BikeMarrow
New Member
Hey guys!
I'm pretty new to the world of cycling and although I've had a hybrid road bike for a few years now, have only recently started using it outside of commuting and the odd ride into town when the suns out, and more for longer rides and fitness. I've almost certainly got the bug!
I've found myself treading the murky waters of calorie burning. While I understand this to be a difficult topic for cycling especially, what with all the variables, I wondered if you guys could shed some light on the best way to track what I'm burning and when?
I've been on Strava for a while and have recently bought a FitBit Charge 3, which is synced up and gives Strava my GPS ride, gradient and heartrate info when out on rides, which I've found fantastic! I'm logging quite large calorie-burning numbers when out on 2+ hour rides of around 30 miles, with some pretty decent climbs of 5/6% and maxes of 11%. I live in South Manchester so it's great for getting out and mixing flats with pretty decent climbs when getting towards the Peaks and Cheshire and it's on these routes that I'm logging a calorie burn of around 1200. I've read up lots on the Charge 3 and a lot of sources say it should be taken with a pinch of salt but the heart rate info it's providing Strava with seems to be helping towards a more accurate number, as Strava was initially logging pretty low.
Anyway, I've seen a real change in my fitness, weight loss and am starting to feel great about it! But this week, with the weather changing and the wind being up a bit, I've been doing GCN Youtube training sessions on an indoor exercise bike - the Reebok GB40s. Today's session was a 40 minute Sweetspot session which absolutely nailed me!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxrEqrdSPgw&t=2s
Pretty high resistance all the way through, constant RPM of around 80 and to 100+ when sprinting, so I was working a lot harder than I would be for the first 40 minutes of any ride out on the roads. The attached photo is the bikes stats once finished. I'm a bit annoyed I didn't snap a pic just before finishing so It could show wattage etc. but as I recall it was up around the 200 mark generally.
My Fitbit struggled with any other data but Heart Rate, as I had it set to 'Ride' and the GPS didn't track any movement, as there obviously wasn't any, so I'm sceptical about the data. Nevertheless, it's given me around 500 Calories burned. The Reebok bike, as you can see, is STUPIDLY different, at well over 1000 calories burned! Now, I know this cannot be right, but given the amount of work put into the 40-minute session and the amount of sweating and aching, I wondered if the 'true' number might be between the two somewhere?
This isn't something I'm going to be solidly monitoring, but as a beginner, I'd like some clarity and consistency as I start to train harder and hopefully get fitter. Anyone any thoughts, similarities or stats/number that they can show me that will help me here?
Sorry, this is long-winded but it's been an intense lockdown!
Cheers in advance,
Mike
I'm pretty new to the world of cycling and although I've had a hybrid road bike for a few years now, have only recently started using it outside of commuting and the odd ride into town when the suns out, and more for longer rides and fitness. I've almost certainly got the bug!
I've found myself treading the murky waters of calorie burning. While I understand this to be a difficult topic for cycling especially, what with all the variables, I wondered if you guys could shed some light on the best way to track what I'm burning and when?
I've been on Strava for a while and have recently bought a FitBit Charge 3, which is synced up and gives Strava my GPS ride, gradient and heartrate info when out on rides, which I've found fantastic! I'm logging quite large calorie-burning numbers when out on 2+ hour rides of around 30 miles, with some pretty decent climbs of 5/6% and maxes of 11%. I live in South Manchester so it's great for getting out and mixing flats with pretty decent climbs when getting towards the Peaks and Cheshire and it's on these routes that I'm logging a calorie burn of around 1200. I've read up lots on the Charge 3 and a lot of sources say it should be taken with a pinch of salt but the heart rate info it's providing Strava with seems to be helping towards a more accurate number, as Strava was initially logging pretty low.
Anyway, I've seen a real change in my fitness, weight loss and am starting to feel great about it! But this week, with the weather changing and the wind being up a bit, I've been doing GCN Youtube training sessions on an indoor exercise bike - the Reebok GB40s. Today's session was a 40 minute Sweetspot session which absolutely nailed me!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxrEqrdSPgw&t=2s
Pretty high resistance all the way through, constant RPM of around 80 and to 100+ when sprinting, so I was working a lot harder than I would be for the first 40 minutes of any ride out on the roads. The attached photo is the bikes stats once finished. I'm a bit annoyed I didn't snap a pic just before finishing so It could show wattage etc. but as I recall it was up around the 200 mark generally.
My Fitbit struggled with any other data but Heart Rate, as I had it set to 'Ride' and the GPS didn't track any movement, as there obviously wasn't any, so I'm sceptical about the data. Nevertheless, it's given me around 500 Calories burned. The Reebok bike, as you can see, is STUPIDLY different, at well over 1000 calories burned! Now, I know this cannot be right, but given the amount of work put into the 40-minute session and the amount of sweating and aching, I wondered if the 'true' number might be between the two somewhere?
This isn't something I'm going to be solidly monitoring, but as a beginner, I'd like some clarity and consistency as I start to train harder and hopefully get fitter. Anyone any thoughts, similarities or stats/number that they can show me that will help me here?
Sorry, this is long-winded but it's been an intense lockdown!
Cheers in advance,
Mike