Spin v indoor cycling

It's hard to give a good estimate without know your stats (weight, height, age, avg heart rate), but I do cycle classes and depending on the drills/instructor my heart rate monitor says I burn around 8-12 calories per minute.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

I go to spin class and do 45 mins. This by no means is easy. All the way through its either moderate resistance at 150 RPM or very heavy resistance at 80RPM. And you get 30-60 rests between each track( but not stopping, just slow down or turn your resistance down) This class is an absolute killer. Sweating and out of breathe from start to finish. But with MFP when adding exercises their is an option for spinning at if I add it as spinning it says you burn 433 calories for 45 minutes but if I add it as indoor cycling (vigorous effort) it's says I have burnt around 650 calories for 45 minutes. That's about 200 calorie difference?!? What is the actual difference and what exercise would you put??

Do the spin bikes have a power meter? (some do) - that will give you the best estimate.

both of those numbers seem really high (for reference, my half-ironman in june - 56 miles outside on the bike - a shade over 1000cal @ 16-18mph)

Weight is only relevant for the standing cycling elements, indoor cycling is a non-weight bearing exercise remember.

Age is irrelevant.

Height is irrelevant.

Heart rate is going to be very misleading (exaggerated calorie estimates) when doing intervals.

Sweating is irrelevant - getting hot would also throw HR based estimates out even more.

433 sounds far more believable than 650. Few people would have the fitness level to burn 650 in 45 minutes even flat out for the whole time let alone including rest intervals.

For some reason if you put the same speed x time into strava it says you burned a lot less calories than MFP
I think strava is more accurate say indoors 54 mins at 16-20 mph about 400-450 calories

MFP's numbers tend to be high. My Garmin estimates about 11 cal/min for me when biking outdoors at approx 30 km/h (just under 20mph) and about 7.5 cal /min for my tri club's Tour de France program 1 hr session (lots of hills, attacks, sprints etc) so I would definitely go with the lower number.

I also agree with sijomials comment about the HRM, the only reason I trust my Garmin is that I have a reliable baseline. I wouldn't rely on a HRM alone as all it measures is time and heart rate, were my Garmin to base my caloric expenditure on HR alone it would probably give me more for the indoor riding as my average HR tends to be higher than my outdoor rides (unless I'm dong hills)

The way to measure calories on a bike is with a power meter. Heart rate isn't even part of the math. Your heart is a pump, not an energy regulator. Caffeine and heat (and cold) increase your heart rate but not your energy use.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

I go to spin class and do 45 mins. This by no means is easy. All the way through its either moderate resistance at 150 RPM or very heavy resistance at 80RPM. And you get 30-60 rests between each track( but not stopping, just slow down or turn your resistance down) This class is an absolute killer. Sweating and out of breathe from start to finish. But with MFP when adding exercises their is an option for spinning at if I add it as spinning it says you burn 433 calories for 45 minutes but if I add it as indoor cycling (vigorous effort) it's says I have burnt around 650 calories for 45 minutes. That's about 200 calorie difference?!? What is the actual difference and what exercise would you put??

From my experience, the indoor cycles aren't very good at estimating calories burned. They tend to overestimate by a lot.

A good quality spin bicycle, however, will produce a more accurate number.

Even so, 433 cal for 45 minutes seems high. Personally, I go with "Spin Bike - Moderate Effort" or something like that in MFP which gives me about 300 calories for my 45 minute spin classes. And I go with that even when I put in a huge effort.

FWIW, for as 45 minute class, the spin bike (which doesn't ask any of my personal stats) always gives me well over twice the calories of my HRM (which knows my weight, actual resting HR, tested max HR) - and sometimes almost 3x as many. As background, I'm small-ish (120s) and moderately fit. MFP's "Spinning" entry would give me closer to the HRM - maybe 15% higher? Pick one, go with it, then adjust based on actual weight loss results.

Spin is the same thing as indoor cycling.

HRM-based calorie estimates are reasonably accurate for sustained efforts. A chest strap (e.g., Wahoo fitness) is more accurate than a wrist band (FitBit, etc), but either will work OK.

Just from my experience: I believe I burn close to 800kcals/hr while cycling outdoors. Indoors, my burn is closer to 700kcals/hr.

@jessiferrrb

Hard to just recommend one without knowing a few things. A power meter isn't like a Fitbit, it's not an extra thing you put on, it's built into a part of the bike. It can be part of a rear wheel, part of the crankset (the gears up front), the pedals, or something else. Are there any parts of your bike you've been looking to replace anyway, or are unwilling to replace?

