Garmin Vivofit Calorie Burn

ldhudsonjr
ldhudsonjr Posts: 31 Member
edited 12:15AM in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all,

I recently purchased a Garmin Vivofit version 1 that came packaged with a HRM. Of course I love using the pedometer function to try and get my daily steps up, but what I really wanted was to get a better idea (note that I didn't say 100% accurate read) of how many calories I burned doing certain types of exercise.

I have been noticing, however, that the amount of calories the Vivofit estimates while I'm running on a treadmill, or using an eliptical machine are even HIGHER than what the machines themselves estimate, which is the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Of course I know someone at my BMI burn more calories more easily than the more fit among us so I'm not surprised to see a somewhat high number, but sometimes when I see the results I'm just like "yeah....I don't know about that."

Any thoughts on how accurate these activity trackers are when you use heart rate monitors? I typically don't eat back any of my exercise calories, but humor me here.

Replies

  • LP_1982
    LP_1982 Posts: 2 Member
    I have the Garmin Vivofit with HRM. I find the heart rate monitor pretty accurate with calorie burn. Sometimes it's lower that I was expecting so I try to keep my heart rate up the entire time to maximize calorie burn. If the cardio machine doesn't know your heart rate, it really is only guessing at calorie burn.

    Over the past few days it has been a bit of trial and error with the calorie numbers, and I found them a bit conflicting. The remaining calories on Garmin Connect would always be more than the My Fitness Pal site. I eat back some of my calories, and I've decided that sticking to the MFP numbers seems to be the safer thing to do. I also set my lifestyle to "somewhat active" instead of "very active" (my job is pretty active).

    My brother eats back all of his calories burned and still loses over 2lbs/week. Just FYI. He warned me against not eating back calories because your body may start to store calories for later (in the form of fat) if it thinks it isn't getting enough.

    I'm not sure if any of that is helpful. lol. Let me know how things progress with the Garmin. I'm only into my first week, but I'm excited to use it and see how it can help me reach my goals. :)
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