Walking vs Spinning Calories Burned?

[EllieGetsFit]

I go to spin class 5 days a week, it’s super intense, I sweat lots and my heart rate gets quite high. I burn around 400 calories during a spin class and my heart rate average is around 143. I went for a walk, around 55 minutes at a brisk pace and my heart rate average was 124, I barely broke a sweat. I burned 400 calories according to my Fitbit. How is this possible?? How can I be burning the same calories walking as I do in an intense spin class?

[slwilliams]

I think the way that calories are counted on a Fitbit is kind of a rough estimation and not a scientifically proven fact. It's used more as a guideline. Because research has shown that a walk will burn about 300 cal an hour give or take a few calories here and there. Going for a swim where your activating more muscles with more resistance will burn about 550 cal in the same hour. Taking a brisk jog will burn roughly around 600 cal while cycling will burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 cal in that same given hour. If you look at rowing it is estimated to burn around 800 cal and jumping rope which pretty much brings your entire body into play will burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 cal.

This is all speculative and depending on your body makeup and fitness level you could burn more or less. So I think the Fitbit is a great resource by giving us those calories burned but I don't think you should take it to heart. It's a good reference point. For instance, if I go for a brisk walk on my treadmill with a pretty good incline at a speed of 3.5, in 1 hour and 1/2 my treadmill will show that I have burned around 300 cal. And my Fitbit will say that I have burned almost 700. So again there is a lot of difference between those two numbers. But at the end of the day, it is a fantastic reference point and helps to keep all of us motivated and burning those calories to achieve our goals. And this is just my opinion and not a fact. Everyone should do their own research and come up with a baseline of how many calories they think they're actually burning each and every day to achieve the goals that each of us has set for ourselves. I hope this helps and have a wonderful day.

[JohnnyRow]

You didn't say how many calories it said for your spin class.

Were you using the Exercise App or relying of auto-recognition, or (gasp) just manually logging workouts afterward?

[EllieGetsFit]

I said I burn around 400 cals in spin. I just start the ‘spinning’ exercise on my Fitbit watch and it counts the calories, my heart rate etc

[JohnnyRow]

Sorry, you did say 400 calories.  My mistake.  Maybe I got confused because they were both the exact same.

Calorie burn per minute should be based on heart rate, for a given person.

So 400 calories in a 55 minute walk.  And 400 calories in a spin class, but you didn't say how long the spin class lasted. Was it less than 55 minutes.

And I asked about how you recorded it because when you count on auto-recognize, you have no guarantee that it counted the whole time.  Check the length of the 2 workouts in the workout summaries, and what they show for average calories/minute.

Fitbit gives you all those details, in addition to total calories burned, so you can look at the details to compare workout lengths, calorie burn/minute at various heart rates, ...

[Heybales]

Also, sweat doesn't enter in to how hard a workout was, that only is a reflection of how hot the body got.

Just wanted to mention that for down the road in case you try comparing sweating levels between others and you or even just yourself.

Also, HR can be increased and reflect not the intensity of the workout only, but also being dehydrated, tired, stressed from length of time of a hard workout, ect.

Now, per the point being made above with any HRM attempting to calculate calorie burn, same HR should be about the same calorie burn per min.

So equal time should be about equal calorie burn.

Unless somehow the device was using distance based calorie burn for the walk instead of HR-based, which would be more accurate for sure but I don't think it can do that once the HR goes high enough or you start a workout.

[Mamalara6]

I have no answers, but the same problem/ question. I will walk for an hour, earning no zone minutes with virtually no perceived exertion and the Fitbit calculates the same number of calories per hour for that hour of walking as for my hour-long spin class where I am in cardio/peak 80% of the time, unable to talk, sweating profusely. 

[charleskn]

The other missing piece is (for me) the difference from an average HR of 124 vs 143, is modest. We don't know your age, general fitness level or maximum heart rate. If you'r older, like me (60+), the 143 rate is closer to my max HR.

What is your perceived exertion for each of the activities?

https://www.verywellfit.com/perceived-exertion-scale-1231117