So which one is more accurate ?.

Did a 50 mile ride and the calorie count are wildly different.

Heres the strava one at 1930 and heres the Garmin one at a whopping 3286 calories. For the record Im around 13 1/2 stone and Im fairly sure both apps have my weight.
im hoping Garmin is more accurate as I’ve just eaten around 8 chocolate digestive and a SIS recovery shake.

I think the Strava one works off the ‘power’ figure it calculates. As a rule of thumb your energy output in kJ (power x time)is aproximately the same as your Calorie input. (as the body is about the same efficiency as the conversion from kJ to Cal they effectively cancel out).

Garmin will base it on heart rate and other things. So flying downhill on adrenalin requires very few calories, but garmin thinks it’s one epic sprint. With the HRM off the garmin calories match the strava ones better, so presubably it defaults to some guestimate of power based on gradient and speed, like strava.

Heart rates a poor way of measuring calorie consumption as a Pro rider will ride at the same heart rate as you or I, but has a huge heart (and leg muscles) in comparison so are clearly goingto be burning a LOT more calories.

Based on rides I’ve done with a power meter i reckon my output would be more in line with the strava figure. I reckon the garmin is quite high. Though depends on loads of stuff that unless you have a power meter you can’t capture. Could have been 3 hours through hub deep mud with a massive pack on your back for example, in which case Garmin might be more accurate 🙂

Edit: Tinas, I couldn’t see any HR figures so assumed the OP wasn’t wearing a monitor.

Garmin will base it on heart rate and other things. So flying downhill on adrenalin requires very few calories, but garmin thinks it’s one epic sprint.

My Edge 705 seems to use nothing but speed. Even if you give it HR/power data it still gives a laughably high figure.

My 800 definately gives much higher figures with the HRM, well, as definately as I can be without taking two of them out on the same ride. It usualy says ~2000Cal for an evening ride, but if the HRM’s not on it’s about 2/3rd that.

My Edge 205 doesn’t.

If you have a 2 mile descent at 40mph, your calorie count stays the same.

I use a garmin and on my 20 mile commute I average around 750 calories so I would say your Garmin is wildly out. Thats using the HRM function.

just eaten around 8 chocolate digestive

Well that’s over 600 calories then. And because you say ‘around’ I would guess you’ve eaten more than 10 so probably nearer 800 calories.

+1 on 705

Out of interest, are the theoretical calories displayed in addition to the calories you’d use if you just sat in a chair for three hours? I guess an average bloke burns well over 100 an hour during the day.

@Gary M , Higher than 6 biscuits but less than 10 .

I didn’t have a heart rate monitor , It’s just the Calories that Strava and Garmin calculate I’d imagine by weight and energy required. I get what you are saying though last week I did a 16 mile XC mtb ride through thick Gloopy mud which was a real struggle and rocked up a whole 455 Calories and the effort was easily as hard as a 37 mile ride on the road bike yesterday.

My garmin 800 gives me a lower calorie usage if I use the heart rate band
But i still find starva gives a far lower number notated what

I reckon there’s something up with your Garmin value. Remember there is a weight entry in the Connect profile bit, as well as in the user profile on the app. I don’t know which one it uses or whether they sync?

I did 31 miles on the road yesterday & it reckoned I’d burnt just under 1300 cals, which isn’t a million miles from GaryM’s 750 cals over 20 miles.

Never noticed calories burnt while descending…will try to remember to have a look.

I see similar huge differences between the calorie numbers I get estimated by MapMyRide, which I guess are based on speed/distance/time/elevation and are always much higher than the much smaller numbers I get from my polar heart rate monitor. Both of them also know my body weight (but not my bike weight)

I had a Garmin HRM and I thought the values were high. I tend to go by Strava values, I also now have a Polar HRM and the values from that are comparable with Strava.

I have heard that the difference is whether the calculations take into account the calories you burn just by being up and about or whether it’s purely calories burned from the effort of exercise that it measures – there’s a term for it and I can’t remember what it is. But I can’t see that would account for such a huge difference between Strava and Garmin.

Thinking about the gramin/HRM thing, I seem to remember it goes balistic over a certain HR (or at least the calories burnt/minute is exponentail with heart rate)? So 2 hours plodding round on the road bike at 150bpm barely burns anything. 2 hours on the singlespeed and the calorie consumption goes through the roof even despite the average only being 5bpm higher (but probably far less constant).

So could it be that variation between people is down to how quickly your heart reacts to an effort i.e mine rockets up to pretty much it’s max, then drops equaly quickly once over the hill therefore the garmins registering more calories, whereas someone else might do the same ride but log a more constant effort?

I’d ignore all of them anyway, If I’m off for a long ride then I just aim for 400Cal/hour of cereal bars, jelly babies, dried fruit and energy drink. Then after the ride eat normaly.

Interesting. Had a Garmin 500 (with HRM) for a couple of weeks now and it’s consistently giving me (on Garmin Connect) LOWER calorie counts than Strava (or Endomondo). By about 20% or so.

mrblobby – Member
Based on rides I’ve done with a power meter i reckon my output would be more in line with the strava figure. I reckon the garmin is quite high. Though depends on loads of stuff that unless you have a power meter you can’t capture. Could have been 3 hours through hub deep mud with a massive pack on your back for example, in which case Garmin might be more accurate

Yeah, I always chuckle after a 1 hr cross race at an average speed of about 8mph when it says i’ve used 150 calories. It obviously knows nothing about the conditions your riding in (or even the type of bike you’re riding – reckon I use more energy on an ss over a geared bike)