The pits...new Garmin HRM and cal burned

My husband bought me a Garmin HR monitor for Christmas. I have been using it the past week. I love the fact that it tells me my max HR, a route of my hike, elevation change, number of minutes in each zone, etc. However, my calorie count seems obsenely low!!! I just took a 60 minute spin class where my heart rate was in zone 2, 3, and 4 for about 15 minutes each and then a few minutes warming up and then a few minutes when it was in zone 5 at around 175 bpm. Then I lifted heavy weights for about 40 minutes (New Rules of Lifting Phase 4). According to Garmin, I burned only 248 calories! wtf?! According to cc activity I should have burned about 400 during the spin class and about 200 lifting!!! What am I doing wrong? I have been hiking 4 times (in the desert with 700'-900' elevation climb) for 60-80 minutes. I am huffing and Garmin says I am buring about 150-300 calories! This can't be right! Any suggestions???

Did you set up the user profile?  For the calorie counts to be reasonable, you have to input your personal information.

Yeah, I'd say there is something wrong with your settings for sure. You're definitely burning more than that! I'd read back over the user's manual again. Good luck!