How accurate is the Garmin fr70?

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kellensdad
kellensdad Posts: 27 Member
I have been using the garmin fr70 since christmas to get an idea of how many calories I burn a day and was wondering how accurate? I am on my feet most of the day and I am constantly moving for work and thought I would see just how many calories I burn in a day and so far I am at 4000 calories. My first thought was, this is broke. My next thought was, I need to change my profile from sedentary to active. Any thoughts?

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  • kellensdad
    kellensdad Posts: 27 Member
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    Nothing, does no one know?
  • jaylaal
    jaylaal Posts: 1 Member
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    Hi kellensdad,

    I just bought one of these, too, and I have no idea. In a few minutes of web-searching, I found your question, and also this post which explains the different methods of calculation that Garmin use on their devices. The FR70 is not listed, but I am going to assume that it is like the FR60 (I don't have a strong basis for making that assumption):
    http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

    In my case, I use it while fencing. Most online resources say that fencing burns anywhere from 300-500 calories per hour. However I don't know if that meant continuous fencing, or as is normal in fencing, does it assume the cycle of fencing/rest/return-to-fencing over the hour. The first day I fenced for two hours and my FR70 told me I burned ~1100 calories. Today I fence for about 2.5 hours and burned ~1400 calories.

    In addition to knowing the accuracy of the calorie count, I'd also like to know how the "Activity Level" setting affects the calculation.
  • DivaSlimsDown
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    i used it for a little over a year and felt it was pretty accurate
  • Factory_Reset
    Factory_Reset Posts: 1,651 Member
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    You should change your activity from sedetary to active.

    HRM are not ment to be worn the whole day either. If you want something that is meant to be used all day, you should look into a fitbit or some type of body media. Any hrm is made to track activity when your heart rate is up. It won't calculate calories burned accurately when worn all day. When used during exercise, it's still just a estimate.