Garmin Vivoactive HR vs Apple Watch calorie burn difference

jamiegingell
jamiegingell Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have both a Garmin Vivoactive HR and Apple watch. I have found that on days where i do exactly the same activity, MFP assigns very different calorie expediture. Apple is around 250 and Garmin over 1000.

Does anyone have any idea why?

Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I don't think anybody can tell you why without knowing what kind of exercise you did, for how long, how much you weigh, etc. Without specifics, maybe it was kittens.
  • jamiegingell
    jamiegingell Posts: 3 Member
    Hi, I'm a 6' tall male who weighs 16 stones. I walk briskly for 5 miles a day, no other activity. The difference is usually well over 1000 calories difference between what the Garmin devices I own think I burn and what Apple phones/watch think I burn. I guess they must use fundamentally different methods to calculate. I'm more interested in what people think is the more accurate of the two though.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I know stone is a unit of weight, but I'm not sure how much. If you take your body weight in pounds, and divide by 3, that's about how many calories you burn walking a mile. So if you're 300 lbs, you burn 100 kCal per mile; if you're 240 lbs, you burn 80 kCal per mile. That's approximate and works pretty well on average - a hilly mile will burn a few more calories than a flat one, that's a good rule of thumb overall.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    16 stone is about 224 lbs. So by above formula, you probably burn about 400 calories.
    Also be aware that the Apple watch will subtract the calories you would have burned sleeping on the couch. (i.e. the difference between the 'total' calorie count and 'active' calorie count). Your non-active burn during your activity is already accounted for in your BMR estimation.

    I'd be very skeptical of something that told you that you burned thousands of calories. (not talking about aggressive biking/running for several hours.)
  • jamiegingell
    jamiegingell Posts: 3 Member
    I agree, thanks for the replies. Still not sure why Garmin is so crazy off though
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    This is not an uncommon report for the "first generation" always on HR fit trackers. There appears to be some discrepancies in the additional calorie estimations based on HR. Both Fitbit and Garmin users have reported the same phenomenon.
  • senor_jeff
    senor_jeff Posts: 47 Member
    I have a Vivoactive HR and if i go on a 10km run (about 6.5 miles) it nearly always calculates from 600-700 calories for me. Have you put all your stats into Garmin? I don't think it will calculate properly if it doesn't know your age/height/weight or heart rate. Also are you walking on a treadmill or walking on the road where the GPS in the Garmin can accurately track your distance/stride?
  • SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish
    SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
    Also are you talking that difference for your activity only or total calories over the day? Are you talking about the results of syncing with mfp? Can apple do that I'm not sure. Mine seems to be set so that it only adds calories to mfp if you go over your expected daily exercise level, whereas Im thinking apple wouldnt, so if your expected exercise you set in mfp is low, this could be the difference.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    jamiegingell wrote: »
    I agree, thanks for the replies. Still not sure why Garmin is so crazy off though

    Are you telling the VivoActive that you're doing a deliberate exercise or just using the step count?

  • nbscinta
    nbscinta Posts: 1 Member
    I’m noticing this is a 4 year old post, but the same thing continues to happen in 2021. I have an Apple Watch and a Garmin as well and have noticed the same thing. My guess is that you reached the correct conclusion, Apple Watch is closer to accurate, but you probably should have a few hundred more calories credited to you than what the Apple Watch says.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Garmin has also changed since 4 yrs ago how it estimates calorie burn.
    As I'm sure Apple has.

    And then part of that issue 4 yrs ago and still today - MFP is merely doing math with figures it's provided.
    Apple provides wrong figures to MFP, Garmin sends correct ones.

    Hence the need to compare leaving MFP out of it.

    Kind of hard to say 1 is accurate over the other when both are estimates and you have no other thing to compare to.
    Lower estimate doesn't mean more accurate.

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