Calories burned?

medicdawg

When I ride a stationary bike, the calorie counter reads that I have burned 225 calories in 30 minutes. But when I look up the same exorcise to add it on my tracker, it says that 30 minutes of moderate stationary bike burns 370ish calories. I don't want to over or under estimate what I burn. Should I split the difference? Go low? Any suggestions appreciated.

dlaplume2

I would go by the machine. The machine will know exactly how fast you pedaled and at what resistance. You might have gone slower than you actually think you did.

velix

Wearing my HRM, I did 22 minutes of lvl 10 (of 20) "fat burner" option on the stationary bike today and I burned 215 calories - if that helps (and the database was much higher...)

kappyblu

You should probably look into getting a HRM. These are bound to be more accurate since it is monitoring your own heart rate. Good luck!

About the calories burned today? To be safe, I would choose the number halfway between the two amounts given to you.

jadedjade24

MFP is just giving you an estimate. If you do not have a HRM I would go by the bike.

But just as a side note, I would invest in an HRM. Before I got mine I went by what the bike told me as well. But it turns out that for me specifically it was under by 50 calories or more depending on how log I went for. My HRM only cost me 30 bucks and works great. Something to think about ^_^

kent4j

I did 30 minutes yesterday on the stationary bike and it said 220 and like you it was 370 here. i used what the stationary bike read since I didn't want to overstate.

Jess21684

probably go by the machine. best way to do it is buy a heart rate watch and based on your heartrate, it will know how many cals you are burning and should be the most accurate cause mfp doesnt neccesarily know how intense you worked and what your heartrate was up to so it could be a little off and the machines are not 100% accurate. when im on the treadmill jogging the machine usually tells me ive burned less than what my HRM tells me. best thing to do is go invest in a HRM for the most accurate reading! I usually only try to eat about half of my excercise cals for this purpose, incase my calorie burn isnt quite accurate so i kno i have a few extra calories left over just in case.

medicdawg

Thanks for all the replies. My bike does have a hr monitor and it reads from 120-140 depending on what level I am currently on. It cycles from 2 to 5 out of 10 throughout the 30 minutes. My target heart rates are 118-156 I think. So I'm solidly in the zone. I will continue to use the calories it shows on the bike at the end.

Thanks again all.