Logging stationery bike ride - why no bpm field?

[SunsetRunner]

Is there a way to adjust the bpm on a manually entered Bike exercise?

I'm trying to log my stationery bike rides instead of using the Blaze bike ride option

The reason it doesn't work is that you can't adjust the bpm when creating the exercise manually.

I did 30min on the bike, travelled 15.5km giving 313 cal (data from exercise bike)

.....with an avg bpm of 134 and 340 cal.(data from Blaze set to Bike)

I deleted the exercise entry that was posted using the Bike option so that I could create an exercise to replace it.

When I tried to create an exercise using the Bike option in the app it let me enter all the above info but not bpm - it automatically averaged that at 72bpm (! lol) and awarded 448 calories which is just wrong and I'm assuming that's because the bpm avg (72) is wrong.

It seems you have to be able to adjust the bpm with all the other metrics or your calories are going to be way out - why does the app do it automatically? Can it be edited?

Thanks for any help

[SunsetRunner]

The assumption is that you would not know what your true BPM is so there is no option.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for your reply

As I mentioned in my post I get the bpm from the fitbit using the Bike option - average was 134bpm - should be able to add that and get more accurate calories? The reason I can't use the Bike option for the exercise is that it doesn't measure the distance - creating a Bike workout manually does - the only thing missing is the bpm.

David Liaromatis

[Rich_Laue]

While there is no way to adjust the BPM during an exercise, there is an entry for calories. If you feel the calories are wrong simply adjust this to reflect what you believe it should be.

Why could a manual entry be wrong?

Distance or time might be off.

Even if they are correct,  fitbit doesn't know about any hills, or sprints you might have done.

Your Blaze has the ability to auto  detect a bike ride, or manually start event, if your wearing the Blaze either of these options would be better than manually adding it later.

For now removing the event, or modifying the calories burnt should bring back the lost ones.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks - I do use the Blaze for my bike rides tethered to my phone and it works perfectly 🙂

What I'm doing is a stationary bike ride in the gym. When I set the Blaze to the Bike exercise of course it doesn't capture distance - so - what I do is use all the data from the Bike exercise setting, plus the distance from the machine in the gym and create a manual Bike exercise combining all the data - the only thing missing is the bpm - which I get from the Blaze Bike exercise - but I can't enter in the manually created exercise and so I get a ridiculous bpm of 72 instead of 134 (actual) which means instead of the 313 calories the machine said I burned - I get a result of 490 - which is based on the erroneous auto bpm provided by creating a manual exercise.

Thanks for any help

They should just let you add bpm - bottom line - then calories would be accurate on a manually entered workout for Bike.

[Rich_Laue]

When on a stationary bike, you should put the Blaze into the exercise mode called Spinning. 

Go to the Blaze settings - Exercise Shortcuts and add Spinning

Http://help.fitbit.com/?q=multisport 

[SunsetRunner]

I've read about that but think I can get a more accurate estimate of my work out  by creating a manual exercise - they just need to add bpm and calculate the calories from that instead of doing it automatically. It would be a perfect solution - I can add distance, time, average bpm, that's all that I need for a better calorie estimate

[Rich_Laue]

Manually adding is designed to be used when not wearing the tracker, where are you going to get tye average BPM?  Why do you think that the tracker will be unable to dectect your heart rate while on a stationart bike?

Instead of putting in tye BPM what is wrong with directly adding the calories burnt. You say tyat you can calculate the calories from your average BPM, and tyat you know your average BPM. Do the calculations then add tye calories. 

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

I can add distance, time, average bpm, that's all that I need for a better calorie estimate

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Please remember that most exercise machines report feel good calories and not the true calories burnt.

[SunsetRunner]

Its the fitbit recording feel good calories - its over by over a hundred when using the average created when entering it manually - and this is the point

Manual adding is useful in this situation as the Bike function is incomplete - it doesn't capture distance when youre on a stationery bike.

You ask

where are you going to get tye average BPM?  Why do you think that the tracker will be unable to dectect your heart rate while on a stationart bike?

