Do you exercise on a stationary bike?

CallMeMamaBoo

I'm curious to know what others are doing. I've read a lot about people who bike at 20 mph for an hour and get a good burn in.
So I'd like to know, how fast for how long for how many miles and how many calories you are burning...and am I the only bike freak that can't go any slower than 30 mph even on a sore day.

As for myself, I do 38-45 mph for 60-80 minutes for 35-45 miles for a burn of between 400-600 calories (says my bike)

jllipson

Just got my bike a little over a week ago - so not that fast for me yet, about 13 mph average. Just did 42 minutes tonight, going 7.25 miles. Also using resistance. I had 1 other almost as long, not as far and not using much resistance. I try to bike every day except Friday - I get more than enough on Friday nights with my work. I have done two 30 minute rides in a day a couple times this week.

As far as calorie burn, I've heard that most go based on 150 pound weight - not sure if that's true or if it varies by person or not.

Celo24

As for myself, I do 38-45 mph for 60-80 minutes for 35-45 miles for a burn of between 400-600 calories (says my bike)

38-45 mph???? Are you sure? I'm not that fast but 38-45 mph sounds like Lance Armstrong territory. If you were riding 30 miles in 45 minutes, you'd be burning a heck of a lot more than 600 calories!! Is your bike's odometer accurate?

As for me, I ride the stationary on a regular basis and go 14-16 mph with a resistance of 8. I ride for between 45-75 minutes and generally burn anywhere from 600-1000 calories.

HollyRutledge

I try to do at least 30 mins a day (sometimes 45-50)and I am between 14-16 mph on mine....but I also use resistance and Ive only been on it 2 weeks. I usually only take about 1 day a week off, its working so far, in a wekk or so I plan to step it up with weight training or a workout video as well.

Panda_Jack

Recently I've only been riding stationary when the weather doesn't let me ride outside. That being said when I ride the stationary I try to simulate an actual ride, so that means resistance and a good hill profile. I usually ride between 16-20 mph at level 8+ depending on how ambitious I feel. I'm not especially fond of the saddles on those bikes so I usually only ride them for an hour at most.

kdao

As for myself, I do 38-45 mph for 60-80 minutes for 35-45 miles for a burn of between 400-600 calories (says my bike)

38-45 mph???? Are you sure? I'm not that fast but 38-45 mph sounds like Lance Armstrong territory. If you were riding 30 miles in 45 minutes, you'd be burning a heck of a lot more than 600 calories!! Is your bike's odometer accurate?

As for me, I ride the stationary on a regular basis and go 14-16 mph with a resistance of 8. I ride for between 45-75 minutes and generally burn anywhere from 600-1000 calories.

Agreed. I put my road bike on a trainer and it makes it stationary. I ride between 13-14 mph. I did that for an hour today and did 15 miles. I also burned 623 calories doing that per HRM.

aflane

Did 9.2 miles at level 7 in 40 mins today at the gym, doing the rolling hill profile. Burned 520 cals according to my HRM. I don't trust the bike's cal burn. Feeling VERY proud about that 4.33 min mile... 9 weeks ago, I was averaging a 6-7 min mile.

Giovanni_P

I do 30 minutes a day on the exercycle. But it is the final portion of my 2 hour cardio workout. So I usually burn about 275 calories (according to my polar HRM) at 18 MPH. But the resistance is set low.

Cori615

I'm curious to know what others are doing. I've read a lot about people who bike at 20 mph for an hour and get a good burn in.
So I'd like to know, how fast for how long for how many miles and how many calories you are burning...and am I the only bike freak that can't go any slower than 30 mph even on a sore day.

As for myself, I do 38-45 mph for 60-80 minutes for 35-45 miles for a burn of between 400-600 calories (says my bike)

thats as fast as a car..... not so sure about that. Maybe your reading your machine wrong

CallMeMamaBoo

I am trying to figure out if my bike is off because when I ride yes, it says anywhere from 38mph-45mph and yes, I feel like I am peddling pretty dang fast. It generally results in a full body sweat for me. When I use resistance than I average between 20-30 mph. Most the time I am working more towards endurance not strength so I use no resistance and push myself to go as fast as I can. It's really helped my asthma! I've even begun jogging for 30 minutes at time a few times a week. Feeling great!!! but really need to figure out all these numbers....

jsymo

I love to ride on the stationary bike in the winter months and when it's nasty out. I also love riding it with my sister when she goes for a run (i'm no runner) if i don't go to the gym then I like to stay home and ride on the bike for a while. It depends on the night I guess. I'm in high school, so I work out during the day in gym class. If it was a light day at school, then I ride the bike for about twenty minutes at eh 19-26 mph. so i guess thats like, what, four or five miles in twenty minutes? but i'm not trying to kill myself on it or anything.

CallMeMamaBoo

I'm glad I decided to ask...now I need to look into seeing if there is some sort of recalibration on my bike. Thanks for all the input!

MobiusMan

I'm curious to know what others are doing. I've read a lot about people who bike at 20 mph for an hour and get a good burn in.
So I'd like to know, how fast for how long for how many miles and how many calories you are burning...and am I the only bike freak that can't go any slower than 30 mph even on a sore day.

