Looking for a more accurate exercise bike calorie calculator

Mr_Boy
Mr_Boy Posts: 42 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
MFP has a few entries for exercise bikes, and there are numerous calculators out there but they all seem to just ask if I am doing light/medium/hard cycling. They don't tend to tell you how to define those categories, and anyway I'd rather something a bit more accurate.

I wondered if you could get an idea of calories based on bpm without knowing what type of exercise it is and found this calculator: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

Can anyone offer more accurate tools? The MFP "Stationary bike, moderate effort (bicycling, cycling, biking)" activity, that calculator, other calculators and the one on my bike give wildly different numbers... sometimes up to 100% different.

Replies

  • Mr_Boy
    Mr_Boy Posts: 42 Member
    nobody? :(
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
    I just bought a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor to better judge calories. I wasn't happy with MapMyRide's calorie estimates for weight lifting (and MFP wasn't any better) - both of them seemed way too high. And my stationary bike's estimates seemed way too low. The Polar FT4 is in between those and seems more accurate.

    I don't know what to tell you for your own estimates. Without your individual age, weight, max heart rate, and effort level, a wild-passed guess is probably the best you're going to get.
  • craigheon
    craigheon Posts: 167 Member
    I'm going to have to agree with Jim. I'd invest in a HRM. I recently purchased a Polar FT7, and I love it!
  • mlfrailing
    mlfrailing Posts: 79
    Another vote for the HRM. I have a stationary trainer for my bike for the winter. I have a Garmin bike computer with a heart rate monitor and cadence and speed monitors. 60 minutes of what I think is moderate to hard pedaling will be 400 to 650 calories. A ride after a day or two of rest will be much higher than after a day at the gym with all my achy muscles. My perception of exertion is about the same though.
  • Mr_Boy
    Mr_Boy Posts: 42 Member
    I don't know what to tell you for your own estimates. Without your individual age, weight, max heart rate, and effort level, a wild-passed guess is probably the best you're going to get.
    But I know all these numbers, or close guesses. Buying a HRM isn't going to help when none of the online calculators I can see allow me to specify both e type of activity AND the heart-rate. My bike tells me my heart rate but doesn't use that in the calorie tracker... online calculators either ask me what activity (bike easy/medium/hard) OR for my BPM but not what exercise I do - see the one I linked to. Nothing I've found lets me say "I cycled for 45min at 150BPM".


    Or, is the point that if I get the same BPM from different exercises, I am burning the same calories?
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    You're overthinking this. Everybody's different, and weight loss takes a whole lot of trial & error to find what works for you.

    Pick any burn you like—they're all just estimates. Give it a couple of weeks, then reevaluate. If you lost, great! Keep doing what you're doing. If not, eat back half your exercise calories for another couple weeks, then reevaluate.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    MFP has a few entries for exercise bikes, and there are numerous calculators out there but they all seem to just ask if I am doing light/medium/hard cycling. They don't tend to tell you how to define those categories, and anyway I'd rather something a bit more accurate.

    I wondered if you could get an idea of calories based on bpm without knowing what type of exercise it is and found this calculator: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    Can anyone offer more accurate tools? The MFP "Stationary bike, moderate effort (bicycling, cycling, biking)" activity, that calculator, other calculators and the one on my bike give wildly different numbers... sometimes up to 100% different.

    Every exercise bike is "different". And even those with computer consoles that measure speed, distance, power, heart rate, cadence, calories, kcal, time, etc... can be calibrated differently than other bikes. And one's age, height, weight also need to be figured into it if using a console or power meter.

    I have an exercise bike with computer console that measures everything and I download it on a memory stick and upload it into an online training site (Training Peaks). I consider it to be more accurate than MFP, so I plug the numbers in myself to MFP from the computer console data read out. So an example from my Albuterol inspired heart rate recovery spin last night looks like this when I plug it in at Training Peaks...

    12814813094_e6cd532891.jpg
    Example


    The only true way is to measure your power output (watts) with a bike or exercise bike that has a power meter. Without such a device, you will have to use an estimate.

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