I've mentioned a  few times I get it from the Bike exercise mode - want to add it to the manual exercise for a better estimate....I don't want to have to do the calculations as you suggest each time - much easier to punch in the bpm - which I can't understand why it's not there - I hear in these replies why I shouldn't want it - but not a good reason not to have it LOL! 🙂

Thanks for your  reply 🙂

[Rich_Laue]

If you insist on using the bike mode, then turn the GPS off, it will then be identical to using the mode called Spinning which is the correct mode to use.

I still don't understand your aversion to using the Spinning mode, by definition Spinning is a stationary bike. You are manually entering these events as spinning,  are you not?

When using the Bike mode it will give you the calories burnt based on the heart rate. Write this number down then enter it into the optional calories field when manually entering the event. 

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Sorry I thought I was being very clear when I explained this situation a number of times - as I'm not "insisting" on using any of the modes - I'd "like" to use the manual exercise creation mode - but can't because for some unknown reason it creates an erroneous average bpm based on the information you plug into the Bike manual exercise creation mode.

So far from needing repeated advice on what other modes I might find useful, appreciated though it is, I'd like FitBit to alter the user interface so that it doesn't automatically create an average bpm for manually created exercises - and lets me enter it instead - just like it lets me enter all the other data.

When the bpm is created automatically it creates an erroneous calorie expenditure estimate.

So, when creating a manual exercise using the Bike option

1. The average bpm created by the Blaze is incorrect

2. The calorie expenditure estimate is incorrect

If I could adjust the bpm this would fix the calorie estimate.....

Thanks again for the guidance but its clear that without being able to adjust the bpm - the manual exercise creation mode is useless.

[bbarrera]

@SunsetRunner what brand/model of stationary bike are you using? Does the bike computer allow you to enter personal data such as weight? Do you have heart rate monitor connected to bike computer? Does it have a power meter? Power meters are more accurate at estimating calories than HR, and I've had access to a power meter since October in our gym and on my road bike.

See this post for my findings regarding calorie accuracy of manually entered spins:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Spinning-calories-burned-are-incorrect/m-p/1537943#M28494

Note that account is using my iPhone as tracker and does not have HR data.

The fitbit.com website is not loading right now, I'll check later and see if they have changed manually entered spin activity calories.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for your response - I'm just hoping they amend the app to allow addition of bpm instead of erroneously calculating it as it does.

Although the bike I use in the gym does everything you mention (except for power meter) - I want to use the Blaze and only need the gym bike number for distance - having that and punching it into the manual bike exercise along with the bpm from my Blaze would seem to me more accurate.

I can see from your post you've found the same problem - the calorie count is comical - but that's because it's automatically averaging your bpm - in my case average was c.134 from the Blaze - manually entered exercise made it 79bpm and so calories are way out.

Thanks

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks

[bbarrera]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Although the bike I use in the gym does everything you mention (except for power meter) - I want to use the Blaze and only need the gym bike number for distance - having that and punching it into the manual bike exercise along with the bpm from my Blaze would seem to me more accurate.

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@SunsetRunner It may or may not result in a more accurate calorie estimate. I have bike rides with lower average bpm, and higher power output. Power is a better way to estimate calorie burn, because HR can fluctuate for various reasons.

I just manually entered 1 hour activities, including your 30 min / 15.5km (9.63 mile) and doubled that to 1 hour / 31km (19.26 miles), to illustrate how the Fitbit algorithm works for biking and spinning activities:

Manually entered activities

A few observations:

- Fitbit calorie estimates for manually entered spinning and biking appear to be based on weight and duration: it does NOT appear to use average bpm (my weight is ~200lbs / 91kg)

- Fitbit biking calorie estimates are in bands, I get the same number of calories at 16mph as at 19.5mph which is wrong, but ok as rough estimate

- your Fitbit calorie burn for 30 minutes at 15.5km/hour will be the same at 12.9km/hr and 15.7km/hr (and any speed in between)

- Fitbit biking calorie estimate above 19.6mph remains the same as at 25mph and 35mph which is clearly and totally wrong, it looks like somebody at Fitbit just gave up and figured people that like counting steps are unlikely to ride faster than 19.6mph

- Fitbit spinning calorie estimates are comically wrong, and the two entry methods differ by a factor of 2. Ridiculous!!!