That said, if you have a standard road bike, you can probably find a used PowerTap hub very cheap (around $200) and have a wheel built around it, or maybe find a used wheel already built up around a PT hub. Those things are simple and dead reliable.

If you "only" want to use it for training and calories but not for "wind tunnel" testing, you can probably make a Stages or 4iiii meter work. These are built into the left crank arm, they can only see what your left leg is doing, and they assume your right leg is doing exactly the same. You give up a little precision this way but you get a new-in-box meter for about $400.

I use Garmin's Vector 2, they just announced Vector 3 so there are good prices on the one I have. I paid $800 for mine.

Feel free to send a PM or tag me in a thread if I can earn some good karma.

BrianSharpe wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

The way to measure calories on a bike is with a power meter. Heart rate isn't even part of the math. Your heart is a pump, not an energy regulator. Caffeine and heat (and cold) increase your heart rate but not your energy use.

So true....I took my first ride with my power meter today. It was an eye opener.

Mine was an eye opener to the mostly bad underestimates on Strava. So different on known routes, I finally used a website to remove the power meter data from a .fit file before upload to Strava with a different time stamp, compared to original file.
Route with decent wind from all 4 directions, hills steep & shallow up & down, drafting from traffic in sections, ect.
Analyzed it to see where it screws up most. Was indeed about what I'd thought the problems would be.

Had used a SportTracks power plug-in prior that I knew had similar issues (mainly with getting the wrong wind stats) - but it turned out closer in total than Strava did unless I just had a perfect route into wind with traffic on correct side, and tail wind back.

In either case - group rides with drafting totally threw the estimates off, even if infrequent.

NorthCascades wrote: »

@jessiferrrb

Hard to just recommend one without knowing a few things. A power meter isn't like a Fitbit, it's not an extra thing you put on, it's built into a part of the bike. It can be part of a rear wheel, part of the crankset (the gears up front), the pedals, or something else. Are there any parts of your bike you've been looking to replace anyway, or are unwilling to replace?

That said, if you have a standard road bike, you can probably find a used PowerTap hub very cheap (around $200) and have a wheel built around it, or maybe find a used wheel already built up around a PT hub. Those things are simple and dead reliable.

If you "only" want to use it for training and calories but not for "wind tunnel" testing, you can probably make a Stages or 4iiii meter work. These are built into the left crank arm, they can only see what your left leg is doing, and they assume your right leg is doing exactly the same. You give up a little precision this way but you get a new-in-box meter for about $400.

I use Garmin's Vector 2, they just announced Vector 3 so there are good prices on the one I have. I paid $800 for mine.

Feel free to send a PM or tag me in a thread if I can earn some good karma.

heybales wrote: »

jessiferrrb wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

BrianSharpe wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

The way to measure calories on a bike is with a power meter. Heart rate isn't even part of the math. Your heart is a pump, not an energy regulator. Caffeine and heat (and cold) increase your heart rate but not your energy use.

So true....I took my first ride with my power meter today. It was an eye opener.

If it makes you feel any better, everyone says that.

Seriously.

I was about 280 lbs when I got mine. I was sure I was an incredibly strong rider to be able to do Seattle hills at that weight. I mean, my numbers were gonna be off the charts! Using it was a real eye-opener.

But the data is of phenomenal value. I hope you enjoy yours!

i just started spinning again, so i have no illusions about being a super strong rider, but i'm curious about using a power meter. anyone have recommendations that won't break the bank?

I've seen some used pedal power meters on ebay, not many and not much markdown.

You'd also have to confirm the gym with the spin bikes, if not your own, will allow swapping out pedals.
Last gym did allow me because trainer vouched for me, as long as I was early and not messing with bike in front of everyone. Liability issue.

I'm not sure where the companies with PM inside the shoe or cleat ended up - that would be great too if spin bikes had compatible pedals already.

thanks @NorthCascades and @heybales that is a lot more involved than i had imagined. i just use the spin bike that was collecting dust in the corner of my bf's office 2x per week. i am sure he would let me upgrade or swap out anything that i want, but i just don't think i have the funds to justify it at the casual level i'm using the bike. maybe if i get serious about it again i can see about the pedal swap. i appreciate the info a ton!

IMHO: Power meter is not necessary for amateur cyclists. (I'm not saying I don't want one, I just feel like I don't need one). You can use a HRM for stationary bike calorie burn estimates. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's close enough for dietary guidance and very helpful as a training aid.