bicycling

[ssullivan32]

What do others do when you go cycling?

For instance, I use runkeeper to measure calories burned when cycling and I can never tell if fitbit is getting it right. The distance is never right, I will go 30 or 40 miles and it always says something like 8 or 10. But it does seem to record a period of active minutes. 

[SunsetRunner]

Just purchased my own spin bike and attach the fitbit to my shoelace which seems to accumulate a greater amount of steps. Went 18 miles in one hour and registered 5,800 steps for that activity only. 

[Barn]

Under Dashboard/Activties you can log your cycling activities ..  

[Colinm39]

@ssullivan32With Bicycling it depends on your goals. From my testing you only get half the cadence (steps) if you are using the Fitbit to try and assimilate steps, therefore you would need to manually record double the amount. You need to be careful, and you can only record it as a manual activity as walking if you want steps.

Also wearing the Fitbit lower on the torso, the 3D accelerometer inflates the VAM (calorie burn)  the further you are away from the torso if it is a clip type Fitbit.  I haven't tested the wrist type Fitbits.

So in effect you need to do three things.

1. Set your timer and record the ride and you will have your cadence ***.

2. Manually add the Bicycle record as distance and time and see what the calories are

3. Create a walking record for the same time period, double the cadence for your steps and use the calories from #2.

That will give you an accurate record and keep in mind that the steps will not go towards badges.

Keep asking if this is unclear..

*** you can create a manual timer record after the even.

[Heybales]

The formula for calorie burn based on steps is totally invalid for cycling, don't even waste time trying.

If you just must have the step count for those goals, figure 80-90 cadence (unless you know what you hit), for 3/4 of the time, and double for steps.

85 rpm x 45 min x 2 steps a rev = 7650 steps.

But for any decent attempt at calorie count (and that's why you are using the Fitbit I'd assume), you'll need to manually log the bike ride as a bike ride.

Because if you really did 7650 steps in 45 min, the speed you'd have to be running and should be very inflated calorie count.

[Hats26]

When I did my spin class, it showed I was sitting a lot and doing nothing. So I logged it manually as spin and inputting the time too. I've not tried the shoe idea but I have had my flex go into standby if its not close enough to the skin. I don't cycle a huge amount though. Even if manual logs aren't perfect it is better than not logging at all. Do whatever suits you best really. I think there are a lot of fitbit comments & suggestions around this, but it certainly isn't an aspect I know a lot about. 

[ssullivan32]

Thanks for the feedback. Steps are less important to me than an accurate
measure of calories burned.

That is hard for me to determine when the fitbit app automatically shows
you as burning calories even when there is no fitbit connected to it. In
other words, if I do nothing at all all day it still says I burned 16
hundred calories. I do not feel I can trust the fitbit on cycling because
it does not know my speed or elevation etc. I can manually add that record
but does fitbit add it to what it has already recorded? If so then I end up
with a total calorie burn number that is inflated.

I welcome more thoughts.



--
Typed on a vey small keyboard

[Heybales]

---

@ssullivan32 wrote:
That is hard for me to determine when the fitbit app automatically shows
you as burning calories even when there is no fitbit connected to it. In
other words, if I do nothing at all all day it still says I burned 16
hundred calories. I do not feel I can trust the fitbit on cycling because
it does not know my speed or elevation etc. I can manually add that record
but does fitbit add it to what it has already recorded? If so then I end up
with a total calorie burn number that is inflated.

---

Well, you do burn calories just sleeping, right. Energy is used to produce heat, you are warm blooded, you produce heat even trying to stay cool. You use energy to replace cells.

Most basic functions of life your body does requires energy use, meaning you burn calories, your brain is one of he biggest metabolic burners, at least for most people. 😉

Called your BMR. Fitbit calculates that with gender, age, height, weight. Using formula close enough to Mifflin BMR.

And no, you manually enter anything from HRM or elliptical machine or database, and that already has the calories you would have burned at rest, and that replaces completely the calories Fitbit already had down for that time, rest and whatever inaccurate estimate it had.

[Bill_Peterhouse]

I have my flex around my ankle. I monitor it with my iPhone and it appears to count one step for one revolution of the pedals. Today it said  I took 12, 500 steps while I rode 35+ miles. It seems like the engineers could come up with an algorithm in the software and/or firmware to convert that to reasonable miles while biking. It also seems like it would be easy to design a poocket for the flex that would attach to yous shoes quite easily.

[Heybales]

---

@Bill_Peterhouse wrote:

I have my flex around my ankle. I monitor it with my iPhone and it appears to count one step for one revolution of the pedals. Today it said  I took 12, 500 steps while I rode 35+ miles. It seems like the engineers could come up with an algorithm in the software and/or firmware to convert that to reasonable miles while biking. It also seems like it would be easy to design a poocket for the flex that would attach to yous shoes quite easily.

---

While they could try to track the fact that spinning has less impact and should stand out, how could the device possibly know your gearing on your bike and tire size to know that the cadence of 90 rpm and 12500 "steps" is equal to so many miles?

Because you must know miles and mass and time to calculate calorie burn.

Do you burn the same stomping out 12500 "steps" on the pedals doing 90 rpm but very easy gearing equal the same with hard gearing?

Because the device would never know that one was 15 miles and one was 30 miles.

And outdoors or indoors - because actual wind resistance is HUGE factor once the speed gets up enough, otherwise rolling resistance.

Nope - not possible for anything near useful. If they attempted it it would be worthless with so many assumptions.

[MichelleShields]

I use Map My Ride. They have a free app for your phone. It also has a fun feature that will show exactly where you rode, plus elevations and split times.

[Amanisedu1906]

Strava is the ultimate cycling app..hands down. I don't have any particular advice or best practices for tracking calories burned. Everyone has an opinion on that. I'd just say use what works. 

I slip my fit bit in my sock when i ride and use my garmin which synchs directly to the strava app to track mileage, distance, elevation, time, calories, heart rate, etc. 

[Heybales]

Strava is nice option. I wish imported from Garmin (or others I suppose)
would include the source's estimate of calorie burn, or allow changing it.
Though that's not my main location for tracking that anyway, but still.

Some side issues using them synced with Fitbit where their calorie burn
comes across and replaces whatever Fitbit had.

When they estimate calorie burn, and considering no factor of wind or
drafting, they may be decent if weight of bike and other misc stuff is
correct, they only estimate the calorie burn required to push the pedals
for what you appear to have done - they don't take into account base
calorie burn your body is already burning at same time - so you would call
that NET.

But when it comes across to Fitbit - it is replacing a Gross calorie burn -
therefore it's missing calories.

20 min easy ride to store - no big whoop.

120 min hard ride for exercise - could be missing 160-200 calories then,
which you may really not desire to miss on such a training ride if you
enjoy performance and body recovering. Sometimes extra deficit isn't
desired.

Just something to be aware of if syncing with Fitbit.