Garmin vs. MFP

DesOdhi
DesOdhi Posts: 84 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I use the garmin vivofit hrm & wrist band to "accurately" count the amount of calories I burn during a workout. It's synced to MFP with the same activity & weight settings so there should be no discrepancy. Today, I worked out for 1 and a half hours & Garmin said I burned over 1,000 calories via "active calories burned" on it's own app. It then showed up in MFP saying that I burned that amt by, "walking at a moderate pace of 3.0 for 65 min.," which is wrong. I actually jogged for 65 min. & then lifted weights for 25 minutes. Just to see, I manually input the same workout into MFP's exercise calculator and it said I only burned 330 calories. HUGE difference. I'm more inclined to believe my hrm but I just wanted to see other people's opinions or experiences on the matter first. What do you guys (& gals) think?

Replies

  • DesOdhi
    DesOdhi Posts: 84 Member
    Here's a pic of today's Garmin stats, if it helps.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    I find MFP and Garmin confusing.

    I am also a little confused by your description of the activities. What did each breakdown for you?

    First. Although they connect and Garmin comes up with it's own daily calorie goal. I find that Garmin is lower than MFP. I have MFP set to sedentary and at anything less than 10,000 steps (which is not sedentary) Garmin takes away calorie from my MFP goal.
    it will show the MFP goal on the garmin app but it makes it's own calculations.

    Apparently they have a new way of calculating and I haven't had much of a chance to figure which one I find more accurate for me.

    Second - keep in mind not all of the exercise import the same. What was the speed you jogged at?
    A HRM won't be accurate for a weight training session. It likely won't translate strength training from Garmin to MFP since Garmin doesn't have a dedicated strength training option. It may use a similar entry for the same number of calories.
    MFP always displays the activity that burns the most calories. So if you run for 20 minutes and burn 200 calories and walk for 10 minutes and burn 100 calories, it will show your activity as "30 minutes of cardio including running at 10 minute mile" or something similar. You didn't run for 30 minutes but the majority of the burn was from running.
  • cdebracy
    cdebracy Posts: 91 Member
    I'll see MFP sometimes log exercises twice, but at different caloric levels. I'm not sure why. Often I delete the extra to avoid getting credit I don't deserve and better not eat.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    cdebracy wrote: »
    I'll see MFP sometimes log exercises twice, but at different caloric levels. I'm not sure why. Often I delete the extra to avoid getting credit I don't deserve and better not eat.

    MFP logs your calories on your feed as the number Garmin suggests you have burned.

    Garmin also calculates how much you are likely to burn over the day (if you have a model that estimates daily calorie burns).

    there can be a difference when your overall daily activity is low but your calorie burn is high.

    I've seen mine give me 2000 calories for a bike ride but only 900 extra calories for the day because, despite my ride, I was overall inactive over the day.
  • DesOdhi
    DesOdhi Posts: 84 Member
    3dogsrunning wrote: »

    Second - keep in mind not all of the exercise import the same. What was the speed you jogged at?

    A HRM won't be accurate for a weight training session. It likely won't translate strength training from Garmin to MFP since Garmin doesn't have a dedicated strength training option.

    My speed was 5.0 at a 5.0 incline on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Then 4.0 at a 1.0 incline for 35 minutes on the same treadmill.

    As far as the weight training, you're probably right. I just assumed that the heart rate monitor would account for some type of accuracy in that department.
  • DesOdhi
    DesOdhi Posts: 84 Member
    cdebracy wrote: »
    I'll see MFP sometimes log exercises twice, but at different caloric levels. I'm not sure why. Often I delete the extra to avoid getting credit I don't deserve and better not eat.

    That used to happen to me, but only with my step counting options. I just decided to let MFP count my steps & Garmin calculate my activities. I'm not sure about why it's counting your activities twice.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Destinyy wrote: »
    3dogsrunning wrote: »

    Second - keep in mind not all of the exercise import the same. What was the speed you jogged at?

    A HRM won't be accurate for a weight training session. It likely won't translate strength training from Garmin to MFP since Garmin doesn't have a dedicated strength training option.

    My speed was 5.0 at a 5.0 incline on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Then 4.0 at a 1.0 incline for 35 minutes on the same treadmill.

    As far as the weight training, you're probably right. I just assumed that the heart rate monitor would account for some type of accuracy in that department.

    I'm not sure what 5.0 on a treadmill would translate too. If you aren't using a GPS or foot pod, Garmin may not know either.

    Also keep in mind that if you were holding onto the bars on the treadmill, your calorie burn will be greatly decreased.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,630 Member
    MFP uses something else to categorize it and never fully gets it right. Unless I run 8 minute miles, the fastest MFP will say I run is 10 min miles. I've learned to live with it....as long as the calories are right. Garmin knows how fast I truly ran and that's what matters when doing comparison reports.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    MFP uses something else to categorize it and never fully gets it right. Unless I run 8 minute miles, the fastest MFP will say I run is 10 min miles. I've learned to live with it....as long as the calories are right. Garmin knows how fast I truly ran and that's what matters when doing comparison reports.

    Yes. If you run an 8:01 minute mile to 8:59, you get an 9 minute mile. If you run 9:01 minute mile to 9:59 you get 10 minute mile.
    I believe the jump from 10 minute mile is to 11:30

    I think if you run less than an 11:30 you get a walking pace.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    Destinyy wrote: »
    My speed was 5.0 at a 5.0 incline on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Then 4.0 at a 1.0 incline for 35 minutes on the same treadmill.

    What distance did you cover in that time?

    You've got a significant over-estimation, but you've also identified a number of reasons for that overestimation.

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