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Question

Calories from imported activities shown in Strava completely wrong

  • December 8, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 16 views

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Since a few days the calories shown in Strava from imported activities (e.g. from Polar) are completely wrong.

Although the support article https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917097-Calorie-Calculation
states that ... "Strava shows Calories as they were provided to us by upload partners."
... the calories shown for an imported activity (from Polar) ...

  1. do not correspond to the values displayed in the device/app which recorded the activity (e.g. Polar)
  2. are completely overstated

This issue exists for a couple of days. Until last Tuesday, Nov 2, the calories for a run shown in Strava was identical to the value provided by Polar.
However, since Saturday, Nov 6 there are huge discrepancies between the calories calculated in Polar and the values shown in Strava:

  • 14k run: Polar 677 Kcal, Strava 1316 Kcal
  • 5k  run: Polar 241 Kcal, Strava  453 Kcal
  • 12k run: Polar 573 Kcal, Strava 1108 Kcal

The values shown in Strava are clearly overstated.

This is clearly a bug and I expect this to be fixed asap.

Thanks for your feedback.

2 replies

BryanC
Superuser
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  • Superuser
  • December 8, 2025

If you think you have a bug, please raise a ticket with Strava Support.  The community hub cannot help you with bug fixes. 


Jan_Mantau
Superuser
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  • Superuser
  • December 8, 2025

I just checked it with my Garmin activities, the total calories there and the calories on Strava are still the same. With Polar there were often problems with calories and it was never clear if Polar did send them in the first place. If not, Strava calculates them on its own. Which value is correct is unknown anyway.