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How good is the accuracy of the calories burned on the Garmin Instinct 2?

9025189
over 2 years ago

I know that the Fitbit Charge 4 has an accuracy quite low when it comes to counting burned calories. It seems that for the Fitbit the median is the of difference between the measured and actual calories burned is around 27%. What is the value of the median for the Garmin Instinct 2?

As well, how is the switch from a Fitbit to a Garmin Instinct 2?

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Hard to tell without making a calorimetric test in the lab. Did not see yet anyone doing it and posting a report about it here.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to trux

    ... otherwise, you can read about the (claimed / theoretical) accuracy on the website of Firstbeat (Garmin owned), the provider of the algorithms. Of course, I'd take it with the grain of salt. Besides others, the accuracy greatly depends on several factors, mainly the user input (personal data - weight, height, age, gender, activity class), the way of wearing the watch (the tightness of wrist band can influence the HRM accuracy, not wearing the watch during sleep or during deep rest will skew the avg. Resting HR, hence the base of the calculation for the Active Calories will be shifted), the type of the HRM used during activities (wrist OHRM, HRM chest belt) etc., etc.

    Firstbeat Gets Calorie Counts Right - Firstbeat

    Validation:

    Multiple studies have investigated the reliability of the Firstbeat energy expenditure calculation method. These tests have been performed using both traditional ECG type chest belt monitors and heartbeat data obtained from optical sensors, like the type typically used in wrist based devices.

    An early validation study conducted at the University of Bayreuth, in Germany, revealed the Firstbeat method to be within 7% of laboratory energy expenditure calculations. A more recent test conducted, in 2016, by members of the IEEE Engineering in Medical and Biology Society confirmed the Firstbeat method to be accurate within 6.7% during activities of medium- to hard- intensity measured using wrist worn optical sensor.

    Additional studies describe accuracy of the Firstbeat method to be a 22-60% improvement over conventional heart rate based energy expenditure calculations.