Exercise bike app

I'm looking at starting to use my wife's exercise bike and does anybody know any decent apps to record and sync back to MFP?

I've seen that Strava will do it but you can only record manually via the website although I like the idea of this as I use it for running and it would keep a running total.

I know there are options directly in mfp but not how accurate the options are.

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    What metrics does your wife's bike record?
    Power would be great (watts), "speed" needs to be treated with the utmost suspicion as stationary bikes don't move.

    What connectivity does the bike have (bluetooth or ANT+ perhaps)?


    Personally I link my Garmin to my indoor bike and it transfers the very accurate calorie estimates (based on power) to Strava but I choose not to link Strava to MyFitnessPal.

    I can also use the bike's specific app (Wattbike Hub) to link to Strava which is great for analytics but tells whopping great lies about calorie burns.



  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    It's a very basic bike so I think it just reports calories from the heart rate pressure monitors on the handles
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited June 2020
    stuarta99 wrote: »
    It's a very basic bike so I think it just reports calories from the heart rate pressure monitors on the handles

    Then suggest you just log direct to MyFitnessPal (but don't use the speed range outdoor cycling estimates).

    Heartrate isn't a particulalrly great metric for calories, can be fine for some people doing some exercise but it can also be very poor for some people and is particulalry poor for very low HR exercise or intense interval training. But if that's all you have it's at least personal and might be proportional, rather than generic like the MFP database.

  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    Well I've just done 10miles over 24mins and bike is showing 61.2 cals.

    I entered this manually into Strava and that's pushed 375 calories into mfp but oddly it's also removed 341 from pacer

    b7bh5jtcqwz7.png
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    You can use Map My Run/Fitness app to record real time and have it sync back to MFP.
  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    Ok amended as I realised I entered 1hr 24zcjcg66bidae.png
  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    edited June 2020
    Sorry it's just updated again now and taken the negative points away. Can't believe I've earned 428 Cal's from the bike especially when the bike says 61 and then 35 for just 700 steps
    ad3p3irdxkl7.png
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Except you aren't travelling any miles or doing any speed - you aren't moving.
    Stationary bike remember.
    The "speed" and "distance" shown are purely theoretical. No wind resistance, no elevation, no stop/starts.....

    Which is why telling Strava you were cycling at a high speed will cause the app to think you are an unusually powerful cyclist burning calories at a very high rate.

    Now of course you could be as I don't know you.......
    Have you cycled at well over 20mph outdoors for an extended period of time?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited June 2020
    Steps?

    Steps leads to distance leads to calories - so if on the bike - ignore anything to do with steps since it has nothing to do with bike exercise.

    Of course the Pacer adjustment came down because it initially had those "steps" with walking formula for calories, which you know doesn't apply.

    Upon entry of a real workout MFP now knows about, it's removing some of those Pacer calories that it figures was overlap.

    I'll mention that if the workout didn't go through Pacer which has time on the step distance, MFP is attempting a rough estimate of guessing if there was overlap and removing the doubled up amounts.

    Also when making adjustments like that live - expect delays and inaccurate info until a few more syncs down the road.

    So don't sync - adjust - and then eat a huge meal based on MFP info right then. Things will change.

    ETA - while the bike calorie count does seem low, that speed would be enormous if it was outside - hence the concept of distance on inside bike being way off.
    And Strava estimate of calorie burn based on that distance would be also - you can't do that unless you just want incorrect info.

    While the 61 cal from the bike seems low - if you didn't have much resistance it may be correct.
    With that speed (25 mph) I'm wondering if you had much resistance.
    Outside that would be huge resistance even flat, and hard workout.
    Does it display watts as one of it's figures?
  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    edited June 2020
    Unfortunately it doesn't show wattage, just time, speed, distance, calories, pulse.

    I just recorded it as 24mins and 10 miles, it them worked out the speed itself although speed was showing around 20mph figure. I was using a resistance of 5 I think out of 1-9
  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,479 Member
    edited June 2020
    Out of curiosity, because the bike had such low calories, what did it say your average HR (pulse)
    was? Just to get an idea of your exertion level...
  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    I didn't notice afraid, will try again tomorrow. I wasn't holding the grips much so it wasn't reading all the time. I did see it climb from 74-91
  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,479 Member
    edited June 2020
    If you weren't gripping the whole time, that is why the cal reading on the bike is so low. If 91 is what it climbed to, chances are you didn't burn the number of calories projected by Strava. I like Strava a lot, but use it with my Garmin and don't sync it to MFP. I use the cals for my Garmin as my output.

    With no other data, I think I would work on holding the handle bars throughout the ride and use the calories given on the bike...

    A Garmin or some other fitness tracker can be a great investment for both monitoring output and training. Good Luck!
  • stuarta99
    stuarta99 Posts: 93 Member
    Yeah I will do tomorrow and see what happens
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    stuarta99 wrote: »
    Unfortunately it doesn't show wattage, just time, speed, distance, calories, pulse.

    I just recorded it as 24mins and 10 miles, it them worked out the speed itself although speed was showing around 20mph figure. I was using a resistance of 5 I think out of 1-9

    Ya - you can't tell Strava you did a 10 mile ride in 24 min - that's 25 mph and assumed outside and a huge calorie burn which isn't true at all.

    If you wore a step tracker and it said you did 10 miles and burned 1200 calories - would you keep it if you knew you did 60 min and 4.5 miles?