Calories Burned - Stationary Bike
Options
Replies
-
On the road, I go with 100 calories for every 5 km. At 20 km/h (my pace), that's 400 calories per hour.
Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour. For 350, I have to be really working hard.
I don't include anything about my weight, gender, age, etc. in those estimates.
You gave me similar advice earlier this year. As did several others, a couple with more computations. The various methods roughly converge, and seem to track to my experience. Thanks! Much appreciated!
0 -
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.1 -
Minority report: I think some spin bikes are very inaccurate, and I don't know anything about yours. The ones I use in a class usually say I burn around 600 calories in 45 minutes. That's ridiculous. I burn nothing even remotely like that, even though I'm pushing myself, keeping my heart rate up (per HRM), sweating, and all that good stuff. 250-300 would be much more realistic for me, based on RPE and experience from better-metered exercise.
In theory, a spin bike could produce a power meter estimate that would be quite useful in estimating calories. Do we know whether your specific bike does that? I'll bet we don't. Mine sure as <bleep> doesn't.
The spin bikes at my gym record Watts (current and average) and kcals burned. I have a Powertap HRM strap (https://www.powertap.com/product/powertap-powercal) and the wattage recorded on that is pretty consistent with the bike. On average, I am ~325 kcal burned in a 50 min spin class, calculated using either the bike or the strap. To me, given my RPE, that seems a pretty fair estimate.0 -
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.
Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have to deal with the environment, terrain, potholes, traffic, pedestrians, dogs, etc. etc. etc. which cause you to have to dodge and weave and so on. You're getting more of an upper body workout outside ... slightly. Unless you happen to live somewhere completely flat with good roads, no traffic ...2 -
BrianSharpe wrote: »My burn on stationary bike was always so low that I honestly stopped bothering. It was really hard on my legs too... I burn more taking a walk!
If you're exercising purely for the calorie burn you're missing the point. I'll bet you were getting your heart-rate a lot higher on the bike than you do walking.
What he said0 -
On the road, I go with 100 calories for every 5 km. At 20 km/h (my pace), that's 400 calories per hour.
Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour. For 350, I have to be really working hard.
I don't include anything about my weight, gender, age, etc. in those estimates.
Indoor bikes are actually harder than outdoor........ No free wheeling on as stationary bike, it all comes down to the Watts you are outputting and nothing to stop you upping those indoors. I find I work much harder indoors than outside.3 -
scorpio516 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »As others have indicated, the bike is likely indicating the energy you are putting into the bike. But you are expending other energy besides turning the pedals.
My total burn for a 60 minute spin class can be 700-1000 calories, and I burn a bit more on my road bike each hour when I'm keeping a 15-20MPH pace. (often 1000+/hr) I can knock out 36 miles in about two hours and MapMyRide is pretty consistent with my Fitbit Surge (with HR and GPS tracking) and was pretty consistent with my previous MyZone device that measured my heart rate and calculated calorie burn based on my age, gender and weight. They are all within about 10% of each other and my weight loss seems to put them in the ball park.
I don't know how hard you work on the bike. I weigh a bit more than your stated weight, and I can maintain 300 watts power output for several minutes, and even exceed 500w for 30-60 seconds, but then I'm done.
Took a snapshot of my Fitbit estimate of my Les Mills Sprint Class (HIIT) class. The class is 30 minutes. I got there a few minutes early to warm up as I'm coming back from a knee injury, so I need 10 minutes or so to warm up before we start running.
So about 1/2 of that session was all out training and the other half was the warmup and cool down.
If you could maintain 300 watts for the entire hour you would be burning net 1080 calories.
And if you are pushing 300 W for an hour, look into racing
If I weighed 150#, I would. At 229#, not so much
Carrying around 265 or so for years helps build that advantage. But those watts have to carry a lot more mass up any hills. So other than the local Tour de Donut race, not so much.
FWIW, I did survive the same cancer as Lance, and that is how I knew he was cheating. You don't get that chemotherapy and then go win the TdF. A quarter century after the chemo and I probably still have residue from the chemo in my lungs.
1 -
At what point are we arguing to be right vs trying to be helpful?2
-
At what point are we arguing to be right vs trying to be helpful?
Not sure to whom this is directed. I just gave my n=1 sample. I'm about the same mass as the OP., but I don't know how hard their workout is.
