stationary bike/ cal/ heartmonitor.. confused

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kathyrpa
kathyrpa Posts: 26
in Health and Weight Loss
OK.. so I bought a hear monitor POLAR... all set and ive been using it.. quite impressed ! here is my question or concern maybe! I set the bike for a certain program for ex: today i choose up and down hills and programmed it for 500 cal... the bike says 500 cal burned when im done! THE heart monitor says 868 calories.. so I am eating back part of my exercise cal...but why the big difference? the bike is set for my age, weight, etc... but that is a huge jump in cal burned. I'm not going to complain if its in my favor.. lol...

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  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    does the bike constantly monitor your Heart Rate? Normally I would go with the HRM but I would go with the bike if it constantly monitors your HR, as it has all the info of your HRM but also knows your speed.
  • chalajune
    chalajune Posts: 3
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    I would trust your heart monitor. The bike will just give you a general and without monitoring your heart rate it cant calculate it correctly. Maybe take the average of the two...
  • cobygrey
    cobygrey Posts: 270 Member
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    bump
  • fushion243
    fushion243 Posts: 29
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    I agree with most that the HRM is more accurate. While the bike knows a lot age, weight, speed, etc., the HRM knows more about your level of fitness. I know folks that are fat fit. They have great cardiovascular health, but still have excess weight. Then there are the skinny fat, those that don't hold bounds, but are cardiovascularly out of shape. The more fit you are, the less effort in exercise. So, the HRM seems to me to be more accurate as it is measuring the level of effort necessary to accomplish the task. Try that bigger number for a week and if you still make your weight loss goals, no loss. Or take the average as already suggested so you don't change your diet as drastically until you determine the accuracy. Biking is awesome. I love it. It is a great low impact calorie burn, ride it like you stole it and have fun!
  • Mamoonie
    Mamoonie Posts: 328
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    I have the same problem with mine!

    I always set up the HR Program, with which resistance is more or less, according to my HR which has to be within 63% and 67% of my maxHR. So the faster I go, the more my HR goes up, the less resistance it gives me.

    Silly bike though calculates my calories on resistance only!

    So if I ride slowly, with a very low HR, I get a super high resistance and a lot more calories burnt than if I ride fast with a high HR, as then my resistance is at absolute minimum.
    Example: slowly riding, I get a number of 140 calories on the bike, vs 210 on the HRM, riding fast, I get a number of 90 calories on the bike vs 240 on the HRM.

    Believe your HRM!!! That's what I do!

    MM

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