Garmin has partnered with MyFitnessPal so users of Garmin’s smart watch and fitness trackers can coordinate their diet and exercise regimens more easily.
By linking Garmin Connect or Garmin Connect Mobile and MyFitnessPal accounts, vívofit and Forerunner 15 users can now easily view calories burned and consumed and see their net count for the remainder of the day based on calorie goals set in MyFitnessPal. All other Forerunner and Edge users will have access this summer.
“Garmin has been helping people reach health goals with our line of fitness wearables for 10 years, and our partnership with MyFitnessPal brings our user experience to the next level,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Users can track their consumed calories through the largest food and nutrition database in the world, and directly compare it in Garmin Connect with their calories burned in workouts and throughout the day on their Garmin device.”
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with a global leader in GPS technology to help our users more accurately track their fitness footprint,” said Mike Lee, Co-Founder and CEO, MyFitnessPal. “By integrating Garmin data with MyFitnessPal nutrition and activity information, this collaboration will enhance the data-based insights available to both companies’ users, helping them better understand their daily activity and how it relates to their overall health goals.”
Once users’ MyFitnessPal accounts are linked in Garmin Connect, calories consumed (which will be logged in users’
MyFitnessPal accounts) will automatically be viewable in a widget on their Garmin Connect homepage. The new Calories In/Out feature compares calories consumed against calories burned as measured by compatible Garmin devices such as Garmin’s new Vivofit activity tracker and Forerunner 15 to show the user their net calorie balance for the day.
Both devices include an inactivity monitor to alert users when they have been sitting too long, are water resistant up to 50 meters, and are compatible with ANT+ heart rate monitors1 for fitness activities.
With a database of nearly 4 million foods and hundreds of exercises from fitness technology partners and community insights, MyFitnessPal has emerged as a popular free app for achieving and maintaining health goals.
This partnership comes as Garmin ramps up spending at its fitness segment, which generated $356.3 million in the fiscal year ended Dec. 28, 2013 by providing athletes, fitness buffs and increasingly people who just want to improve their overall fitness levels and health ways to set goals and measure their progress against them.
