Sunday, March 03, 2013

Calories - Fitbit vs Garmin 610 vs Garmin FR70 vs MyFitnessPal

Having written about Fitbit vs Garmin in terms of distance and speed, I was interested recently in the calories burnt numbers. First comparison shows up big differences; some research shows there is a fairly wide variation and many calculations and methods in use.  Here are the results from the same walk;


Garmin
610
Garmin
 FR70
Fitbit
MyFitnessPal
Distance
2.87

3.26

Average HR
94
94
N/A

Calories
194
211
385
215


The surpirse result is the Fitbit at 386 calories.   I have posted before about the calibration I have done with the fitbit and distance and all settings are the same across all these option in terms of age/weight/height.

I also used myfitnesspal to calculate a calories burn number, using 18min/mile = 3.3 mph which gives between 200 and 230 to try and understand the big difference on the Fitbit number but the MyFitNessPal number is more like the Garmin.

Garmin 610

Garmin FR70


Fitbit

Heart Rate.  Both Garmins were paired to the same strap;  happily, both show record exactly the same results.



Garmin 610

Garmin FR70
Garmin 610



Garmin FR70

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Learning Spanish

I've been learning Spanish recently, I've tried alot of resources, websites, apps, and lessons; here's my favorite links 

Online lessons via Skype www.spanology.com live from Madrid!
Online resources and articles www.blogdeespanol.com 
Vocabulary help and excercises www.duolingo.com 
Spanish Dictionary www.spanishdict.com
Spanish Newspaper www.elpais.com/ 
Quick Translation http://translate.google.com 
Another lookup http://www.wordreference.com/es/en 
Conjugator www.123teachme.com

One of the best uses of Skype I've have come across has been learning Spanish over the internet with teachers actually in Spain.  I am taking two lessons a week and trying with some home work between lessons.

You can even order a printed El Pais newspaper from your newsagent in the UK.  The Saturday edition is £1.60 from most newsagents.