As for myself, I do 38-45 mph for 60-80 minutes for 35-45 miles for a burn of between 400-600 calories (says my bike)

That is absurd. I think there is something wrong with your programming on the bike. Anything over 12 is considered aerobic. I have never been able to pull more than a few minutes at 22-23 and it's difficult to sustain 20 for more than 30-35. Now everyone has different capacities aerobically and strength wise but i don't think the human legs could maintaid 35-45 for more that 1-2 minutes at a time. the lactic acid build-up would stop you in your tracks. I would have someone look at the bike. You may be looking at RPM not speed that would make more sense with the cal numbers you said

ladyhawk00

That sounds awfully high. I'm by no means in shape yet, but I get about 16-18 mph average, and usually about 10-13 miles in 35-45 min, with light resistance (level 4-5).

ddao

I agree you might be looking at the RPM's 50mph is ludicrous speed...i hit that today going downhill!

Irnwkr392

I'm not sure if my stationary is counting calories correct..I did 53 miles in 71.01 minutes burning 3,400 cals..Oh well either way I'm burning something in 71 minutes...I just enter 71 minutes in mfp at vigorous effort and go with that but still not go over my daily food intake 1930 regardless of extra calories earned

zoom2

I am trying to figure out if my bike is off because when I ride yes, it says anywhere from 38mph-45mph and yes, I feel like I am peddling pretty dang fast. It generally results in a full body sweat for me. When I use resistance than I average between 20-30 mph. Most the time I am working more towards endurance not strength so I use no resistance and push myself to go as fast as I can. It's really helped my asthma! I've even begun jogging for 30 minutes at time a few times a week. Feeling great!!! but really need to figure out all these numbers....

Yeah, those #s are wonky. Local pros and elites put down #s like that in a time trial. I have a hard time going that fast down a long, steep hill while cranking in the big ring and in the drops. Are you sure it's not showing you km/h? Even that would be insanely fast.

REBROV

The only way (IMHO) that you could be doing figures like 38 to 45 would be Kilometers rather than miles per hour. Even then that is between 23 and 28 mph which is very fast. If you can sustain 23 mph for an hour you are incredibly fit, 28mph and you are elite and should think about entering the tour de france :-) I can just about sustain 20mph (32kph) for an hour when I am feeling really good, last night I completed 20 mile in 59minutes and 30 seconds. Going from 20 to 23 is a very big jump and to 28 is massive. I would say 18mph is reasonable for the average person.

triathlete25

I'm sorry - I know this question was posted a long time ago, but I saw this and had to respond.

I bike quite regularly and also participate in triathlons, and consider myself in pretty good shape. 38-45mph is incredibly fast - even elite riders cannot sustain that speed on flat ground for long periods of time (I'd say 30mph on flat ground is a good pace for an elite individual). Even if you're mistaking kilometers/hr for mph, 25-30 mph isn't really possible for someone who's not elite. I ride slightly over 20mph for an hour and get a really good workout in - and I can keep up with pretty solid triathletes. I'd suggest checking what's up with your odometer if you haven't already. Also, I'm not an expert on calorie burning, but if you're doing cardio for an hour at your target HR, you should be burning around 600 calories (depending on weight and what kind of shape you're in). Biking at 45mph would skyrocket your heartrate...you'd probably be burning well over 1,000 calories.

ejwme

even though it's a resurrected post, I'll throw another idea out there...

I ride my (real) bicycle on a trainer indoors, and I've got a cadence sensor that says I'm working pretty hard at some unknowable resistance (cheap trainer) to get it to 25mph. I know the cadence sensor is off - I haven't calibrated it outside to GPS data yet, and I have no idea what the resistance is. BUT I can still track progress - it's not going to change day to day, so while it may be inaccurate (off by as much as 5 mph), it is precise (off by the same exact amount every single time it measures). I simply keep the resistance the same on the trainer, and adjust the gears on my bike as needed - the cadence sensor picks up all the changes, and my HRM tracks my effort (accurately AND precisely).

On an indoor trainer, the same applies. Sure, you might not actually be going a speed that would truly translate to 50 mph on a real bicycle outside, but it's likely precise in terms of how it relates to past workouts and the effort your spending. Just don't switch up different exercise bike models and try to compare data - to be as consistent as possible, stay on the same type of bike (same bike if possible) every time, and you should be able to track true fitness improvements, even with inaccurate data, because it's precise.

do a google image search of "accuracy vs. precision" if any of that's confusing - a picture is worth a thousand words.

sijomial

To see some realistic cycling speeds have a look at the records page of my local cycling club. (Not stationary bikes obviously...)

http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/records.shtml

The 24hr distance of 441 miles was set by a friend of mine, a completely mad friend of mine!

bill498

Hello I'm just starting with MFP.
I have been cycling for many years and the OP's times do seem pretty fast.
That said I also have always found calculating these things confusing.
On the road/bike path I time myself and gave up on CPU's
I have found that even on the best stationary bikes the computers are way off too.
I check my heart rate the old fashion way. With a stop watch app and fingers.
From what Ive found you can average it at 70 cal per a mile at 15 miles per hour?

My daily ride is 15 miles in 80 minutes. Not fast at all.

gpoisson

I have an old stationary bike that I ride daily for 30 minutes at a cadence of 80-90 and enough resistance to keep the cadence smooth without bouncing around on the saddle. Thar works for me. At one time I was an ultra distance cyclist and my best 24-hour distance was 271 miles, but that was 28 years ago.