Stationary Bike Question

cloza12

I just did my 30 min on stationary bike. My bike has settings that tell you the speed, miles, time, calories burned, heart rate. I kept my speed at 17-18 mph and heart rate was 128-132. Its says I burned 423 calories but this is without knowing my weight so I don't really rely on that. I want to log it right and I always use the moderate option on MFP but someone told me that 17-18 mph is vigorous. So have I been logging it wrong and should I log it as vigorous?

cloza12

Bump

suv_hater

I would choose moderate. What was the resistance set at? I'm guessing pretty low because 17-18 mph is pretty high.... not even Lance Armstrong could keep his HR that low.

I personally do around 10 MPH with resistance set at 12 and my HR stays between 135-145. This is when I do LISS cardio. Hope that helps.

Oddsocks15

Interesting reading, have just dusted off my stationary bike, and not sure how best to log my efforts

LadyZephyr

I find it confusing also. I maintain around 23mph with heart rate at 145ish and my bike tells me one thing, MFP tells me another. It's hard to know what they consider to be moderate or vigorous effort too.

ralphrich

I am a sport cyclist and I agree withe SUV hater. On the road 10 mph on level road...no wind...I would expect heart rate of 125 to 130 and get nicely worn out in 30 miles.

Quasita

The general consensus on biking is that the intensity is based on the work you perceive. That is, if you are spinning at 18mph, but you can talk and laugh while doing it, you are not working vigorously. The intensity is not determined by your speed, but by the exertion your body is under to maintain that speed.

Some people can maintain 15mph easily, while others struggle for 8mph. Basically, think of it like this, assuming you don't have a calorimeter...

light: easy pedaling. little to no resistance, able to speak while spinning, minimal sweating, can go for extended periods of time.

moderate: noticeable effort on pedaling, obvious sweating (but not drenched), can talk but only in single sentences, notice the expense of energy after 20 minutes (you start to feel tired, have to push harder, etc)

vigorous: excessive sweating, high effort to push pedals, high resistance setting, cannot talk while pedaling more than 1-3 words at a time, red faced

Most sites will tell you it's up to your personal fitness level as to how intense a workout you are doing. It also depends on if you are spinning recumbent or standard. I'm a big person, and I can spin to burn around 800 calories in an hour at a moderate level. However, it is for this exercise specifically that I got a BodyMedia Fit Link, so I could see how my activity level varied during my workout, and adjust my resistance accordingly.

cloza12

Thank you all. My bike doesn't number the intensity levels but by turning the knob I counted 18 clicks, so I guess the resistance levels are 18 total. With that said I have been doing level 5 or 6, low. I'll have to work on intensifying the resistance and getting my hr up.
Quasita: I really like your description, makes it more understandable.

nanainkent

I use a stationary bike like the one you described it is a weslo pursuit 35. I also have the same features and I spin between 18.6 and 20.1 mph. I use a HR monitor on my wrist and it always shows lower than bike. I found that I was not losing weight by using the HR monitor (cheap sportline) calories burned or MFP calories burned. I went to a website and let them figure it for me and entered that number into MFP and now I am losing weight. (eating real calories burned that is). It shows a much lower calorie count that I tend to believe alot more. And I am sweating, breathing hard and pumping my legs like crazy so I log it as vigorous with my own numbers. Mfp has only one amount of calories burned for everyone, so like was said, My vigerous is someones elses moderate. This website goes off of age and weight and HR to determine calories burned.

http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html