Why no separate activities for hiking vs backpacking?

...why? Curious what basis you have for saying that? 

Moving mass is moving mass, whether it's strapped to your body or integrated with your body (obviously there are more complex things going on but at a basic level...)

LoganWest said:

Moving mass is moving mass, whether it's strapped to your body or integrated with your body (obviously there are more complex things going on but at a basic level...)

Oh no, it's not. I used to weigh 116kg (Jan 2019), now I'm 89kg. Walking 10km with 116kg body weight was not an issue, but if you told me now to walk 10km with 27kg backpack... that would be a f-ing challenge.

But wouldn't that speak more to conditioning than to calories burned? Certainly, whether it is a challenge or not doesn't answer the question of how many calories are burned. So far it has been asserted (without evidence) that heart rate alone is sufficient, but it's never been for any measuring technique I'm aware of. If it were, any activity with the same heart rate would have the same number of calories burned, but it's not. Every estimate I'm aware of always factors in the weight you are moving. Heart rate helps improve that estimate but it cannot be sufficient. Weight is a significant factor. If weight is a significant factor, then additional weight will also be a factor.

I mean, see this for example on strength training for why heart rate alone doesn't work for calories burned:

https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=you_asked_how_accurate_is_my_heart_rate_monitor_for_strength_training

What I was trying to say is that you can not compare 120kg person with 90kg person carrying 30kg backpack. It's just not the same. Both doing same activity 90kg person with backpack is going to struggle and my guess is consume more calories than 120kg person.

To put this into comical proportions imagine 100kg person and 50kg person with 50kg backpack... Who is going to consume more calories?

I completely agree that additional weight is a factor, but as long as there is no field to put that additional weight and algorithm to take it into account - you will have to rely on increased HR to account for additional calories burned.

Regarding strength training, as I already posted above... Garmin weightlifting (strength) app/profile has field for weight. IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE in calorie consumption, it's there for record only.

You can do 20 air squats input weight as 0 (body weight) save activity, and then later do same 20 air squats but put 200kg as weight - as long as you managed to maintain same HR both activity calories will  be the same.

So even if they put option to add weight in hiking app - it is still (most likely) going to take into account only increased HR.

HermanB Any input on this issue?

6184211 said:

I love my Fenix 6X Sapphire. My only complaint is that it doesn’t recognize the distinction between hiking with a light daypack vs backpacking with a heavy (>30 lbs) backpack for purposes of counting calories. Seems like there should be an option to input estimated pack weight and have that influence the estimated number of calories burned.

Thanks.

iLikePotatoes said:

To put this into comical proportions imagine 100kg person and 50kg person with 50kg backpack... Who is going to consume more calories?

Assuming the same flat track over the same distance and time - wait for it - both would consume the same number of calories.

100kg person would have a lower heart rate, but BMR calorie burn would be more wheras the 50kg person would have a faster heart rate, but BMR calorie burn would be less.

So, Heart Rate is indeed the great equalizer that makes otherwise complicated problems a lot easier to figure out.

Allalin72 posted this in another thread that I think answers the question. 

www.dcrainmaker.com/.../how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

I'm not trying to be tedious, but it doesn't. Nothing in there says that heart rate alone is an accurate measurement. Every link in there refers to weight (body) as one of the necessary metrics which must be in there. Every academic paper I've read on the subject says weight is a metric if not the metric. Maybe Garmin doesn't use it but then...that's back to the OP's question. If heart rate alone is insufficient, then why isn't the additional weight accounted for?

People here keep making assertions that heart rate accounts for it. How do you know? There has been absolutely no evidence presented so far, written or experimental that would verify heart rate alone is sufficient and accurate.

• I strongly assume that you record your backpack activity  with a chest strap? Is that correct ?

Yes, the more weight you carry the higher the MET's (metabolic equivalents) and the more calories burned.  You can find many charts online with weight carried (load) and their calculated MET's and calories burned such as this one.

https://captaincalculator.com/health/calorie/calories-burned-backpacking-calculator/

With that I'll include an article clip from a study posted in the International Journal of Cardiology.

"The results of the present study showed that HR parameters could be used to predict METs during exercise. HR_net was least influenced by background factors and β-blocker use, suggesting that METs during exercise can be roughly predicted using a formula of 0.05 × HR_net + 2. This formula could be useful for predicting METs during exercise from HR alone, without using specialized equipment in clinical settings."

LoganWest said:

I'm not trying to be tedious, but it doesn't. Nothing in there says that heart rate alone is an accurate measurement.

Sorry, but you are being tedious.

It would take you moments to search the interweb to find any number of the gazillions of research articles dating back to the pioneering work of Vivian Hill in 1922 (who got a Nobel prize by the way) to understand just how long heart rate has been used to estimate energy consumption during exercise.

Simply put, energy consumption during exercise is comprised of a number of components including basal metabolic rate (BMR) that takes into consideration body mass, and active energy consumption derived from heart rate that will vary due to any number of factors including terrain, pace/speed, and time as well as the load you choose to carry. There is no need to add/change/alter/include any additional weight to estimate energy consumption during an activity. Your heart rate during the activity will do that.

It's exercise physiology 101.