Calories burned calculation

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I did not see any requests regarding calories so I thought I should add one.

It would be nice to have some indication on the calories consumed during a 
track.

I suppose it should take into consideration body weight, the actual sport, 
speed and grade of the route, though I do not know of any specific formula, or 
if anything else will be needed (like height, to calculate body mass index and 
factor that in as well).

No need for this to be live, it would be nice enough to have this at the end of 
the track as a summary.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by kal...@gmail.com on 12 Aug 2010 at 7:08

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This is the kind of use case for which I'd suggest having a separate app which 
uses mytracks' data for the calculations - would that work for you? This way we 
can keep mytracks focused on the core data collection, and have domain-specific 
applications for things like sports, aviation, etc. that interact with it.

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 25 Aug 2010 at 1:54

• Added labels: Component-Logic, Priority-Low

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For me this is perfectly fine. In fact I would love to have a desktop 
application or a website where I could further analyse this data offline. I do 
not necessarily need this on my phone. Do you plan a sister application for 
this? Or something like splitting the current mytracks into a data collection 
app and a data visualization (for lack of a better term) app?

Original comment by kal...@gmail.com on 25 Aug 2010 at 5:59

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Mytracks already has those two components (a service that does the recording + 
the activities that display the data), but they are and will continue to be 
bundled as a single app.

What I meant is that you can have other separate applications that access the 
data from mytracks or call its service.

I'll let someone who knows more about sports metrics / calory measurement / 
etc. comment on what it'd take to build such an app (I have no idea).

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 25 Aug 2010 at 2:05

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MapMyRide does this easily; in fact most MyTracks cyclists use this as a 
container for uploaded tracks to record workouts then calc caloric expenditure.

Original comment by christopher.wanko on 25 Aug 2010 at 3:26

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Hmm interesting I did not know about this. I will look it up. (Maybe we should 
put a links section in the wiki about this). It could very well be sufficient. 
Thanks a lot Christopher.

Original comment by kal...@gmail.com on 26 Aug 2010 at 6:16

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Issue 234 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 24 Nov 2010 at 5:27

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Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 17 Feb 2011 at 5:50

• Added labels: Targeting-1-2

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Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 24 Feb 2011 at 7:51

• Changed state: Accepted

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I think that mobile app itself should count and display calories, just like 
other figures (speed, pace, altitude, etc.), as most of alike apps I was going 
through count calories as well. MyTracks website would be more then welcomed, 
and I'll dare to say essential if MyTracks aims to be The mobile tracking app.

Those mobile apps counting calories always have entries within settings for 
individual's weight and age as calories burn is calculated by those two 
parameters, type of activity and activity intensity, like this: 
http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburned.htm
I'm not programmer so I don't know how much work it would take, but it is 
obviously possible.

Original comment by marko.ni...@gmail.com on 25 Feb 2011 at 9:23

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Here are some rough calorie estimates, which should be good enough to implement 
initially and refine over time.

http://www.marshmallowman2ironman.com/2009/09/calories-burned-while-cycling-and.
html
"""
Cycling:
Calories (kCal) = 0.28 * (weight in pounds) * (distance in miles)
Calories (kCal) = 0.174 * (weight in pounds) * (distance in kilometers)

Running:
Calories (kCal) = 0.653 * (weight in pounds) * (distance in miles)
Calories (kCal) = 0.406 * (weight in pounds) * (distance in kilometers)
"""

Original comment by kristian...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2011 at 9:24

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I tried to recall all those high school classes in physics to compute joules 
for work = mass * distance, etc. I realize it gets more complex with 
gravitational factors (elevation, location) and grade of terrain. Lots of 
factors to consider, but the rough estimates above seem good enough...

Original comment by kristian...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2011 at 9:32

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Calories are not dependent only with weight and distance. If you go uphill or 
downhill is also relevant.

Original comment by hariskar on 31 Mar 2011 at 5:02

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Right, but MyTracks captures GPS elevation, so it can use that as well. I 
presume flat, level terrain is the norm. The only reason uphill/downhill 
matters is because of additional gravity forces. The distance is still used and 
captured by GPS polling no matter if you are going uphill/downhill. Of course, 
gravitational pull is higher in some geographic locations than others. 
Everything is a factor. Wind too. Of course. The idea is to use something rough 
to get at least a decent estimate. No one here claims it will be 100% 
accurate...

Original comment by kristian...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2011 at 5:14

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When it comes to counting calories expenditure I'm pretty sure we get 
estimation rather then 100% accurate values. Even every single individual 
spends different amount of calories under same circumstances, so it's not 
possible to get 100% accurate calculation. Simply, as accurate as possible 
algorithm should be used and thats all.

I don't even believe that in other apps altitude is taken into consideration as 
unless you have enabled extra options for calculating it, like using mobile 
signal towers, altitude is pretty inaccurately calculated by GPS in mobile 
itself. 

Original comment by marko.ni...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2011 at 8:27

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Please SI or metric units for all calculations - pounds and miles and fat burnt 
in ounces per chain or smoots per fortnight can be determined from there ;-)

http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric.02_1_climate-orbiter
-spacecraft-team-metric-system?_s=PM:TECH

Original comment by bigya...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2011 at 9:20

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A summary of burned calories of the last 7 days in the status bar 
would be nice (optional, like CardioTrainer). Would be a good 
motivation keep on burning calories.

