deciphering stats and comparing apps
 

Hi,

I'm about to get the bikes out of the garage and basement and start putting some miles on this season. I also have a goal to shed excess weight this summer, so along with that I've been exploring apps to run on my Blackberry Curve.

At lunch today I took a break from work and went for a walk, out the building, through some woods, along a powerline road adjacent to a golf course, rambling over brush and following deer trails, then back to the building on a fitness trail. Total distance was about 2.2 miles, total time was about an hour (fished a couple of golf balls out of a creek so lost a little time there j) ) .

I was using two apps on the phone: Endomondo and iMapMyRide, both in walking mode accessing the phone's GPS. I was also using a Polar F6 HRM.
Here are the results:
Endomondo says 310kcal and 2.11 miles.
IMapMyRide says 224kcal and 2.29 miles.
Polar HRM says 478kcal, 1:05:56 elapsed time, 125 max heart rate, 105 avg heart rate, and some other stuff I haven't figured out how to retrieve yet.

I'm in my mid-50's, weigh about 250Lbs, stand about 5'11", and I think some or all of that is programmed into the HRM and one or both of the phone apps.

I might just use the HRM while on the bike, but am thinking one of the phone apps might be nice as well since they have the route/map record in case I want to share a route with someone.

So, are any of these halfway accurate, or should I just average them?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

I saw a discussion thread on the wattage email forum recently that went into this. Bottom line was there are a lot of assumptions built into the algorithms to convert HR data to Kcal, so their usefulness for calorie counting may be limited. Over time, you may be able to figure out which of the three is the most consistent (it may be wrong, but it's wrong the same direction and amount) and use that for tracking purposes. Me - I would just ride and walk lots, clean up my diet, and not worry about it too much. And use body measurements (girth at various points, or just how the fit of clothes changes) and track performance on the bike (time, HR, and RPE for the same route under similar conditions) to follow improvement. I found that when I started riding, setting a goal (in my case it was a century ride) gave me a better focus for riding than "lose weight". Good luck.

From I've read, there are a number of different formulas that are being used by manufacturers. For example, Garmin has apparently changed the formula they use with their newer models. I don't know about Polar. ks1g is right, I wouldn't take too much stock in what the Kcal consumed figure represents.

Thanks. I think I'll just use the easiest one then and consider the number just a reference point and not an actual kcal number. I guess I could use that to measure progress and possibly intensity.

The body measurements is good too.

Thanks.