Exercise bike and actual calorie burn?

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  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    Bikes may be the most energy efficient form of transportation ever invented. That's pretty awesome, but it means the calorie demands aren't huge.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    RachelHPMarathonMom wrote: »
    Thanks, NorthCascades; MFP seems to estimate calories for "bicycling" based on speed rather than watts (maybe they're thinking of outdoor cycling). MFP has entries for 'Stationary bike" rated by degree of effort; I think my workout this morning (20 minutes, averaging 70 watts) counts as moderate effort, but MFP says that would have burned 204 calories, while my bike estimated only about half that. How should I estimate my caloric burn on my stationary bike?
    @RachelHPMarathonMom
    Your bike's estimate was pretty reasonable, within the realms of usable which for most people is good enough.
  • jswigart
    jswigart Posts: 167 Member
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    The use of a chest strap heart rate monitor is my best answer for calculating calorie burn on any equipment, any exercise.
    You can calculate calorie burn by average heart rate. My chest band links by blue tooth to my smart phone. It automatically does the calculating for me.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited November 2017
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    jswigart wrote: »
    The use of a chest strap heart rate monitor is my best answer for calculating calorie burn on any equipment, any exercise.
    You can calculate calorie burn by average heart rate. My chest band links by blue tooth to my smart phone. It automatically does the calculating for me.
    @jswigart
    There are huge variations in heart rate between individuals - I've seen as much as 40% divergence between people producing the same power and burning the same calories.
    The the three people were all fit and experienced cyclists, add in an unfit person and the divergence would be even more extreme.

    HR can be a useful means to estimate calories for the right (limited) set of circumstances but it's far from the "best answer" and really does need people to verify against a more reliable method.

    For an inappropriate exercises (weight training, interval training for example ) then HR becomes hopeless for calorie estimates.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,249 Member
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    jswigart wrote: »
    The use of a chest strap heart rate monitor is my best answer for calculating calorie burn on any equipment, any exercise.
    You can calculate calorie burn by average heart rate. My chest band links by blue tooth to my smart phone. It automatically does the calculating for me.

    There is not a correlation between heart rate and caloric expenditure. HRMs measure time & HR which is a pretty poor basis for estimating calories and even then they're only useful for steady state cardio.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    jswigart wrote: »
    The use of a chest strap heart rate monitor is my best answer for calculating calorie burn on any equipment, any exercise.
    You can calculate calorie burn by average heart rate. My chest band links by blue tooth to my smart phone. It automatically does the calculating for me.

    I'm doing 16 oz biceps curls. It's a cup of coffee. Caffeine raises heart rate, mine is in the high 80s while I sit here at my desk. How many calories am I burning?

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