Calories with heart rate monitor different?

I would certainly say that your calorie burn using a heart rate monitor is going to be much more accurate than any exercise equipment at the gym. Manually inputting the distance into Garmin Connect from what the stationary bike says isn't going to tell Garmin Connect how much exertion or effort your body was using to go that particular distance. It's simply going to use some "average" algorithm to calculate the calories. If the stationary bike allows you to input a few details about yourself (height, weight, age, gender, etc.) before the ride then you would get a much more accurate reading on the calories. Otherwise, measuring your heart rate is going to give you a much more accurate reading.

I'm using the Forerunner 220, but for all of my indoor gym activities (treadmill, elliptical, stairs, weights, etc.) I'm just going to use the watch for time (turn off the GPS) and a heart rate monitor to give me my calories burned. I also use the Garmin Foot Pod for my cadence on the treadmill.

Also, changing the activity in Garmin Connect isn't going to alter the data if the data is originating from the watch and a heart rate monitor. Changing the activity is simply going to help categorize your activities in Garmin Connect.

Morning all. Quick question about the caloric calculation with the heart rate strap. I am comparing two spin classes I took, both were 1 hour. The first class was manually entered as a "indoor cycling" on Garmin connect. I entered the distance from the bike read out and the length of the class. It calculated over 1000 Calories. - I did not use my watch for this class as the spin bikes do not have any sensors to talk to the watch.

The second class I used my new garmin HR strap. I used the "other" activity on the watch which just tracted my time and HR. My Calories were much lower at 598. I then edited the activity in Garmin connect to change the activity to indoor cycling and added the distance from the spin bike. The calories remained the same.

Which is accurate?

Jason.

I use my HR Strap and the calories burn is more like what it should be. I use it for all my workouts as when using a HR strap it also tells you the recover time for the workout you did, which is a good guide to not over training.:)

Thanks. Just found it interesting that the calories were so different - much lower for an hour spin class than expected:(

When taking the spin class, should I stop the activity before the cool down? The class does a 5 min cool down to get the heart rate down and then stretching.

When taking the spin class, should I stop the activity before the cool down? The class does a 5 min cool down to get the heart rate down and then stretching.

No, I wouldn't stop the activity, but you could hit the Lap button (lower right side) to trigger a break in the rigorous spin activity and the cool down period.

Thanks. Just found it interesting that the calories were so different - much lower for an hour spin class than expected:(

When taking the spin class, should I stop the activity before the cool down? The class does a 5 min cool down to get the heart rate down and then stretching.

Just make a workout on Garmin connect site and transfer to watch.Then before the spin class just start the workout from training\my workouts\cycling and select your workout you transferred to your watch.

here is my easy indoor bike workout I got on my watch

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/workout/43131142