If the info helps, use it. If not, let it go. Someone suggested I get into bike racing at my power output. I simply replied that one can produce a lot of power because they are built like a linebacker and therefore, rubbish at racing.
Anyway, not sure to whom your comment is directed. If at me, not trying to argue, just sharing my experience like everyone else here.
0 -
Two things - I agree that you're getting more of an upper body workout and given how many posts on this forum talk about the issues surrounding counting calories one has burned via weight lifting it doesn't make sense to really add that into the equation here (even you said slightly). Also inside you most definitely have to deal with the indoor environment. Riding in a 70 degree room is very different, core temperature wise, than outside on a 70 degree day (I'm obviously talking about Fahrenheit...). Evaporative cooling is a very real thing.
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.
Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have to deal with the environment, terrain, potholes, traffic, pedestrians, dogs, etc. etc. etc. which cause you to have to dodge and weave and so on. You're getting more of an upper body workout outside ... slightly. Unless you happen to live somewhere completely flat with good roads, no traffic ...
I agree that riding outside can pose different challenges than riding inside, but none of those play into how calories are counted when using a power meter.0 -
tbright1965 wrote: »scorpio516 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »As others have indicated, the bike is likely indicating the energy you are putting into the bike. But you are expending other energy besides turning the pedals.
My total burn for a 60 minute spin class can be 700-1000 calories, and I burn a bit more on my road bike each hour when I'm keeping a 15-20MPH pace. (often 1000+/hr) I can knock out 36 miles in about two hours and MapMyRide is pretty consistent with my Fitbit Surge (with HR and GPS tracking) and was pretty consistent with my previous MyZone device that measured my heart rate and calculated calorie burn based on my age, gender and weight. They are all within about 10% of each other and my weight loss seems to put them in the ball park.
I don't know how hard you work on the bike. I weigh a bit more than your stated weight, and I can maintain 300 watts power output for several minutes, and even exceed 500w for 30-60 seconds, but then I'm done.
Took a snapshot of my Fitbit estimate of my Les Mills Sprint Class (HIIT) class. The class is 30 minutes. I got there a few minutes early to warm up as I'm coming back from a knee injury, so I need 10 minutes or so to warm up before we start running.
So about 1/2 of that session was all out training and the other half was the warmup and cool down.
If you could maintain 300 watts for the entire hour you would be burning net 1080 calories.
And if you are pushing 300 W for an hour, look into racing
If I weighed 150#, I would. At 229#, not so much
Carrying around 265 or so for years helps build that advantage.
Power = torque * cadence
I weigh more than you. Averaging 300 watts for 20 minutes is a brutal effort that I feel for days afterwards. Based on actual, bilateral power measurement.
Bicycles are among the most energy efficient forms of transportation ever invented.
You're not burning 1,100 calories per hour on a bike.3 -
tbright1965 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »As others have indicated, the bike is likely indicating the energy you are putting into the bike. But you are expending other energy besides turning the pedals.
My total burn for a 60 minute spin class can be 700-1000 calories, and I burn a bit more on my road bike each hour when I'm keeping a 15-20MPH pace. (often 1000+/hr) I can knock out 36 miles in about two hours and MapMyRide is pretty consistent with my Fitbit Surge (with HR and GPS tracking) and was pretty consistent with my previous MyZone device that measured my heart rate and calculated calorie burn based on my age, gender and weight. They are all within about 10% of each other and my weight loss seems to put them in the ball park.
I don't know how hard you work on the bike. I weigh a bit more than your stated weight, and I can maintain 300 watts power output for several minutes, and even exceed 500w for 30-60 seconds, but then I'm done.
Took a snapshot of my Fitbit estimate of my Les Mills Sprint Class (HIIT) class. The class is 30 minutes. I got there a few minutes early to warm up as I'm coming back from a knee injury, so I need 10 minutes or so to warm up before we start running.
So about 1/2 of that session was all out training and the other half was the warmup and cool down.
If you could maintain 300 watts for the entire hour you would be burning net 1080 calories.
HR is a poor way to estimate calories for interval training - it badly exaggerates your calorie burn while your HR is still elevated during the recovery periods.
And that assumes you have an average exercise HR anyway - there's a huge variation. I've seen three fit, experienced cyclists pushing out the same power at 120, 150 and 180 bpm.
