You know the ones that come up in the summary of the ride ?

Are they completely made up ?

Yesterday I did a 10 mile ride in the Yorkshire Dales on the MTB and did 500 m of climbing ( according to the route guide ) just done a 13 miler on the road bike on the flat and it’s come back with the same amount of calories burned.

Is there a reliable way of working out calories burned when thinking about diet whilst aiming to loose a bit of weight ?

6-800 per hour working at a fair intensity.

Garmin figures are utter bobbins.

More or less made up, yes. How many calories you actually use depends on a huge range of factors, only a couple of which the Garmin will know.

It’s all guesswork… Suppose if you add the hrm, power and cadence maybe closer, but even with the elevation compensation turned on, garmin told me I burned 3220 calls on Monday, strava told me 1800 for the same file.

I’m trying to use the cals to help shift a bit of weight, but I can’t get out of the mindset that says every calorie burned is a calorie of cake you can consume and be no worse off!

Strava on my Android had me using 1400 calories on a 16 mile Hope loop the other day – my mate on his Garmin (Strava again) used 800 on the same ride.

Polar are reputed to have the best made up algorithm, so much so Garmin tried to license it. My Edge usually reads double my Polar HRM. I fiddled the weight in the Edge to get them to read similar values.

Have a read here

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

Few different methods in use depending on which garmin you have and whether or not you use HRM.

I’m trying to use the cals to help shift a bit of weight, but I can’t get out of the mindset that says every calorie burned is a calorie of cake you can consume and be no worse off!

Well it’s not true so you should get out of it 🙂

My Polar HRM and Strava (Android Phone App) are usually in the same ball park.

Approx 600-800 cals/hr if going some, 400-600 steady pace.

My weight is programmed into both but doesn’t include the bike.