Calorie tracking and what not.

[Firegod]

Howdy!

I have an indoor bike. Nothing fancy, the resistance is just a pad on the weighted wheel at the front. The little computer it has just gives me distance, rpm and calories. But I'm in disagreement with it. I've only just started so I do half an hour and mix it up with fast and slow bits and high and low resistance. Has me knackered lol. In that time I do just 8 miles but I am sweating. The calorie readout says I've only burned like 100 calories and I'm guessing it is just using the little sensor to read the rpm of the wheel and calculating from there. It isn't taking in the resistance or effort I'm putting in.

So my question to fellow cycle people (indoor and out), for those that want to track heart rate, calories, etc, what sort of device can I get myself?

Are there things that perhaps clip to your trainer? As I was looking into all these watches and things but then I thought if my wrists are fixed on the bars, would it work properly and know that I'm doing exercise / cycling?

Any help much appreciated as I would like to know what I am burning.

Cheers folks.

PS. Apologies if there is some sort of mega thread on this that I have missed!

 

[Hotwired]

If it's not fancy then the computer it has is probably making some vague guesses based on time and rpm. Just some token added value, I have a cheap bike and I don't even bother putting the screen on.

If you're looking for motivation through accuracy then a power meter will get you closer, it's built into the crank or pedals and measures the forces you're putting in.

Not cheap, if your indoor bike isn't fancy it's easy for the meter to cost more than the bike but you will probably be able to screw in some power meter pedals.

 

[Vandle]

I'm a big fan of the Garmin stuff. Essentially all of their wearables will do the same thing, which is measure your heart rate. Even the simplest (cheapest) of their devices will do this and publish it to a pretty intuitive app, which is free (they are bringing in charges for advanced metrics). I currently wear a Vivosmart on my wrist 24/7 but you could just get a Garmin HR chest strap on its own, the app will pick it up and it has a single replaceable battery that lasts about a year. They will auto detect when your HR rises and are surprisingly very good at knowing what you did and for how long. You also have the option within the app to manually start and measure an activity.
Your HR when factored into your height, age, gender and weight will give a reasonably good indication of your calorie output - regardless of your hand positions on the bike. Remembering that the calorie value is energy used. Once you go fully down the rabbit hole you can measure all kinds of metrics using power metres and the like but to start with, effort measurements via a HR monitor is the way to go. You don't need to measure your resistance because as your effort increases then so does your HR and therefore the energy expended does too.

 

[arknor]

2 hours cycling outdoors is around 1000 calories or so according to all my ride histories.
you need power meters for accurate energy output on your ride.


indoors its probably a lot less calories, you can probably lose weight faster walking 1-2 hours every other day honestly.

with cycling you build an appetite and its harder to not just eat more calories than your burning.

obviously cycling you get a lot fit though.

 

[Gray2233]

you really need to cycle a lot and on a regular basis to lose weight, indoors you are probably burning half the calories as well?

This really isn't true, the calories you have lost during those sessions are going to hugely differ to what others might do.

How much do you weigh and how tall are you?

Kudos on the long rides, especially the first! But if someone is looking to lose weight from indoor cycling, their potential calorie loss is going to massively depend on those factors. You're likely far, far ahead of the majority in here in terms of distance/time spent and are apparently very fit already. A regular/average guy that is 16st + at 5'10 and a good amount of body fat for example? Doing an hour on a bike three times a week at moderate speeds will enjoy huge benefits, although diet is equally important.

Massively over weight people can actually lose weight simply by waving their arms around for 30 minutes each day while maintaining the same diet, and no I'm not kidding. The effort to move or do certain things can differ greatly between people, and that required effort usually directly translates into how much you burn off.

 

[arknor]

Kudos on the long rides, especially the first! But if someone is looking to lose weight from indoor cycling, their potential calorie loss is going to massively depend on those factors. You're likely far, far ahead of the majority in here in terms of distance/time spent and are apparently very fit already. A regular/average guy that is 16st + at 5'10 and a good amount of body fat for example? Doing an hour on a bike three times a week at moderate speeds will enjoy huge benefits, although diet is equally important.

Massively over weight people can actually lose weight simply by waving their arms around for 30 minutes each day while maintaining the same diet, and no I'm not kidding. The effort to move or do certain things can differ greatly between people, and that required effort usually directly translates into how much you burn off.

I've always been around 94kg @ 6"4.
currently a fatty though at 106kg and not been on a bike in about 3 months :O.

also edited out my post cos a summary seemed better


but anyway cycling is mostly spining pedals, but yea if your legs are heavier then your going to require more effort to make those pedals spin and likely burn more calories.

but IMO with cycling appetite is a huge problem if you want to lose weight, you also can fall into the "reward" trap and over estimate how much your burning, even with computers supposedly telling you how much you burned. (Strava tells me 900 calories for a ride, knowing its an ebike ride, theres power meter data there so it should be accurate, yet the bosch app tells me I only burnt 600 calories a hefty 300 calorie difference for the same ride)

walking you can burn an extra 10-20% calories a day without feeling like you really did anything, your bodies not craving calories after and you shouldn't really feel any increased hunger.
it just seems so much easier if you are someone who struggles with weight.

