Burned calories from Garmin and Polar is a joke
 

Don't base your diet on what these say. It's a joke. Yesterday I did an easy 2.5 hour ride on flat ground. My Garmin said I burned 1600 calories! There's no way I worked that hard. My guess is I actually went through 1000 calories. I've had similar results from a Polar.

I've read here others say to reduce the displayed amount by 40%. That's probably good advice.

Perhaps it's just "feel good" marketing?

Depends on how you set up the unit- but I have had both over the years.

I reckon that when working very hard- I will burn about 600 calories an hour and this has also been reckoned out by the Gym where I go. This is what both the Garmin and Polar have told me I have used. Mind you- I did get annoyed when I did a 2 hour hilly ride- only to find that I had not worked as hard as I thought I had. Must have been more down hill than up.

I wondered about this too. I thought about if I started my workout on top of a hill and just coasted down for miles it would not be nearly as many calories burned as coming up the other way. I know after a 2 hour ride I cannot eat as many calories that day as it (fitlinxx and polar) says I burned. OTH I am slowly losing weight.

I don't know about the polar, but the Garmin figures it entirely on avg. speed. And it's always off. It overestimates by 40 to 50%.

Unless you're using a powermeter, dismiss the figures given and move on. There are too many variables not being measured.

Joel, I'm not sure about your average speed idea. I use my 705 on the motorcycle too and it gives some interesting numbers.

Garmin bases calories only on speed, or at least it did until the latest firmware update.

are you 300 pounds? The numbers are probably right on.

:lol:

I'm going to have to try that. I'll be skinny in no time!

What changed in that regard?

a 150lbs rider riding at a 15mph avg. burns about 500 cal/per/hr

What if there's a 15mph wind? Or it's an hour long mountain grade? :roflmao2:

I don't know... I've heard that it's "better now", but I have no information regarding what has changed, if anything, therefore I included the caveat.

I'm looking at purchasing the garmin 405 for running, do you all find that it works reasonably well for cycling too (aside from the CX feature)?