What do I trust?

katerinab

I use my exercise bike approx 45 minutes per day and do it at about 14 MPH or so. My bike says in that amount of time I burn just under 400 calories. But I have a very very cheapo model of bike whose display has been broken off quite a few times and I don't know how trustworthy that is. I wanted to check that with the database, but I don't know what to use - there are 6 different levels (general, moderate, very light, light, vigorous, and very vigorous) giving a wide range of different calorie levels. I've been using "moderate" because somewhere I want to say I remember reading moderate effort was about 13-15 MPH, but I could be pulling that idea out of my butt.

I want a reasonably accurate idea so I know how many exercise calories I should be eating. Does anyone have any insight to offer?

BettyBeth14

I find iot easier to create your own exercise. That way you can input how many carolies you have burnt off...this will only work if your bike counts these for you though. Failing that I never know which one to use either sorry :-( x

Avalon203

Id personally base it on how hard I was trying, because I think it depends on how much effort you personally are putting in how many calories you actually burn. And the calorie counters on exercise equipment aren't totally acurate unless they take into account your weight and heart rate etc anyway.... so if your going 14mph and thats really difficult for you and you are really going as fast as you can possibly go and couldnt do any faster than that then id say it was very vigourous, if its relatively easy for you to go that fast and takes a while for you to break a sweat then its more light. A way an old friend of mine used to measure it was to see how long it took you to start sweating and if you could still talk or sing while doing it.....If you sweat quickly and cant talk or sing then its very vigourous/vigourous! So to sum up this long rambly passage, it depends on you, be honest about how hard your working and how much harder you could work and you'll be fine! :happy:

Beth720

The best way to know is to get a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. That measures your exertion and determines how many calories YOU are burning, not some generic formula used for everyone who could use the same model machine.

trud72

Hi there,i have been doing the right thing now for a year just about i have come to not worry about what amount of cals i have burnt up but just the benifits of the exercise,i do 1 workout dvd and walking(min 30 mins)a day then i know i have more than done enough,you will find a routine and stick to it then everything else will fall into place!
good luck

DJH510

FYI everyone, the amount of "effort" you put into exercise has NOTHING to do with the amount of calories burned.

Avalon203

The 'effort' thing- different people have different opinions, I used to do the weightwatchers points diet, which basically substituted counting calories for counting points. Do exercise and you earn more points, the more effort you put in the more extra points you earned, it was measured by how hard the exercise was for you, rather than how far you ran or cycled. For example me, who is relatively unfit, running at 5mph on the tredmill is really really hard and requires a hell of a lot of effort and was classed as high intensity by the weightwatchers guidelines, whereas my boyfriend who is in better shape, the same exercise requires much less effort for him, his heart rate doesnt rise as high and it would be classed as moderate by the weightwatchers guidelines and he would earn less extra 'points' or calories......