Stationary Bike

mychellelynne

Hi,

I have a stationary bike that I have been trying to use regularly. Today I went for 32 minutes at about 15-19 mph. The bike says I burnt 500 calories and MFP says 460 if I choose moderate biking. Would you consider 15-19 mph vigorous or moderate? I am a big gal so I have to work to do it this long. The bike doesn't take my weight into account either. I am just trying to get a round about number to what I might really be burning in 32 minutes.

jst1986

Are you riding with an incline or resistance setting? I've always taken that to be the differential between 'moderate' and 'vigorous'!

mychellelynne

Hmm no I am not yet. We have it on the bike but I have not yet changed any settings from the easiest.

jcoco

Purchase a heart rate monitor. It is the best way to gauge how hard you are working & number of calories you burn. I have a Polar F4 monitor & love it!

foraubs

Before I had an HRM I used this site to calculate:
http://fatburn.com/free_tool_activity_burn.asp

I find it the most accurate of all the ones I've tried now compared to my HRM. Plus, it calculates by weight.

I considered most of my biking activity moderate/aerobic because although I sweat, I wasn't anywhere near close to dying. I'm 163lbs and I burn about 525 calories in 50 minutes (per my HRM.)

Hope that helps!

ETA: I usually go anywhere from 10-12mph, so perhaps if you're doing 20 mins @ 15, that could be considered more than moderate for you!

Pandorian

Since it's a stationary bike it doesn't have to account for weight as you're only pumping your legs, maybe the arms if you're not hanging on for dear life.

But the 2 numbers agreeing 'within 40 calories" that's 10 grams of carbs / protein in the difference. Well within a reasonable margin of error.

glonigan

I would say the difference would be based on your heart rate. A stationary bike is an excellent way to burn calories without killing your joints. When i put my bike on the trainer I go for about 30 -45 minutes and try to work up a sweat . Keep up the great work and go at a pace that challenges you for that time. Best of luck to you

dough21

I'm 6'4 230 lbs and I go around 16-19 mph. I usually burn around 515 calories for 30 min. Hope this helps?

I use a HRM. I also put it as vigorous effort and most of the time it's within 15 - 20 calories of MFP.

wwmorrow

I ride a stationary bike quite often for my exercise. My bike says anywhere between 150-200 calories for 30 minutes. (I do think I burn more than that though) It has different routes with different resistance. MFP calculates much more for that length of ride, but I'm afraid it's too much, so I usually put in about 150 calories. I would go with the lower number if I were you...just to be safe if you are eating back calories.

Keiko385

less than
10 is pleasure riding
<12 mph is considered light,
<14 moderate
>14 vigorous

tleeiiiii

wow you guys burn a lot. i do 30 minutes at 20mpr and burn about 275, resistance from 4-7.

Rockytop_relic

I'm 6ft and 283 and my bike says I burn 100 calories per 10 min. at avg. 16mph and I set it at 5 difficulty with a scale of 1thru 10.