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Original poster

Struggling to 'believe in' calories burned on stationary bike

37 replies

LaurieFairyCake · 14/01/2019 12:39

According to my Fitbit I've just burned off 258 calories cycling for 15 minutes (24 miles an hour, 6 miles).

I also googled and returned the same number on different websites.

Feels like a lot of calories burned ? Do others mistrust it?

I am pretty overweight though so I suppose I have to work quite hard to exercise

OP posts:
Babdoc · 14/01/2019 20:37

My static bike claims that I burn 39 calories per mile. Energy expended is mass times distance, so in calorie terms it doesn’t matter whether you pedal fast or slow, it’s just the distance covered. Similarly, running a mile burns the same calories as walking a mile - you just get there quicker, and put your heart and breathing rate up higher.

lljkk · 14/01/2019 20:27

24mph is FAST!!! I would believe the number if you did that on the road, esp. if you're quite large.

Original poster
LaurieFairyCake · 14/01/2019 20:25

I can't do longer than 15 minutes yet GrinBlush

OP posts:
Original poster
LaurieFairyCake · 14/01/2019 20:25

It's a stationary bike. Interestingly the Fitbit said I was doing 24 mph AND the bike said the same thing in its readings - heart rate, distance, mph all the same on the bikes monitor and the Fitbit

OP posts:
Lokisglowstickofdestiny · 14/01/2019 19:32

Looks high. I've just looked at a couple of the workouts I've done on a gym bike via my Apple Watch. 35mins, total calories 268, average heart rate 118, another one 34 mins, 247 cals Ave HR 247.

BrieAndChilli · 14/01/2019 19:27

I did 20 minutes on the gym bike, did 8km and the bike said I’d burned about 120 calories

FATEdestiny · 14/01/2019 19:22

Your calorie burn is a straight line, which it won't have been. This indicates it is very definitely a guesstimate and not accurate.

Did you type in that you were travelling at 24mph? Because you can't / won't have been doing exactly 24mph for every second of that while time. This is where the calorie burn estimation error will come from.

If you biked outside, connected to GPS and your HR watch, then you will get a much more accurate calorie burn amount because you'll get realtime data on your speed from moment to moment.

You may also need to do a bit longer than 15m to get an accurate reading.

For comparison, my calorie burn rate in fat burn zone is around 5 cals/min

Original poster
LaurieFairyCake · 14/01/2019 19:00

Way more overweight than loubilou Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
LaurieFairyCake · 14/01/2019 18:59

Ooh literally 2 saying no and two saying yes

Google, the bike itself and my Fitbit say yes. I was at 113 average heart rate.

Struggling to 'believe in' calories burned on stationary bike
OP posts:
rubisco · 14/01/2019 18:53

Very roughly, in 15 minutes you burn the same number of calories as your average power output in watts. 258 watts is realistic for a competitive amateur cyclist (Bradley Wiggins could maintain 450W for an hour). So if you're in decent shape, maybe!

FATEdestiny · 14/01/2019 18:40

Sounds reasonable, if you're already pretty overweight and got your heart rate up to peak/cardio for all or most of that 15 minutes.

Bear in mind that if you just pottered around the house doing 15 minutes active housework, you may burn half that amount.

Loubilou09 · 14/01/2019 14:46

I don't have any faith in these watches to be honest, if they were correct I would be tiny!!

I am 5'7" and 13 stone and did a fairly hard core spinning class this morning on my Peloton for 30 minutes. The Peloton says I burnt 274 calories and I went 8.5 miles and my Garmin watch says 220 calories. This particular class has had 60,000 people take it and I came in at around 30,000 so I was mid range I guess in terms of achievement/fitness so not totally out of shape and we did some fairly difficult intervals and hills, I was puffing, bright red and sweating. I would think 258 calories for 15 minutes is a little far fetched.

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