I so wished strava auto paused (or that I knew how to set it up). Every stoplight, stop sign & wait at top of hill for friends and my avg mph goes to pot. I use strava data for elevation bcs I can't figure out how to pull it from my node 2.1, and so that my rides are confirmed for challenges, but I use mph from the node and calories form the hr monitor. I do find that I work more eficiently now than I used to so my burns are lower on avg than they used to be, sigh...

As far as I know, Strava does it's own calculation, based on working out a "virtual power output" based on the rider weight, the terrain (slope), pedalling speed and lots of other bits and bob's - only thing it doesn't take into account is the weather (i.e. you'll be cranking more power out doing 20mph into a headwind, than with a tail-ey). It then uses an assumption of the riders "muscular efficiency" to work out a calorie consumption. It certainly comes in closer in terms of kcals than most of the other sites I've used - Endomondo, MapMyRIde and Garmin Connect (via the app) being almost as pathetically innacurate as MFP's own guesses.

Best bet, if you're actually going to eat back the cal's is to use the lower reading (usually, at least in my experience, Strava) and be on the safe side. Maybe eat a few hundred over (say 1200 on a 1000cal) if it was mainly into a headwind...

Thing is, without an actual power meter (£1000 upwards) it's all a bit "best guess" anyway.

(i.e. you'll be cranking more power out doing 20mph into a headwind, than with a tail-ey).

"Objection!" There's no such thing as a tail wind! Even when the forecast says there is :sad:

"Objection!" There's no such thing as a tail wind! Even when the forecast says there is :sad:

I concur! :sad:

I use a Garmin 500 and upload that to Strava. One thought, there is a setting under your user profile on the Garmin itself (at least there is on the 500) where you can input your activity level. This may help it better calculate calories. What I used to do was to just take a number between the two programs and use that as my MFP caloric input. I started using a powermeter, so that's very accurate, and I find that the in between number I was using on MFP is pretty accurate. I've also noticed that on rides less than two hours, Garmin underestimates and on rides over 2 hours, it overestimates.

Hi there,
If you've set up your garmin correctly (with your height, weight, VO2 Max, Resting Heart Rate and zones heart rate) that data will be the most accurate. The other services (Strava, etc) use a more generic calculation that doesn't take into consideration your heart rate- they use speed, height and weight instead. You can imagine in some scenarios this may be close to accurate, while in others (headwind, if you're drafting off of someone else) they could be extremely inaccurate. The MOST accurate way that you could get your calorie data would be from a power meter, but they are pricey. I will say that most people I know tend to OVER estimate the number of calories they burn on the bike. I for one am 5'5 and 115lbs, I am a very strong rider (I can ride faster than most men) and I work hard in most of my rides. If I'm not doing intervals, I tend to come out around 500 or 550 calories per hour (that's data from my power tap) and my husband who is a competitive athlete and weighs 185 averages around 700 calories per hour on a steady outdoor ride. You're likely somewhere nearer to 500 than 700 .