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Forerunner 235 running vs cycling calorie burn and strava.

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hi all,

For a while I have been using the 235 exclusively for running and monitoring weight with calorie burn. For around a year now I have been maintaining my weight by trusting the calorie burn displayed on the 235. Interestingly however when this gets uploaded to Strava; Strava gives me more calories which I ignore as I had assumed Strava was perhaps showing me a gross calorie burn.

For the past month or so I have got into a bit of cycling and the reverse is now true. Garmin gives me more of a calorie burn where as Strava gives me less 1400 vs 1000 respectively for a 40 mile cycle.

Does anyone have any idea why this may be the case? I am running the HR in both exercises and don't have a power meter for cycling. I'd obviously rather the higher burn but don't want to be eating back extra and gaining weight/losing performance.

I also appreciate the forerunner is predominantly a running watch but 400 calories of variation is significant and a concern.:cool:

0 kerlaz over 8 years ago

A general rule of thumb is that an average person, about 75kg, uses 100 calories to run a mile, different paced running still uses 100 calories but the rate of use changes. Cycling is more efficient and generally used about a third of the calories. The exact value changes with speed, as drag increases with the square of speed, for running the impact of drag is not significant.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

A general rule of thumb is that an average person, about 75kg, uses 100 calories to run a mile, different paced running still uses 100 calories but the rate of use changes. Cycling is more efficient and generally used about a third of the calories. The exact value changes with speed, as drag increases with the square of speed, for running the impact of drag is not significant.

Yeah I understand the difference in calorie burn between cycling and running; I was questioning the difference in calorie burn between what Garmin and Strava display.

0 michaeljswann over 8 years ago

Strava does its own calculations on energy expenditure. I ignore it as I don't use Strava for tracking that information. I use the energy data from my device as it is calculated based on my heart rate and my physical attributes.