What I'm about to post is an aside.
I did a few dozens of rounds of testing a modern, high end HRM against a power meter. In my experience, the HRM's calorie guesses were just as bad for intervals as they were for more steadily paced efforts. You can't tell what kind of ride it was by how far off the HRM was.
It's true that after you finish an interval, you stop (or at least drastically slow) the work, but your HR is still elevated. Because HR lags behind what you're doing. But for that same reason, when you started the interval, it took a while before your HR began to elevate. From the HRM's perspective, it's as if you did the full interval, but 30 seconds later than you actually did it.4 -
I kinda disagree with this assessment. Obviously road and weather conditions are not considerations when riding indoors. But as far as a well-taught spin class, the drastic changes in resistance and cadence and the in-and-out of the saddle make spinning quite a different workout than road riding IMHO. With a road ride, I am trying my best to maintain an even cadence throughout the ride. This is not an objective in a spin class.
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.
Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have to deal with the environment, terrain, potholes, traffic, pedestrians, dogs, etc. etc. etc. which cause you to have to dodge and weave and so on. You're getting more of an upper body workout outside ... slightly. Unless you happen to live somewhere completely flat with good roads, no traffic ...
0 -
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.
Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have to deal with the environment, terrain, potholes, traffic, pedestrians, dogs, etc. etc. etc. which cause you to have to dodge and weave and so on. You're getting more of an upper body workout outside ... slightly. Unless you happen to live somewhere completely flat with good roads, no traffic ...
I find indoor training much, much harder!
But of course it depends what you are doing indoors and outdoors.....
Indoors is boring, uncomfortable (even with identical geometry and saddle), over-heating is an issue and I do my high intensity technical training indoors such as long duration intervals either side of my FTP.
An hour long FTP test indoors is absolutely awful and sixty minutes of maximal effort wouldn't be most people's idea of easy.0 -
Minority report: I think some spin bikes are very inaccurate, and I don't know anything about yours. The ones I use in a class usually say I burn around 600 calories in 45 minutes. That's ridiculous. I burn nothing even remotely like that, even though I'm pushing myself, keeping my heart rate up (per HRM), sweating, and all that good stuff. 250-300 would be much more realistic for me, based on RPE and experience from better-metered exercise.
In theory, a spin bike could produce a power meter estimate that would be quite useful in estimating calories. Do we know whether your specific bike does that? I'll bet we don't. Mine sure as <bleep> doesn't.
The spin bikes at my gym record Watts (current and average) and kcals burned. I have a Powertap HRM strap (https://www.powertap.com/product/powertap-powercal) and the wattage recorded on that is pretty consistent with the bike. On average, I am ~325 kcal burned in a 50 min spin class, calculated using either the bike or the strap. To me, given my RPE, that seems a pretty fair estimate.
Sounds reasonable.
To clarify: When I said "I don't know anything about yours", I was intending to refer to OP. AFAIK, she hasn't given us information about the bike that's definitive about how accurate it will be (manufacturer/model, whether it uses a power meter vs. a rougher estimating mechanism, whether it knows anything about her HR range or other personal descriptors, etc.). Some spin bikes are pretty accurate. Some spin bikes are not at all accurate.
From the calorie estimate she's getting (not crazy unreasonable), and the values it reads out (it gives kj in addition to calories, which might be a good sign), we might infer that it's somewhat likely to be accurate, but that would be inference, not knowledge.
What your spin bike (or mine) does isn't directly relevant, except to illustrate that there's great variation in spin bikes' estimating reasonableness, as that nice Heybales has confirmed a few posts back by talking about the range of spin bikes at his place.0 -
Exactly. It is safer from a cars/road obstacles standpoint, but I don't think I've seen anyone say it is physically more comfortable. Heating aside, what may be a comfortable, or perhaps bearable, saddle outside will likely be significantly worse inside. Some people don't have that issue but it seems that they are in the minority. There's also the boredom aspect and what seems to be overlooked on this site (less so elsewhere) is that if you're doing a prescribed workout inside or riding rollers inside you will always be pedaling. The opposite is true outside unless you're on a fixed gear bike.
