Confusion about burning kcal on a stationary bike

Magenta96
Magenta96 Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been using my stationary bike for an hour a few days a week. When I use my bike, it says I burn 500kcal after an hour (it doesn't know my weight), I go at about 27mph according to the speed meter, I use low resistance and cycle very fast. However, when I put my weight, speed etc onto an online stationary bike calculator, it says I burn 992kcal per hour. That's a pretty huge difference and almost sounds too good to be true. I don't really know what is correct here.

Replies

  • DirrtyH
    DirrtyH Posts: 664 Member
    This is why I don't log my exercise.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited May 2015
    27mph is one hell of a speed which is why you are getting a crazy number of calories.
    Unfortunately it's highly unlikely you would actually be able to cycle at that speed unless you are an elite cyclist, it's probably just confused by your low resistance and high pedal speed style of exercise.

    500/hour is reasonable, 992/hour is a lot more than I can manage and I'm a 100 mile cyclist.

    BTW - your weight has very little relevance to stationary cycling unless you are standing cycling.
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
    calories burnt during cardio can be tough trust me I know. This is just my personal preference I defer to others on the site who know more, but What I like to do is 1. Use a heart rate monitor and exercise at my target heart rate to make sure I'm working out at an intensity appropriate for me. Then 2. I take the calories from MYP's estimate or the machines (which ever is lower) then reduce further by at least 25%.

    I do this because I do not want to over state how much I burnt then eat it back later. Worst case scenario I burnt more than I thought and just add it to my deficit.

    I know this isn't the question you ask, but I like to reduce MFP's heavy lifting estimate by 75% just to be safe. I might be lifting for 45min but how much of that is time resting inbetween sets right?
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited May 2015
    Calorie burns depend upon many factors, a good estimate is hard to come by. 4 options:

    1. Do nothing. Don't eat any calories back...increase the deficit (and perhaps lose more lean muscle than you want to).

    2. Use a heart rate monitor. It's going to be a better estimate for steady state cardio (stationary bike qualifies).

    3. Log your exercise calories & plan on eating back 50-75%. After a time you get a good idea about what your exercise calories are. If you eat back 50% and weight loss proceeds at the expected pace.....there you go. If you eat back 75% and weight loss slows....dial it back.

    4. Use a calculator that includes a calorie estimate. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) .....less a percent. Because exercise in included up front (unlike MFP)....you don't need to log it.
  • tdatsenko
    tdatsenko Posts: 155 Member
    Magenta96 wrote: »
    I've been using my stationary bike for an hour a few days a week. When I use my bike, it says I burn 500kcal after an hour (it doesn't know my weight), I go at about 27mph according to the speed meter, I use low resistance and cycle very fast. However, when I put my weight, speed etc onto an online stationary bike calculator, it says I burn 992kcal per hour. That's a pretty huge difference and almost sounds too good to be true. I don't really know what is correct here.

    Your speed probably isn't anything close to real world since the world record is ~32 MPH for an hour. I really wouldn't trust what either of those sources tell you how many calories were burned. Does your bike give you outputs like power?

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