Which one should I trust?

ckerrcanchaser

Ok so everyday I usually do at least 40 min of stationary bike as part of my exercise (and also part of my physical therapy). My machine says I burn up to 187 calories in those 40 mins but on MFP it will say I burned 225 for light effort stationary bike. I want to be able to know how many calories a\I'm actually burning so I don't go over the number of calories I'm supposed to be eating per day but I'm not to sure which number I'm supposed to go with.

jaymek92

does the bike have those sensors you can put your hands on to figure out your heart rate and then spits out your average bpm at the end? if it does, you can go here and calculate a roughly accurate count of your calories: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx
if not, then i say just go with whichever number is lower. eating 70 less calories a day shouldn't wreck your metabolism.