 

[Firegod]

I'm a big fan of the Garmin stuff. Essentially all of their wearables will do the same thing, which is measure your heart rate. Even the simplest (cheapest) of their devices will do this and publish it to a pretty intuitive app, which is free (they are bringing in charges for advanced metrics). I currently wear a Vivosmart on my wrist 24/7 but you could just get a Garmin HR chest strap on its own, the app will pick it up and it has a single replaceable battery that lasts about a year. They will auto detect when your HR rises and are surprisingly very good at knowing what you did and for how long. You also have the option within the app to manually start and measure an activity.
Your HR when factored into your height, age, gender and weight will give a reasonably good indication of your calorie output - regardless of your hand positions on the bike. Remembering that the calorie value is energy used. Once you go fully down the rabbit hole you can measure all kinds of metrics using power metres and the like but to start with, effort measurements via a HR monitor is the way to go. You don't need to measure your resistance because as your effort increases then so does your HR and therefore the energy expended does too.

Thank you.

 

[Firegod]

If it's not fancy then the computer it has is probably making some vague guesses based on time and rpm. Just some token added value, I have a cheap bike and I don't even bother putting the screen on.

If you're looking for motivation through accuracy then a power meter will get you closer, it's built into the crank or pedals and measures the forces you're putting in.

Not cheap, if your indoor bike isn't fancy it's easy for the meter to cost more than the bike but you will probably be able to screw in some power meter pedals.

Yeah bike isn't expensive so I doubt I want to buy something that isn't "cheap" when I'm just starting out. But thanks, I'll certainly take a look into them (I haven't yet).

 

[Firegod]

2 hours cycling outdoors is around 1000 calories or so according to all my ride histories.
you need power meters for accurate energy output on your ride.


indoors its probably a lot less calories, you can probably lose weight faster walking 1-2 hours every other day honestly.

with cycling you build an appetite and its harder to not just eat more calories than your burning.

obviously cycling you get a lot fit though.

My ex does her cycling indoors and when I asked what figures she was getting from her setup, she was seeing around 260ish calories in half an hour. I'd be happy to be getting that as a start. Any exercise is good saying I sit on my arse 9 - 5 doing IT. Need to get moving!

 

[arknor]

Thank you.

huawei do some some good ones that are like the budget version of apple watches, or you could just go for a garmin watch they go on sale pretty often.

I've got a hauwei GT4 and had no issues with it. battery lasts 1-2weeks between charges.

smart watches also monitor how good your sleep was although not exactly that accurate they give a pretty decent picture of what stages of sleep you were in, how often you woke up etc
most of them should detect if you have any breathing issues in your sleep too or if your HR drops too low I think the watch makes an alarm to wake you up.

 

[Begbie]

Get a garmin, won't be as accurate as a power meter + HR monitor but it'll provide something. Though so will weekly weigh ins.

 

[Gray2233]

I've always been around 94kg @ 6"4.
currently a fatty though at 106kg and not been on a bike in about 3 months :O.

also edited out my post cos a summary seemed better


but anyway cycling is mostly spining pedals, but yea if your legs are heavier then your going to require more effort to make those pedals spin and likely burn more calories.

but IMO with cycling appetite is a huge problem if you want to lose weight, you also can fall into the "reward" trap and over estimate how much your burning, even with computers supposedly telling you how much you burned. (Strava tells me 900 calories for a ride, knowing its an ebike ride, theres power meter data there so it should be accurate, yet the bosch app tells me I only burnt 600 calories a hefty 300 calorie difference for the same ride)

walking you can burn an extra 10-20% calories a day without feeling like you really did anything, your bodies not craving calories after and you shouldn't really feel any increased hunger.
it just seems so much easier if you are someone who struggles with weight.

Big lad!

I do agree on the benefits of walking and feel it's massively overlooked as a good way to exercise. I struggle with intense cardio due to one or two issues, so I tend to make a point of walking anywhere I can reach within an hour unless I'm time constrained. It adds up to a good number of miles each week and the time flies when you pop some earbuds in. I actually think swimming is the probably the best way to burn calories, I used to swim a few times a week back in my teens and then stopped for better part of 20 years. I spent 40 minutes in a local pool doing laps during the back end of lockdown, was absolutely shattered and I'm not in bad shape, I had aches in places I never knew I had.

That said, I do think there's many who look for home solutions for various reasons. People can get embarrassed about exercising in public, or they feel they'll better be able to manage their time etc.

