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Calorie Burned by Power Sensor or by Heart Rate Monitor?

6045836
over 3 years ago

I own an Edge 830, paired with the Power Sensor of my Specialized Turbo Levo SL.

Until my last ride, I did not have any Heart Rate Monitor and, in the rides uploaded to the Garmin Connect App, I was used to find the Calories Burned almost equal to the Work done (kJ).

During my last ride instead, I wore an Heart Rate Monitor and, in the ride uploaded to the Garmin Connect, instead of finding the Calories Burned almost equal to the Work (kJ) as in the previous rides, I found 1534 Calories Burned, and 1114 kJ of Work.

This, in my opinion, indicates that while only the Power Sensor is paired with my Edge, the calculation of the Calories Burned is based on the Power Sensor data; but when also the Heart Rate Monitor is connected, this is no longer true (despite the widespread opinion, on the internet, that the calculation of the Calories Burned based on the Power Sensor data is much more accurate than any other calculation method).

So now my questions are:

1) When both the Power Sensor and the Heart Rate Monitor are paired with my Edge 830, is the calculation of the Calories Burned based on the Power Sensor data, or based on the Heart Rate data, or both, or something else?

2) Why that big difference between the Calories Burned, and the Work done, in my last ride?

Thank you very much.

Alberto

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    The latest firmware for the 1030 changed how calories are shown. Calories now includes metabolic calories. I think the same was done for the latest 830 firmware.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to cheracogoff

    Thank you for your prompt reply.

    Do you mean that the Calories Burned calculation is still based on my Power Sensor, but just with added my Basal Metabolic Rate (which doesn't depend on my current Heart Rate, I guess)?

    Since my last ride lasted about five hours, the values I found are compatible with this theory.

    However, it would be nice to receive an official clarification from Garmin, but pending that, I will try to do some tests to verify this hypothesis (with and without my HRM).

    It will take me some time because I don't have much spare time for my rides, but I expect to be able to report the results in a few weeks.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 6045836

    I looked at the firmware release notes for version 7.19 and the following change is listed.

    "Added support for including metabolic calories in the total calories reported in the calories data field and recorded in the activity file.

    There is no way to turn this off. Your calories from the power meter alone are listed in the ride summary on Garmin Connect.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to cheracogoff

    Dear Cheracogoff,

    Many thanks for your support.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 6045836

    You can also view the power work data field on the Edge instead of the Calorie data field if you just want to see the work done reported from the power meter

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Seems like a marketing driven feature to me, make it seem like your activity has burned more calories than it has since your body would burn those regardless.  That you can't turn it off is stupid.