Except assuming the bike's power meter is correctly calibrated power is power and the most accurate way to measure calories on the bike is by measuring power. If you were measuring it by miles per hour or heart rate or some other not terribly useful metric then the whole "it's easier to ride inside than outside" would have some merit (of course that doesn't take into account how much easier it is to cool down outside which in turn affects your HR).Because riding an indoor bicycle is easier than riding outside, I go with about 300-350 cal/hour.
If I put a power meter on my bike and average 180 watts over the course of an hour outside and then come inside, put my bike on a trainer, and do an hour workout averaging 180 watts, I will have burned the same amount of calories. I apparently will have also written a sentence that is way too long for my liking.
I don't really trust the power meters on almost all of the spin bike like things I've used based off of comparing RPE when I'm training with power (the Powertap bikes are the one exception). That said, your logic above just doesn't make sense in relation calculating how many calories someone has burned.
Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have to deal with the environment, terrain, potholes, traffic, pedestrians, dogs, etc. etc. etc. which cause you to have to dodge and weave and so on. You're getting more of an upper body workout outside ... slightly. Unless you happen to live somewhere completely flat with good roads, no traffic ...
I find indoor training much, much harder!
But of course it depends what you are doing indoors and outdoors.....
Indoors is boring, uncomfortable (even with identical geometry and saddle), over-heating is an issue and I do my high intensity technical training indoors such as long duration intervals either side of my FTP.
An hour long FTP test indoors is absolutely awful and sixty minutes of maximal effort wouldn't be most people's idea of easy.
Your point about FTP is also more or less spot on. TrainerRoad's podcast touches on this a lot actually. I'm pretty sure that came up in last week's podcast. Seemingly a lot of people are able to have a higher FTP outside than inside (when using the same type of test). I think Chad noted that yes, if your outdoor FTP is higher it is harder to do an indoor workout (where the intervals are based off of your FTP) using that FTP as a percentage but it is doable.
Clearly what I should actually do is just take the rollers and a small table/stool outside on a windy day. Evaporative cooling: check, no free wheeling: check, people wondering what in the world I'm doing: double check. Plus by the time my Powertap pedals get here it might not be raining! I love biking in the rain, but biking on wet rollers sounds like a bad idea 0 -
Sometimes I burn under 200 calories and sometimes I burn over 600 at spin class. I always figure that i'm something in between that. I might be wrong, however; and we got new Stages bikes which are have a lot of features.0
-
MostlyWater wrote: »Sometimes I burn under 200 calories and sometimes I burn over 600 at spin class. I always figure that i'm something in between that. I might be wrong, however; and we got new Stages bikes which are have a lot of features.
I would suspect too that the power meters on Stages' indoor bikes are probably accurate assuming they are set up correctly and remain well maintained. Wattbikes are another brand that I would trust.0 -
MostlyWater wrote: »Sometimes I burn under 200 calories and sometimes I burn over 600 at spin class. I always figure that i'm something in between that. I might be wrong, however; and we got new Stages bikes which are have a lot of features.
I would suspect too that the power meters on Stages' indoor bikes are probably accurate assuming they are set up correctly and remain well maintained. Wattbikes are another brand that I would trust.
I use a Wattbike and the watts displayed do seem to be accurate (sadly!) and consistent across four different bikes. But they use a totally bizarre calorie algorithm which appears to try to attempt to estimate gross calories rather than the usual watts to net calories calculation. Driven by their marketing department perhaps?
So I either link my Garmin which gives me net cals or calculate myself.
0 -
Oh that's weird and good to know! I doubt I'll ever use a Wattbike unless I happen to join a gym somewhere that has one, but yeah that's interesting because they otherwise seem like really great pieces of equipment.MostlyWater wrote: »Sometimes I burn under 200 calories and sometimes I burn over 600 at spin class. I always figure that i'm something in between that. I might be wrong, however; and we got new Stages bikes which are have a lot of features.
I would suspect too that the power meters on Stages' indoor bikes are probably accurate assuming they are set up correctly and remain well maintained. Wattbikes are another brand that I would trust.
I use a Wattbike and the watts displayed do seem to be accurate (sadly!) and consistent across four different bikes. But they use a totally bizarre calorie algorithm which appears to try to attempt to estimate gross calories rather than the usual watts to net calories calculation. Driven by their marketing department perhaps?
So I either link my Garmin which gives me net cals or calculate myself.
1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 388 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 918 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions