Difference in stationary bike & spinning calorie burn

kaydee210

I take a spinning class 3x week for at least 60 min per class. It is INTENSE and a constant workout. MFP indicates I burn 533 cals. Which sounds great. Then I noticed someone on a stationary bike for the same amount of time is burning at least twice the calories. I've done the stationary bike but prefer spin class. Why such a dramatic difference on the calorie burn totals? Just curious!

JennsLosing

bump...im curious as well...i noticed the same thing

RichB77

Hmmm, i do both too, let's hope we get an explanation!!

:drinker:

julie4760

I think the amount of calories burnt varies also due to how heavy you are too, someone who weighs more than me doing the same exercise burns more calories than I do.

spaboleo

I am taking spinning classes, too.
I advise you to wear a heart rate monitor (with accurately setup values for weight, height, gender, age etc.) so that the calorie-burn gets properly calculated.

My actual weight is 183lbs (83kg) and I've got a pretty high max. heart rate (it's at 204, measured under medical supervision).
I use to cycle to the gym (10min. each way) and I get there at a heart rate of about 130 (~63% of max. heart rate).
This is followed by a very hard spinning class in that I really give everything...the resistance is quite high and my legs are burning for one or two hours after the class...
As the spinning class is an cycling endurance training in the off-seasons for me I'm cycling at an pace/resistance combination that my heart doesn't drop below 75%. Usually it's around 80%. I allow my body one or two high-intensity peaks of around 90%, e.g. when cycling with a really high cadence.

Within this 90minutes (10min. cycling + 5min. rest + 60min. spinning class + 5min. rest + 10min. cycling home) I burned 1700kcal on Thursday.
It surprised myself...but as it was really intense it is about right.

My heart rate monitor works quite accurate. I double checked it against others (one really high prized professional HRM from Polar and one medically aproved one by the sport-doctor) and the results were quite similar.



It really depends on how hard you are working out, what your max. heart rate is during this workout, how old you are and how much you weigh.
The exercise calculator of MFP can only assume very roughly how much you have burned.
To get a more accurate estimation of your burned calories always wear a heart rate monitor that is properly set up.

This of course goes for spinning classes, aswell as cycling on a stationary bike and any other activity.
Most of the users (like I do, too) search for the exercise in MFP (e.g. spinning) and edit the time in a way to fit the calculated burned calories by the HRM. That is why I had to login "160min." of spinning on Thursday...even though I only did that for an hour (without the tour to and back from the gym).

kaydee210

I just ordered a HRM and am interested to see what it indicates. It will be especially helpful in my triathlon training. Thanks for all the responses, very helpful!