to most of the questions asked but here is a link to the workout:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3161970011

This site, http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.shtml, uses average heart rate, weight, age and excercize duration to estimate calories and says I burned 2066 which seems much more reasonable.

It's basically impossible for me to burn more than 300 calories an hour on the stairmaster according to my watch.

Yet today I did a *very light* 40mn walk with my dog for 0.54 miles and burned 150 calories. Took almost no effort. Here is a link to the walk:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3170205629


I'm guessing my BMR is 1500. I eat 2500 to 3000 calories per day.

mcalista how do I know my heart rate zones are correct? On my Garmin it says:

Based on: % of max

zone 1: 94bpm 50%
zone 2 112bpm 60%
zone 3: 131 60%
zone 4 150 80%
zone 5 168 90%
max 187 100%


Not sure if this is useful, but I have never seen my heart rate above 165... If I go my hardest and do level 20 (highest) on stairmaster that is about the highest my heart rate goes

I have weight data set correctly on the watch. I'm 5.9% body fat, 140lb, 33 years old. I have activity level set to 10 on the watch.

According to my Garmin my VO2 max is "Poor" at "33". I could be wrong but I find it hard to believe my VO2 max is bad considering how much stair climbing I do.

Thanks again for all the responses and look forward to seeing if we can figure out if anything is wrong.

I appreciate the support, everyone!

OK, I am seeing an issue related to your maxHR.

Garmin is using 220 minus your age as the default maxHR (187 in this case) - this formula is the average for the population as a whole, but it is #$%^ at predicting the maxHR for any one individual. There seems good reason to believe your maximum is in the range 165-170 (most athletes do not go above 96-98% of max, as it hurts, and is not very effective training or racing, so I am assuming your true max is slightly higher than the highest number you have seen).

130 is just 70% of Garmin's assumed maximum, but 76% of what appears to be a more realistic maximum. At 76% of maximum, Garmin would credit you with more calories. I'd suggest editing your maxHR within Garmin Connect, and seeing what this gives you. (This will also re-scale your HR zones, assuming you keep the % of max method).

The VO2Max calculation also seems off - this is generated by running, or cycling with a power meter, neither of which you mention. But it would also contribute to a low calorie estimate.

Equally, I do not trust the stair master estimate either. 1115 floors and 3000 calories in 3 hours seems unrealistic. It is not uncommon for many pieces of gym equipment to overestimate calories.

Hi @mcalista

Thanks for the tips. I set my max heart rate to 170. However, now it appears the calories are super high for walking.

I took a gentle walk to the cafeteria and went 0.05 miles and burned 43 calories (avg heart rate 91) LOL

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3171752417

Here is a 23min 0.56 mile walk where I burned 97 calories

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3171752282

I am starting to lose confidence in the accuracy of this watch which is unfortunate considering it cost over $1000.


Any idea what is going on here? Why is it so hard to give accurate calorie estimates based on heart rate data? It seems like Garmin either greatly underestimates or greatly overestimates burn but can't get it in the middle where it should be.

How long have you had your Fenix 5 and how many workouts with HR have you done? The FirstBeat algorithm Garmin uses is typically reasonably accurate but only after it has enough data to effectively "learn" you. It is perfectly normal to see results that are off until it has reached that point.

As far as the .05 mile walk goes it might actually be accurate since if you look at time you were walking for 13 minutes or so (when using HR I'm pretty sure distance is not considered for estimating calories). However, it could also be that your zones need to be reset. The start of Z1 seems rather low, but I'm not an expert in HR training so I could be wrong. You might want to try doing a test and using a formula to calculate zones.

Hi

I have had the fenix since September and I've done over 100 workouts.

Regarding the walk, the distance was only 0.05 miles and 43 cals. At this same rate I would burn 860 calories walking per hour which doesn't make sense, also this walk "activity" I was just sitting down at my desk for a few minutes and burned 4 active calories somehow while not even moving.

How should I calculate my heart rate zones?

Not sure if it helps but I am 5 foot 8, 140lb, 33lbs, 5.9 body fat. I climb over 500 floors per day on stairmaster.

I used Joe Friel's method which is based off of lactate threshold. I'm not sure how applicable this would be to stair climbing (I'm primarily a triathlete) but it might be worth a read: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/joe-friel-s-quick-guide-to-setting-zones/

It is also normal to get active calories when sitting. Any calories above RMR are considered active. So even if you spent a day totally sedentary you would likely have at least a few active calories. As for the walking the distance does not matter when using HR. This article, while older, does explain a bit how the FirstBeat algorithms work: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html.

Hope this information is helpful.