Not to be confused with Gangnam Style.
Today, I wore both my Apple Watch and Garmin Forerunner 255 for my treadmill workout, to see how they compared. Let’s take a look! Also, I messed up a bit at the end on the Garmin, as you will see.
- Heart rate: Identical. Yes, both the Garmin and Apple watches agreed my BPM was 121. This is good!
- Average Pace: Garmin thought I was faster, 9:00/km vs. 9:10/km for Apple
- Total distance: As expected, Garmin logged more, 5.13 km vs. Apple at 5.02 km
- Calories burned: Despite being slower, Apple felt I burned more calories, 391 vs.376 for Garmin.
Where I messed up was the end. The Garmin watch prompted me to enter the distance, which I thought was odd, because it clearly tracked it, not realizing this was a calibration step (which it notes after entering the distance). I should have entered the distance showing on the treadmill’s display, but did not, so it’s slightly off. I’ll see if it lets me calibrate again next time, though I’m also not sure if I really want to wear two watches on the treadmill (or at all).
The 5K workout went fine, though. I felt more vigorous doing it mid-afternoon than mid-evening.
Stats (Apple):
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 0 Pace: 9:10/km Time: 46:03 Distance: 5.02 km Calories burned: 391 BPM: 121
Stats (Garmin):
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 0 Pace: 9:00/km Time: 46:03 Distance: 5.13 km Calories burned: 376 BPM: 121