 

[arknor]

I do agree on the benefits of walking and feel it's massively overlooked as a good way to exercise

Fastest I ever lost wait was walking an extra 5+ miles a day, which lets face it at a moderate pace is a little over an hour. (2-5kg a month for 3 months I was loosing, I have stomach issues and I'm on antiacid for years, I wasn't aware walking could lose so much weight, GP had me checked for cancer lol)
with an audio book the time flies anyway, just gets boring if you walk the same route all the time.

there was a time I was cycling almost every other day 20-40 miles outdoors (non ebike that time) and I never lost weight doing it.
I probably swapped some fat for muscle buy my weight always stayed roughly the same and I always felt like I had a chubby belly

I crave protein too much and other foods from high endurance stuff

 

[Defy Belief]

but IMO with cycling appetite is a huge problem if you want to lose weight, you also can fall into the "reward" trap and over estimate how much your burning, even with computers supposedly telling you how much you burned. (Strava tells me 900 calories for a ride, knowing its an ebike ride, theres power meter data there so it should be accurate, yet the bosch app tells me I only burnt 600 calories a hefty 300 calorie difference for the same ride)

This is why despite seeming counter-intuitive, fuelling a big cycle is crucial, not only will it help your general performance when doing it, but the want to eat the entire house post cycle will be greatly reduced, at least for me.

 

[Priapus]

All this talk of calories burned and tracking should be taken with a pinch of salt. There is nothing on the market that will give you an accurate reading. Having said that, I use my Apple Watch to track calories burned; and as long as it's consistent, that's good enough for me. I know a 2.5 mile walk will burn X amount of calories consistently depending on walking pace.

My indoor cycle for 30 mins, will burn 300 calories consistently if I put the same effort in. Sometimes it's lower when I do lower effort.

The numbers from the watch may be not accurate and some studies suggest as much as 40% off. But to me thats not important - as long as it's consistent - good enough.
Use any sort of tracker as guidance I would say and not absolute truth.

 

[a66as]

I don't think your going to get 100% accurate calorie burnt tracker but I have a Samsung watch ultra that I use to track how many miles I've done on my bike ride and it shows me how how long I've been cycling (purely cycling without rest breaks counted in) and calories burnt but I used a regular non electric bike as I wanted to use it to lose weight and get fitter too

it is good motivation and helps me keep track of my goal of cycling 50-60 miles per week (I use my bike to get groceries and travel to the gym too saving me £105 a month)

 

[Hotwired]

An average person with no special tools can get very good accuracy about their excess or deficit in calories if they really wanted to. A weighing scale and a diary and a long period of time.

Control your exercise and food for a long period of time and log it with daily weight checks at a consistent time of day. That'll show the truth of what your calorie excess or deficit is.

One day of turning your muscles into jelly from exercise is worthless so is one day of eating nothing. The momentum of your true lifestyle will steamroller over any one offs like they never happened. Gadget guesses 500 calories burnt on a bike? What's happening in the other 23h of the day. Nothing happening after months of half assing it? Total mystery.

But what you really need is a source of motivation or you'll get bored because it's about changing your lifestyle from what you're comfortable with.

 

[tom_nieto]

How’s progress @Firegod ?

 

[Firegod]

How’s progress @Firegod ?

Sorry yes!

So I ended up with a Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro. Work gave me some money for long time service so I spent some of it on power tools (as you do lol) but what I had left covered the watch. I use it with the Mi Fitness app on my android phone. So far it has been working great! I don't use it for day to day stuff, I just turn it on when I want to use my exercise bike then I sync the workout and then turn it off and put it away . It shows the bike results are well out. Where it was saying I did 8 miles and had burned just over 100 calories in half an hour I'm now recording what I feel is a more realistic, consistent and accurate 300 calories. Actually matches what @Priapus sees from a 30 minute session. Very similar. What I also like is the breakdown with how much time I'm spending in warm up, intense workout, aerobic and anaerobic. Apparently aerobic is where I want to aim for and occasionally going into anaerobic. But yes, much better and I can now at least track my effort. Next hurdle is to use the bike more, but this heat of late has left me with no incentive to work out.

 

[tom_nieto]

Great! Well done for finding a solution and using it. Nothing is perfect, just need consistency.

I get a bit of discrepancy between Apple Watch (heart rate) and Wattbike (power meter) in the gym. For a half hour high intensity interval workout, Wattbike reckons 500kcal (237W average, 16km). Apple Watch reckons 430kcal (max HR 155). Another 45 min workout at similar average power was 750kcal on Wattbike, 585kcal on Apple Watch (max HR 160). Frustratingly the two pieces of kit don’t play well together.

Noom usually takes Apple’s word for it and that happens to be the lowest value. It also halves the calorie surplus so you don’t get it all back.

Something very telling though is that my max HR indoors is never as high as my outdoor rides. Outdoors I can hit 170-180 bpm on a big hill, but no matter what I can’t get it that high inside.