biking and calorie burn

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greyhound9021
greyhound9021 Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello! I'm a 46 year old female runner who is gradually making the switch to biking b/c of some Achilles problems. When I read the articles on how many calories are burned in an hour of cycling (road bike), I always see its around 800 calories (for 16-19 mph). When I do my biking, I ride for upwards of an hour at speeds of about 17 mph, yet the calorie burn is only 400 calories according to my HRM. What am I doing wrong???????

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  • Beautifulbridgittlee7
    Beautifulbridgittlee7 Posts: 352 Member
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    What kind of terrain do you ride on?
  • erockem
    erockem Posts: 278 Member
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    Maybe your that efficient. When I used one (Polar FT7), depending on the position I am on the bike in relation to the handlebars, my strap didn't always make a perfect contact on my chest and calories would be missed.
  • Escloflowne
    Escloflowne Posts: 2,038 Member
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    You aren't getting your HR high enough?
  • greyhound9021
    greyhound9021 Posts: 5 Member
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    one day a week its on my stationary trainer, the other day its a mostly flat route on the highway. I did an hour and 15 minutes of rolling hills yesterday and only logged 400 calories.
  • kendi0
    kendi0 Posts: 17 Member
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    I think that 800 is way too much. I burn 400 too, but i'm quite small (1.58 cm).
  • greyhound9021
    greyhound9021 Posts: 5 Member
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    For the hour of the "fat loss workout" I did on my trainer, my HR was at 85% of my max most of the time!
  • rides4sanity
    rides4sanity Posts: 1,269 Member
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    MFP burns are high.. They assume if you are going over 16mph you are at a very high HR... On a road bike that isn't necessarily the case. On a flat route I can ride 16mph with my HR below 120 on a hill I can hit 195... I'm pretty small, 5'2" 110lbs, so for me to burn more than 10cal/min (600cal/hour) I have to be at an avg HR of >175bpm... 400 is completely reasonable with your cardio base from running...
  • greyhound9021
    greyhound9021 Posts: 5 Member
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    rides4sanity - that's good to know, thank you! I forgot about my cardio base from 20 years of running. It's just discouraging because I can no longer run 6 miles and burn 600 calories in less than an hour.... it takes me a lot longer biking, which I don't always have the time to do. It just seems like every single bike magazine touts the "incredibly high calorie burn" that one gets from biking, which doesn't seem to be true at all......
  • alathIN
    alathIN Posts: 142 Member
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    Pedal faster ;-)

    Seriously, if you have long time runner fitness, you will have to work hard on a bike to get a similar burn.

    It is possible to work that hard on a bike though.
  • TMattP
    TMattP Posts: 49 Member
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    You need to find some hills.

    The steeper the better.
  • MrGonzo05
    MrGonzo05 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    It's just discouraging because I can no longer run 6 miles and burn 600 calories in less than an hour.... it takes me a lot longer biking, which I don't always have the time to do. It just seems like every single bike magazine touts the "incredibly high calorie burn" that one gets from biking, which doesn't seem to be true at all......

    It doesn't take longer to burn as many calories on a bike as it does running, if you maintain intensity. It's really, really easy to slack on a bike ride, and you'll have to avoid that if you are trying to burn a high number of calories per unit time.

    A HRM will only give you estimates of what you are burning. Accurate logging and consistency can help you dial in to what YOU actually burn doing an activity. But even then, you're just going to get in the ballpark, and it doesn't really matter anyway. Be consistent, and change something if you aren't getting the results you expect over time, because clearly an underlying assumption (like calories burned) was wrong.
  • rides4sanity
    rides4sanity Posts: 1,269 Member
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    rides4sanity - that's good to know, thank you! I forgot about my cardio base from 20 years of running. It's just discouraging because I can no longer run 6 miles and burn 600 calories in less than an hour.... it takes me a lot longer biking, which I don't always have the time to do. It just seems like every single bike magazine touts the "incredibly high calorie burn" that one gets from biking, which doesn't seem to be true at all......

    Yep it's about the effort... When I run, there is no coasting, and constant effort... When I ride, it is easy to let up the intensity. If I want big burns on the bike I do fartlek type drills or intervals. Most useful for me are 5:2. Five minutes hard core effort followed by 2 minute active recovery & repeat... I can focus and not let up for 5 minutes, whereas if I'm just riding it becomes easy to slack... These drills work best in the flats so there is no coasting downhill... Or there are always, always hill repeats. Just like running. Push up recover down and repeat! You'll find the sweet spot, but it takes some time to dial it in.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    I think that 800 is way too much. I burn 400 too, but i'm quite small (1.58 cm).

    Not body shaming, but how do you type?




    (1.58 cm) This equals 0.62 inches, you seem thin and light. Are you eating enough?

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