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Regarding the rucking profile, Des stated that changing weight had no effect on the reported metrics and you seem surprised by this. In my opinion this is how it should be. If you did actually carry 50lbs of weight it would put extra stress on your body increasing your actual heart rate/calories/time taken etc and the effect of the extra weight would be accurately captured that way. Not by some algorithm.
By adding the weight carried in your profile you are keeping track of why your metrics are variable.
If Des did indeed carry 13lbs of weight (unclear), it seems that was not enough to tip the scales (pardon the pun)
My experience with carrying packs around is that changes in carried weight change overall stress and session recovery quite a bit more than they change heart rate, holding pace constant. I generally don’t do it anymore, for this reason (apart from, like, lunch and a jacket as applicable), but it seems like a reasonable complaint given the premises.
Does the Rucking activity contribute to the monthly 30 mile (48km) walking challenge on Garmin Connect?
The Hiking activity doesn’t contribute, which is what I was using to track my rucks, and rucking is basically just walking with weight.
Sadly it does not.
I do agree with Ray’s surprise on the rucking weight not having any impact.
Heart rate correlates well with calories burned. I imagine it is the largest factor in the formula. But it is not a perfect predictor.
For example, a 10 km track run by the same person when well rested vs when having a huge hangover. Heart rate would be significantly higher in the second scenario but energy spent (calories) would be roughly the same. Using other metrics in addition to heart rate prevents the formula from faultily predicting more calories burned when hungover.
Other metrics can and should be taken into account where available for the most accurate calorie burn estimate: distance, elevation, weight (body + equipment), …
It is probably such a small want, but I do find that the badges are motivating when I am in a slump and it would be awesome if walking meant hiking, walking and rucking. I would be curious to hear the thinking behind only walking is walking at garmin.
Strongly agree; I almost never record a “walk” activity, because frankly I never just “go for a walk”, like out on the street. All my walks are hikes, done on hiking trails, so I record them as hikes because, well that’s what I’m doing. Subsequently, I never get to earn any of the walking badges. It’s a bad oversight by Garmin. Any activities that involve taking steps with your feet should count towards the walking badges.
It’s weird what they do. Garmin Connect for cycling badges won’t give you credit for virtual rides indoors, but will for e-bike rides. Strava gives you credit for virtual rides, but none for e-bike rides. (I find this much more rational, and I own and ride an e-bike at times.) The biggest problem with Garmin is that they don’t tell you what counts and what doesn’t; at least Strava does that.
Adding weight should increase calorie burn.
The sports scientist way to look at it is Calories = (Time x MET x Mass[kg]) / 200 . So increasing the kg you are hauling around increases the calories expended.
The physicist way is Calories = 0.3± x mass (lbs) x distance (miles). I can’t find the studies right now.
Either way, increasing mass increases calories used, whether that’s a 5kg backpack or a 100kg ruck (insane that that’s Garmin’s limit)
With more weight, your heart rate is higher for the same activity. A higher heart rate contributes to more calories than a lower heart rate.
In your first equation, added weight would just mean you’re in a higher MET category.
Re the comment about it not using weight to calculate vo2max, this makes sense since an X-kg person exercising is not the same as a Y-kg carrying a Z-kg weight exercising. The body makeup is completely different, and as you may know the vo2 calculations are based on calculations based on large collections of data tables for “person of age X and weight Y with fitness/HR Z will have a vo2max of N” etc.
So this *could* work but they’d need to build up a similar dataset for “person carrying a weight” which is clearly not ideal for them to do (unless they can come up with a way of figuring out the calc themselves. (someone who’s spent a load of time, and fun building and playing with VO2 max measuring devices)