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Garmin GPS and Calorie Measurement
If you've ever wondered how accurate the "calories burned" numbers are on Garmin fitness GPSes, such as the Forerunner and Edge models, the always informative DC Rainmaker blog has an in-depth article today, "How calorie measurement works on Garmin fitness devices". What really caught my interest is how sophisticated the calculation can be, even on older models like the (still excellent) Forerunner 305. Although the Garmin GPS watches and cyclometers fall-back to using a simple and relatively inaccurate speed/distance method, when you have the heart monitor (HRM) strap on, they use a sophisticated algorithm from Firstbeat Technologies that takes account of a variety of data to produce a number that is accurate to within around 10%. Furthermore, for even more accurate measurement (that goes beyond just precise calorie numbers) you can go a performance testing center run by New Leaf for a running or cycling-specific VO2max-style test, and then download that result data to the GPS, which combines it with the speed, distance, and HRM data to calculate very precise performance numbers. Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
11/24/10	Montjoux	GPS
Related Technorati tags: Forerunner Edge

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