Calories. Garmin or Strava?

Ibaz

I'm new to cycling. Current riding about 100 miles per week.
I use Strava to track my milage - and I was using Garmin to track my calorie intake and output before I started to ride. So i have a Garmin edge 25 on the bike feeding ride data to strava.( I have Garmin speed and cadence sensors fitted)
My question is today, for example, i ride 42 miles. Garmin says I burnt just over 2000 calories, but Strava says 1500 - which is least inaccurate? I know niether are completely accurate - but one is further out than the other.
Cheers

denkfaul

They're both guesses - use the lowest value.

mcstumpy

At a slight digression..... I rode a sportive a couple of weeks ago and strava had elevation gained close to the organisers route card. But my mates garmin had him at nearly double this. Is this "normal" for Garmin?

imposter2.0

No idea if it is normal or not, but it does rather underline the point that none of this data seems to be particularly reliable.

Sleeper Service

As part of a weight loss program, I've been using a simple calculation based on 40 Kcal used per mile ridden. This has been used in tandem with a calorie deficit aimed at about 1.5 pounds a week loss. As I've lost over 2 pounds per week over the last 3 weeks, I'm wondering if this is slightly low?

I guess the conditions and bike affect things - grinding against a headwind on my M+ equipped Subway, with it's panniers full of laptop, clothes, and stuff should, in theory, burn more than unencumbered riding on the Schwalbe One equipped, Boardman, no?

Currently 209lb at 6'3". I was 217 3 weeks ago.

Ibaz

I do always use the lowest reading but as has already been said conditions and total weight will make a huge difference