Original comment by romansch...@gmail.com on 13 Apr 2011 at 8:01

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In reading about calorie calculations using heart rate, I found required 
inputs; Gender, Weight and Heart rate. 

I am willing to add heart rate based caloric calculation.  From my feeble 
understanding, there seem to be too many variables to make a catch-all 
calculation (such as Basal metobolic rate, Resting metabolic rate, Lean mass, 
Fat Mass, etc.).

Brief scope:
1. Add User Input screen to Settings screen.
2. Perhaps add caloric output to the sensor screen.
3. Conditionally add the total calories burned to the summary when using HRM.
4. Optionally, I would like to conditionally add Heart rate to the spreadsheet 
doc.  FYI: I already tweaked the CSV output on my clone, but I do not 
understand the architecture enough to add to the project (yet).

Original comment by jrg...@gmail.com on 25 Apr 2011 at 1:30

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This is how I see this being implemented:
- Add new preferences to the setting screen to save the user height/weight etc.
- Have a setting to store the active/default activity.
- Add a new field to TripStatistics for calories
- Add logic to the TripStatisticsBuilder to calculate the calories
- Add code to provider to persist the calories
- Display this information on the stats screen which should hopefully be 
reworked to allow configuration.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 25 Apr 2011 at 10:29

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hi, i am new in this project so excuse me if i do something bad.

i've been researching a lot lately about cardio training for an application i 
wanted to code, until i discovered MyTracks.

I am not an expert, but from the things i've read:

Polar watches has a feature validated with scientific studies called OwnCal, to 
calculate calories. Also Suunto as a similiar feature. This info comes from 
Heartrate data, most exactly from R-R intervals. Zephyr and Polar Bluetooth 
bands both offer to record R-R data. Also from R-R data we could derive many 
more useful in-training data as EPOC, TRIM, etc, etc. AFAIK this stuff is 
nearly new in training physiology. 

Well, there are many methods to calc Calories only with Heartrate, even when 
VO2Max is also used in other formulas, for example: 

Using VO2max
   Men: C/min = (-59.3954 + (-36.3781 + 0.271 x age + 0.394 x weight + 0.404 x VO2max + 0.634 x HR))/4.184
   Women: C/min = (-59.3954 + (0.274 x age + 0.103 x weight + 0.380 x VO2max + 0.450 x HR)) / 4.184

Without VO2max
   Men: C/min = (-55.0969 + 0.6309 x HR + 0.1988 x weight + 0.2017 x age) / 4.184
   Women: C/min = (-20.4022 + 0.4472 x HR + 0.1263 x weight + 0.074 x age) / 4.184

weight is in kg

=======================
Also for reading more about calories consumed:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/rockport.htm
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm#vo2
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2mile.htm

http://www.exrx.net/Testing.html

http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm

About Polar OwnCal: 
Polar training computers with the OwnCal feature display the cumulative energy 
expenditure (in kilocalories, kcal) during exercise and total kilocalories of 
the current exercise session after exercise. They also save accumulated 
kilocalories. The energy expenditure calculation is based on:
body weight, height, age, gender
individual maximum heart rate (HRmax)
heart rate during exercise

Many Polar training computers also take into account: 
individual heart rate value in a sitting position (HRsit)
individual maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max)

Read more with citations and references here: 
http://www.polar.fi/about_polar/who_we_are/research/OwnCal

sorry for this long disertation.

Original comment by ble...@gmail.com on 28 Apr 2011 at 1:02

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Original comment by jshih@google.com on 9 Dec 2011 at 9:09

• Changed state: New

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It would be great to add a good calorie burned estimate into MyTracks.  I use 
Cardio Trainer now for this but its estimates are not very good, data can't be 
exported in a useful way, etc.  Would love to just use MyTracks.

More calories burned estimators: 
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-
burn-calculator.aspx

Original comment by JimR...@gmail.com on 10 Aug 2013 at 2:20

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Is there any update on integration with already existing technologies? Or 
partnerships with Nike, Polar, Garmin?

Open source and open technologies should ideally accept other products and 
brands. I wish Google integrated with other personal data/health/fitness 
devices.

Lastly, can the upcoming Google watch please have a heart rate monitor?

Original comment by nvonstac...@gmail.com on 31 Oct 2013 at 8:31

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Could you please cal  replace by kcal (and optionally kJ)?

Original comment by linuxdoe...@gmail.com on 5 Feb 2014 at 8:15

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Original comment by jshih@google.com on 21 Mar 2014 at 5:20

• Changed state: Fixed

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I would suggest the settings screen has the option to change the calories 
display to optionally be in kJ.   I live in Australia.  Australia moved to 
Kilojoules 30 years ago as part of going metric.  Older people may be more 
familiar with calories but most young people are more familiar with kilojoules 
as the unit of food energy.  For example food nutrition labelling in Australia 
is generally only in kilojoules.

The impression I have is that the USA, Canada and the UK are the only countries 
still largely using calories rather than kilojoules.

Original comment by jcameron...@hotmail.com on 7 Oct 2014 at 11:29