I ride a lot on the bicycle. How is that calculated?

[BobDennis]

How is bicycling calculated for calore burning and etc?

[HappyTX]

I'd like to know this too. I currently use Road Bike Pro (from the makers of Map my Walk) on my iPhone mouted to my handelbars. I'm a brand new user, just got my Fitbit today and I am wondering how it is calculated, or if there is a way to tie-in the info from RBP.

[Jim_M]

What you do is link MMW/MMR/MMH to fitbitbit (see 3rd party intergrations section of the help forums).  Then when you use MapMyWalk, etc, the data is synced over to fitbit for the time of the activity.

(MapMyRide is the interface to MMW that I use with a bike)

[gsansoucie]

I use MMR a lot.  It is my primary ride app.  I then use an online converter to pull down my rides and upload into Strava.  I really like Strava a lot more, but I like the MMR App while I am riding.

With this said, I never got the MMR to Fitbit integration working.  When it was enabled, it would only pull down my Fitbit info and basically double up my events, making it look like I was doing a Ride and Run at the same time.

I turned off the integration and just keep the two activities and systems separate.

[Heybales]

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@BobDennis wrote:

How is bicycling calculated for calore burning and etc?

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It isn't.

The formula's for calorie burn related to "steps" seen are for walking and jogging.

Even if you wear the Fitbit on ankle or shoe to try to get steps counted, the calorie formula will be totally wrong, might as well make it up.

The manual entries for cycling, doing the speed indicated, or pretty good, and get better the longer you go and have less stops, so head/tail wind cancel each other out, up/down hills cancel each other out. Only thing not close is riding in peleton and going fast but getting the wind break. That will be bady overestimated.

You can compare levels, and see if you need to round their suggested burn up or down depending on where you were in the range.

[Spang]

I use mapmyride to record my cycling. I then add that as an activity. The tracking figures are good with that porgram. It allows you to record your ride, distance, (with heart monitor) HR, calories etc.

[EBlaxx]

I did spin class last night with my fitbit and am surprised that the data seems wrong. I don't think my calorie burn is correct at all, 157 calories for 55 minutes of intensive cycling. Is calorie burn based from H/R? Curious to know more about this issue.

[whome]

@EBlaxx - The Fitbit is a fancy pedometer, not a Heart Rate Monitor. As such, it is made to record step based activities (walking/running). Any activities that are not step based are best recorded using the "log activity" function. It has a large library of activities with calorie burn already figured out that you can enter - or

you can get a HRM and figure out your calorie burn from the results it records and log that. As I understand it, there may be HRM that will sync data to the Fitbit account. Others who know more than I, and there are many, will probably chime in here with more details and corrections where I need them - lol

Hope this helps

Craig

[Heybales]

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@EBlaxx wrote:

I did spin class last night with my fitbit and am surprised that the data seems wrong. I don't think my calorie burn is correct at all, 157 calories for 55 minutes of intensive cycling. Is calorie burn based from H/R? Curious to know more about this issue.

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Might want to read all the posts above for some great info already written for your info.

Not an issue.

[gsansoucie]

For cycling/spinning, wear it on your ankle. My guess is you had it up too high and it didn't detect all your steps. The rest of the posts about it not having a HR monitor is correct, it won't be accurate, but close.

[StefK]

I use a Polar heart rate monitor with sports watch to record all data that is not step based. I then add it as an activity in my fitbit account. Instead of a sports watch you could get the Polar H7 heart rate strap and download the app Polarbeat to your ios device. Unfortunately, as far as I know it does not work with android devices. With a heart rate monitor you get a much more accurate idea about your workouts and calorie expenditure.
Stef.

[Spang]

I have a strap on HR monotor that works with map my ride. I have another one that works with endmodo but have found that a lot of tracing device and software are either Apple or Droid specific. 

Thay was the case for a long time with mapmyride.

The monitor is a great help making sure I am working correctly to get the best benift.