PackCal - Vest & Pack Calories

HEART RATE CAN'T WEIGH YOUR PACK PackCal is a one-cell Garmin data field that computes the calories your load actually costs, from physics, not heart rate. Your heart rate climbs under a pack, but never in proportion to what that load costs you, so your watch's estimate lands low. PackCal computes the difference. It is for anyone who carries weight on foot: weighted-vest walks, loaded hikes, rucks, a kid in the carrier, hauling out game, snowshoeing, mountaineering. PackCal is a data field, not an app. You add it to a data screen in the Garmin activity you already use, so it never starts its own activity. Load a course and follow Garmin's turn-by-turn navigation and maps as before, while PackCal adds the calorie number Garmin leaves out. After you save, PackCal records your calories, pack weight, and terrain to the FIT file, so they appear under Stats, in the Connect IQ section of Garmin Connect. SET IT UP ON THE WATCH OR PHONE Set your pack weight right on the watch: open the activity, hold UP, choose Connect IQ Fields, then PackCal. Choose your units (kg or lb, kcal or kJ), then set pack weight, terrain, and a body weight if your profile has none. Change your load mid-activity and it updates within a second. Prefer your phone? The same settings live in Garmin Connect. Until pack and body weight are set, the cell reads SETUP NEEDED. CALORIES THAT COUNT YOUR PACK, GPS OR NOT PackCal keeps counting indoors or out, with GPS or without. Outdoors with GPS, it runs the Pandolf equation, the load-carriage model from U.S. Army research, on your body weight, pack weight, speed, terrain grade, and surface: Road, Gravel, Trail, Sand, or Snow. On a treadmill or indoor walk, it scales your watch's own estimate by your load, up to walking pace. If GPS is still locking or drops under tree cover, it leans on that estimate so the count never stalls, resuming when signal returns. A 10 lb vest adds roughly 4 to 7 percent over the same walk unloaded, a 35 lb ruck 15 to 25 percent, a 60 lb load 30 to 45 percent. Your number depends on body weight and grade, so PackCal computes it rather than guess a flat bonus. WORKS WHERE THE MATH IS HONEST Walk, Hike, and Ruck run the full Pandolf model, and so do Hunting, Snowshoeing, Mountaineering, and similar load-carrying activities. A child carrier counts too: the same Hike, with carrier and kid as your pack weight. Treadmill and indoor walks are included, scaled by your load. Everywhere else, PackCal shows -- on purpose. Pandolf is validated for walking, not running, and on a bike, in the water, or lifting, your pack isn't driving the burn. PackCal would rather show nothing than a number it can't stand behind. ONE SCREEN, EVERY NUMBER THAT MATTERS Give PackCal a full single-field screen and it becomes your whole activity overview: your calorie total big and center, with live heart rate, pace, and ascent down the side, time and distance along the bottom, and a CAL FROM PACK badge showing what your load adds. A line echoes your setup ("15 lb · Trail") to confirm at a glance. Smaller cells fall back to a clean labelled number. On watches with less memory, a full screen shows that same simple view. The calorie math is identical on every watch. Only the metrics around it differ. PRIVATE BY DESIGN PackCal computes everything on your watch. No account, no subscription, no ads. We don't track or collect anything. Buy it once through Garmin Pay, with no unlock codes to redeem. TWO SHAPES, SAME MATH PackCal adds one number inside the activity you already use, keeping every native field. RuckTrack, from the same developer, is the opposite shape: a full app for ruck, hike, vest, and treadmill, with seven live screens and a post-activity summary. Same calorie math in both, so your numbers always agree. The full app, RuckTrack: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/201e9e43-f33c-4b56-b3f5-8a67184e3d1c How the calorie math works, FAQ, and support: https://meridian-apps.github.io/packcal-docs/

More watches supported. No change to the calorie math for walking, hiking, or rucking. - PackCal now runs on the fenix 6 Pro family and on the Approach, D2, Descent, MARQ, tactix and quatix watches. - On watches with less memory, a full single-field screen shows the simpler labelled number rather than the metric rail. The calorie math is identical on every watch. - For older-watch owners: Garmin sells paid Connect IQ apps only on a set list of watches, so models such as the Instinct 2, the first-generation Enduro, the Venu Sq, the vivoactive 3 and 4, and the Forerunner 55/245/645/745/945 cannot install PackCal. That limit is Garmin's and applies to every paid Connect IQ app.