- Fitbit biking calorie estimates are better, but a little high for me

- Power meters allow you to compare actual effort, for example an 18mph solo ride into a strong headwind is about the same power (275 watts), heart rate (160bpm although this varies), and calorie burn as 22mph time trial in calm conditions. The gym spin bike at same power level tells me I was riding 25mph, which is roughly about the speed I could do drafting in a paceline and trading off 30 seconds pulls at the front. 

- screenshot above is using my Fitbit account that uses iPhone as step tracker, and therefore has no HR data. Keep in mind that Fitbit does not allow importing activities with HR, or creating manual activities with HR - I'm sure Fitbit CEO thinks this creates demand for HR trackers, but for anyone that wants accuracy this, along with no support for chest straps, is another reason to leave Fitbit ecosystem

I routinely ride 75-120 minutes at 19-21mph average, outdoors, both solo and in group rides. The Fitbit biking calorie estimates are ok, although an hour on a group ride at 20mph is closer to 700-800 calories versus Fitbit's 1215 calorie estimate. And as I've become more fit 20mph calorie burn on solo ride is more like 900-1000 versus Fitbit 1215. 

The Fitbit spinning calorie estimates are completely and totally wrong.

Over 2 years ago I reported these issues to Fitbit. Good luck getting them to fix it, all they did was add a spinning exercise with miles and make the bad estimate even worse!

For now I recommend you manually enter calories. Keep in mind the stationary bike computer could be just as wrong as Fitbit estimates. Just pick one that you want to use, and stick with it. If you count calories it might be possible to tweak the manually entered calorie burn, based on observing your weight over time.

[Rich_Laue]

@SunsetRunner a manually created exercise assumes the tracker was not being worn and ignores any information the tracker has sent. 

I understand that you want to somehow adjust the heartrate manually. I also understand that you understand that this is not possible.  I also realize, as you do, that this is a comunity of Fitbit users who are unable to make you wish come true. Therefore at best we can only give an alternative. Cimanually the only alternative is to manualy add the true calories when creating an event.. This should be more accurate  as @bbarrera states than trying to get fitbit to look at average heart rate and assuming your an average person. Hint, there pretty much is no such thing as an average person. At best there will only be one in the world. When it comes to the USA we can not all be Todd, who looks overweight and out of shape

Since we don't have a heart rate option, this manual feature was added years before fitbit could read heart rates, we have to work with what we have. This is probably why we don't have this option.

[bbarrera]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

the only alternative is to manualy add the true calories when creating an event.. This should be more accurate  as @bbarrera states than trying to get fitbit to look at average heart rate and assuming your an average person. Hint, there pretty much is no such thing as an average person.

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If you wear the Blaze, then Fitbit knows you aren't an average person with average heart rate. And the only 'true' calories estimates are in the lab, so the best most of us can do is understand the limitations - power meter within 5%, HR with VO2max and learning ~6-10% accuracy, HR only 12-20% accuracy (Fitbit Blaze), and least accurate is weight/duration (Fitbit manual activity, or online calculator using Compendium of Physical Activities). If Fitbit knows HR and cycling VO2max (it can be different than running VO2max), then Fitbit can do better than using standard HR calorie estimate algorithms. Its pretty easy to find calorie estimate and VO2max algorithms online, in sports science journal articles.

If you count calories and use the stationary bike a lot, its possible to tweak the calorie estimates based on calorie counting and your weight over time. Say if Fitbit or gym computer says you burn 6075 estimated calories a week just from 5 hours of stationary bike, and no other exercise, along with my 12,000/week base calories, I can count calories and observe weight changes to determine if 6075 estimate is too high or too low or just right. In fact that is how I found out Fitbit's manual spin activity calorie estimates were completely wrong and inaccurate.

[Rich_Laue]

And you have just explained why studies show that wearing 6 trackers you will have 6 different caloric measurements..

As te old saying goes, a man with one watch knows the correct time, when wearing two watches, he is not sure