Cycling / Biking Exercise…?

JustinCarie

Can’t seem to find biking as an exercise on the app to add. And I ride 4-6 miles at a time when biking… is there a way to fit this in? Pleas and thank you

AnnPT77

There are several relevant entries in the cardiovascular section of the MFP exercise database. Maybe the sticking point here is that the key word is "bicycling" rather than "bike" for regular biking (stationary biking has "bike" in the title, but outdoor biking doesn't). Try putting "cycl" in the search box. If you're using the phone/tablet app, you'd pick the "Browse All" tab for the search.

Many of us think the bicycling calories are somewhat overestimated, since the actual calorie burn varies with bicycle type (think heavy hybrid vs. racing bike - potentially quite different effort for the same duration/speed).

If you're stationary biking on a properly-calibrated bike that gives you an average watts number for the workout, use the formula (hours times 3.6 times average watts) to estimate calories.

If you're on a regular bike outdoors, and you don't have power meters, just see how your weight loss rate works out over a period of several weeks, to get a rough reading. That'll be close enough.

(Another option - if you're worried about overestimating the exercise calories - would be to eat back some standard percentage of the biking calories for the several-week trial period, like 50% or 75%, then assess and adjust.)