elliptical vs. exercise bike

Robin1117

Hi! I'm visiting my family over the holiday and attempting to stay on track w/exercise but it is tough. I was happy to see my mother bought an exercise bike that I could use. Typically I use an elliptical every day and burn between 450-600 calories between 30 and 45 minutes. Yesterday I tried the exercise bike and for 30 minutes I only burned 130 calories. Wow! What a difference. Is the bike really that much less effective for burning calories?

sweetgl

Well you are sitting down on a bike and not using as many core muscles as needed on an elliptical so yes you are burning less calories.

VeloLoser

This really depends on the resistance used and your average heart rate achieved.

LittleSpy

Are you getting those numbers from your HRM? Or from the machines? If from your HRM, you're probably not exerting enough effort on the bike. If from the machines, it's possible they're at different settings or their calorie estimators are just way off.

Try pedaling faster & increasing the resistance. I typically burn 400 calories with 30 minutes on my stationary bike and about 500 calories with 30 minutes on an elliptical. My bike has arms that move, as well.

If you want to burn more calories on the bike and your bike doesn't have handles that move, try punching & arm circles while riding. It looks a little silly, but you'll burn more calories!

havingitall

It does depend on the resistance but yes the elliptical burns a lot more. You are standing and moving your arms . I'm sure you felt the work out was a lot easier on the bike. I use the exercise bike as a cool down from the elliptical

pannellkat

The elliptical burns way more calories than a stationary bike (has been my experience). I never use the stationary bike. I would much rather use my time on elliptical or job on treadmill or use stairmaster.

Robin1117

Thanks everyone. I just did a little better by playing around with resistance but I think the elliptical is just more effective for the timeframe. This is not helping me -- having a 300-400 calorie deficit at Thanksgiving. Ugh! At least it gets the heart rate going. I'll have to relax about going over in calories. Oh the arm punching is a good idea. The top of my body feels useless sitting there!