bikeamateur70

I recently purchased a second hand Garmin Edge .+ 520 bike computer. I have previously used Strava on iPhone to record my rides. When counting calories Garmin Connect app seem to count 30-40 -% more than Strava. Others out there who find calories in Garmin to be very over-exaggerated?

Iride01 

Pick one of those places or things to be your Calorie count reference and use it. Don't worry about whether it's the correct number or not and don't worry about what other say. Just as long as it's consistent it's usable. Otherwise you'll be in a state of panic wondering why one say one thing and another says something else. Don't try to use Calories to come up with the effort you did on a ride to attempt to do training by power. Get a power meter for that.

skidder

Yeah, calorie-use tracking devices can be wildly different by make and model. It depends on the type of bicycle you're using, speed, hill climbing (or descending), your own metabolism, extra weight on your bicycle (tools, clothing, etc), and any number of other factors I can't think of right now. I just watch what I'm eating and that does a pretty good job of keeping the excess calories from accumulating on my body.

KerryIrons

^^^^ Best advice you can get. Bike computers, whether simple or sophisticated, on the road or in the gym, are notoriously inaccurate about calories burned, and typically way high. Unless you are a pro rider trying to get as light as possible for climbing the big cols, use the calorie number as a relative effort measure. If you want to lose weight, be more hungry but don't try to do some math based on your device.

winston63 

I found that my Garmin 520 Edge tended to overestimate by a similar percentage as you noted. I do find that my Apple Watch seems to be much more accurate, but it should be as its tracking heart rate in addition to monitoring moving statistics. All that said, I agree with Iride01 that consistency matters more than accuracy unless you have a very specific reason for tracking that requires some degree of accuracy

roadie276

Huh, I upload my Garmin .fit files to Strava and don't see any difference in calorie numbers. Is this because Strava's just using Garmin's data? I've heard that the most direct way to measure calorie expendature is to use a power meter. I do have one...not sure if that also affects the accuracy. But yeah, picking one to standardize on and sticking with it is probably a good bet.

pdlamb

Applying a fudge factor to any calculated calorie count is a good idea, as long as it's less than 1.0.

I'd add, DO NOT!! use the calorie counter to figure out how much you can eat if you're trying to maintain or lose weight. Without (expensive) lab tests, power meter results, and a few months of weighing everything you'll eat to calibrate the system, you'll gain weight if you take that calculated value as permission to have 2 Tbs of ice cream.

winston63 

Agreed! I did successfully lose weight using estimates from my Garmin a number of years ago, but I assumed I burned 60% of the calories it reported. That still may not be very accurate, but on average it worked out for me and I did manage to get my weight down to my target

macattack71

If you are not using an HR monitor it will do that. I have an Edge 510, and my old HR crapped out on me this year. Ride to work said 1025 calories without. I knew that was wrong, its only 11.5 miles. Got a new dual HR monitor, about 600 calories, right in line with previous rides.

mr_pedro

Any estimated power or calorie number during a bike ride that is not measuring power directly can be off by say up to 50%, and that is if everything is set up correctly. Your tool might not know about inclination, wind, speed, weight.
Then if in the settings something is really wrong, like weight or if speed is not correctly measured it can be off by any factor.

On the other hand if you have a feel for what these numbers mean you can make a rough estimate yourself.
For example if you ever ride on a flat road with no wind for a little bit, then remember the effort it takes to go 22 mph on a road bike, if you can keep that up for the entire ride that gives you about 1000 Cal/hour. For other speeds that is about:
20 mph -> 800 Cal / hour
18 mph -> 600 Cal / hour
16 mph -> 400 Cal / hour

This should get you to say within 20% of the actual numbers.
For a regular ride with wind and inclination, the speed is less of an indication for calories burned, but you can still compare the effort it is taking you to get an estimate.

bruce19

Outside of a research lab you are not going to find an accurate calorie counter. There are online charts and formulas that you can use as long as you realize these are gross estimates.