Is my garmin watch correct!!?

liyes17
liyes17 Posts: 14 Member
edited November 19 in Fitness and Exercise
Im wondering if my fitness watch is correct, i know the elliptical is not accurate but it definitely showed that I burned way more calories, than my watch. Does this happen often??

Replies

  • BhangraPrince
    BhangraPrince Posts: 123 Member
    Watch is more accurate
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    liyes17 wrote: »
    Im wondering if my fitness watch is correct, i know the elliptical is not accurate but it definitely showed that I burned way more calories, than my watch. Does this happen often??

    Depends on a great many things, including which model of Garmin you're talking about, how you did the session in terms of intervals and whether the royal is appropriately calibrated.
  • fruoshea
    fruoshea Posts: 46 Member
    liyes17 wrote: »
    Im wondering if my fitness watch is correct, i know the elliptical is not accurate but it definitely showed that I burned way more calories, than my watch. Does this happen often??

    The watch is probably more accurate as I assume it takes into account more factors. Ellipticals only usually take into account age and weight - and that's only if you fill that in. It doesn't take into account your height or gender which are also important factors.

    You should also take into account that most ellipticals and treadmills etc. include the calories you burn just by being awake in your workout calories. I.e. if you do 1h on the elliptical it will include 1h of your BMR calories. So when I go on the elliptical I need to remove roughly 70 calories from what it said I have burned to get a slightly more accurate reading.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    Yes, it's not uncommon for many cardio machines to over-estimate caloric expenditure.

    Depending on your model of Garmin and which algorithm it's using it's more likely to be a reasonably accurate estimate (my 920xt gives me estimates for my runs that are very close to published formulas for net caloric expenditure eg this mornings 5km / 3.1 mile run was about 385 cal which is consistent for someone my weight)
  • celiah909
    celiah909 Posts: 141 Member
    I never go off what the machine says, they all seem to be WAY too high. I did an hour spin class and the machine said I burned a little over 1000 calories -- I pushed myself but know that was way off.
  • DevilsFan1
    DevilsFan1 Posts: 342 Member
    edited July 2017
    celiah909 wrote: »
    I never go off what the machine says, they all seem to be WAY too high. I did an hour spin class and the machine said I burned a little over 1000 calories -- I pushed myself but know that was way off.

    I wonder if fitness machines suffer from "vanity calories" the same way that a lot of clothing these days suffers from "vanity sizing". Let's tell the customer what they want to hear rather than what is true so they keep spending their money.
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