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Is it possible to change exercise type?

richardcorfield
richardcorfield Posts: 7 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I've synced with Garmin, and so far everything has come over as "Cycling, leisurely" or "moderate" if there weren't too many traffic lights on red. I used the heart rate monitor so Calories come over accurately.

Today I tried taking the Garmin and its HRM rock climbing, to get an idea of the amount of Calories this uses. Although I've been able to edit the activity type in Garmin, it still shows up as "Cycling, leisurely" in MyFitnessPal. I had to use the web site in Garmin as the phone app doesn't recognise rock climbing as can activity type. I wonder about deleting the MyFitnessPal entry and manually creating a Rock Climbing activity in MyFitnessPal, but then if Garmin syncs that back it will start double counting. Would it be possible to just change the activity type?

Also I ride a very heavy trike, often with a trailer. 7mph shows up as "leisurely" in MyFitnessPal, but climbing the hills here it is anything but. If I use the heart rate device then the Calories come over correctly. (A "leisurely" 700 Calories per hour) but the display name remains "Leisurely".

Replies

  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    edited January 2016
    The question is moot. Your hrm doesn't accurately track non cardio activities such as rock climbing or "trike riding". Just log them into MFP and don't try to carry the calories over.
  • richardcorfield
    richardcorfield Posts: 7 Member
    edited January 2016
    I deleted the automatic activity and copied over as "Rock Climbing". This didn't cause duplication so I seem to have solved the problem.

    Garmin claim that their heart rate algorithms are valid for all sorts of exercise. Its result was slightly lower than MyFitnessPal's estimate for Calories per Hour. I was climbing with quite high duty cycle, not much time on the ground between climbs. (On social climbs I'd have to take off time spent belaying when indoors, setting up outdoors, chatting whenever).

    Climbing certainly gets the heart going, and I'm sure it's not all fear of falling off :-) My heart rate was highest when climbing at the higher grade even if my rate of advance was lower than when climbing at the lower grade. (I did some work on the auto-belay which provides longer climbs with the safety that I won't hit the floor too hard when I fall off). That said, my output in terms of "gain in potential energy" wouldn't be that high. My ballpark estimate was 10kJ (2.3Calories) to lift my mass to the top of the auto-belay, though of course the body is nowhere near 100% efficient at converting food to force. Each trip up the bouldering wall would be about 3kJ.

    Would you expect Calorie burn to be higher or lower? I'd heard that strength exercises cause Calorie burn to be higher for some time after the exercise as your body has to repair.
  • richardcorfield
    richardcorfield Posts: 7 Member
    This looks interesting:

    http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=you_asked_how_accurate_is_my_heart_rate_monitor_for_strength_training

    Climbing does use a lot of muscle groups - certainly legs and arms.

    I think I have to take the accuracy of both in and out Calories as limited with MyFitnessPal. Hopefully for me just change in eating habits will produce the required weight loss. I am apparently in net Calorie deficit today having cycle to work, to the climbing wall, climbed, cycled back to work (up the hill again!) and home again. Yet at the moment I am not that hungry. (I'm not really hungry at all straight after climbing but that may be just response to exercise). Just dropping sugary things from my diet has resulted in more stable energy levels.

    Thanks
    - Richard
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