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I’ve just done 66 Miles in the mountains with 11500 ft climbing at a not too shabby pace. Garmin Connect has offered me a paltry 1500 calories for that which does not cover the scabby horse I had planned for tea. Is there some setting I’ve missed? Or does Garmin deliberately keep us climbers lean.
You could power up a hill doing ~300W averaging ~15mph and then freewheel at ~0W a similar descent averaging 25mph, for an overall average speed of ~20mph.
Or you could still do ~300W @15mph up the hill, but then do ~200W @30mph down the hill, for an overall average speed of ~22.5mph.
Which one uses more Calories? 😉
Between Garmin Connect, Strava, Wahoo and everything else I've used the calories estimates vary wildly, often by 100% or more. They seem to all be a bit closer together when riding with a HRM. I just treat them as a rough estimate, and always use the lowest.
Check that your personal settings are correct - Height, weight, age etc etc.
Connect wont re-calculate after you change the stats though...
Mine always seems much too high for cycling, often 2-3x the Strava estimate. For running they're much closer but Strava is usually higher. No idea how it's worked out.
I went for a 5K run last week and for the first time ever both Connect and Strava calculated the exact same calories (516)!
and always use the lowest.
Surely always use the highest? How else do you justify eating everything in sight for the rest of the day?
I wouldn't even bother looking a calorie values on GPSes, Fitbits etc. and certainly don't justify what you eat based on their results; go by the mirror, the scales and your energy levels and whether you're eating for performance or weight loss.