Garmin reality check....

Karlaki
Karlaki Posts: 74
edited November 10 in Fitness and Exercise
I did a bike ride today, 11 miles over about an hour and a half. Per Garmin I burned 1857 calories! Could that be possible? I was pedaling the entire time with a few hills thrown in. My weight and such are programmed into the Garmin. Could the 1857 be accurate?

Thanks!

Replies

  • junyr
    junyr Posts: 416 Member
    I did a bike ride today, 11 miles over about an hour and a half. Per Garmin I burned 1857 calories! Could that be possible? I was pedaling the entire time with a few hills thrown in. My weight and such are programmed into the Garmin. Could the 1857 be accurate?

    Thanks!


    Sounds a little high. Upload yoru info to garminconnect and check your heart rate to check for spikes. I've read that sometimes static can build up with your clothes and cause the HRM to spike causing weird readings.
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
    Sounds way too high to me. What Garmin are you using? Some of the models don't actually use the HRM data to calculate calories burned, just distance and time. Whatever method yours is using, sounds off to me...that would be just over 20 cals/minute @ 7.3 MPH.
  • chelso0o
    chelso0o Posts: 366 Member
    depends on your weight and your fitness level. If your heart rate was sky high the whole time, and you weigh more then it *may* be true, but unlikely. Def. do the http://connect.garmin.com thing and check it out. Also, do you wet your HRM strap before you put it on? If not, make sure that you do!
  • Karlaki
    Karlaki Posts: 74
    I suspect it was that I didn't wet the strap enough, though I usually do. Sunday the weather was cold, windy, and really dry. I wasn't sweating to help with the strap connection. Maybe it was the static thing, I know my heart rate wasn't sky high - at least it didn't feel that way.

    Thanks for the input/comments.
  • stingrayinfl
    stingrayinfl Posts: 284 Member
    Are you sure you did not have it programed for running?
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    That's roughly 20cals per minute, which is really high. Not undoable, but most people can't maintain that level of intensity for that long.

    I would bet that it's off... not familiar enough with Garmins to offer a suggestion as to why though.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    I believe that a typical calorie burn for cycling aerobically is around 40 to 50 calories per mile.
  • DonPendergraft
    DonPendergraft Posts: 520 Member
    Sounds way too high to me. What Garmin are you using? Some of the models don't actually use the HRM data to calculate calories burned, just distance and time. Whatever method yours is using, sounds off to me...that would be just over 20 cals/minute @ 7.3 MPH.

    ^^^THIS

    I have a Garmin Forerunner 305. I love it! But it's highly inaccurate in terms of caloric burn. It calculates based on distance and time. That's it. The 310XT some other models also incorporate HR which makes it much more accurate. You can also load a Leaf metabolic profile to make it super duper accurate. But that's about $100, so no thanks. :o)
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    I did a bike ride today, 11 miles over about an hour and a half. Per Garmin I burned 1857 calories! Could that be possible? I was pedaling the entire time with a few hills thrown in. My weight and such are programmed into the Garmin. Could the 1857 be accurate?

    Thanks!

    Hard to imagine how that's accurate.

    I'm almost 190 pounds and I burn just under 150 cals/mile when I run. Your GPS is reporting that you burn more cals riding 11 miles as I do running 11 miles.

    Doesn't pass the sanity check.
  • Karlaki
    Karlaki Posts: 74
    I have the 305.
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