Righto, i have a Mio GPS bike computer with matching chest strap HRM, cadence counter etc. Last week i bought myself a fitness band thing, the Microsoft Band 2.
I’ve done three turbo sessions this week & each time the difference in calories burnt/registered between the two machines is quite remarkable. Over a 30 minute session the mio registered 700+ calories, whilst the Microsoft Band 2 registered 350+ calories burnt.
Both machines showed similar heart rates, within two BPM’s, so why the big difference? Just down to the various softwares?
What is a decent 30 minute calorie burn, as i’m now confused?

700+ in half hour seems high.
Google averages per hour for different activities and try and find what you’d need to do to be burning 1500 per hour.

My average HR for the half hour was 157bpm, i’ve no idea what that means in terms of calories burnt.

I’d say the 350 is closer, at a push 500.

Hmm, maybe the Mio software is bobbins then! I would have thought the chest strap would be more accurate than a wrist strap, but maybe not.

Is your weight set the same on both devices?

It is, 61kg/134.5lb for both. I expected a discrepancy but double the calorie burn is a bit much.

Seems a pretty big discrepancy. Have you set them both up identically

e.g. same age, personal info entered. Resting and peak heart rates set and/or suitable zones set?

The only thing they measure is the pulse rate. Everything else is derived by maths formula based on things like weight and duration. Different companies used different formula.

Pick one and monitor the diffence rather than the actual values

It’s a heart rate monitor, it monitors your heart rate, anything else is pretty much guesswork. Especially calories burnt.

IME there is often different results from calories burnt calculations across different software working from the same data, doesnt worry me as its also about the least useful metric available.

If your planning on using a HRM regularly try working out your zones and exercise to those.

When I’m on the turbo I tend to aim to get my average HR above 150 for the session, work up the gears on one resistance setting then up the resistance and do the same before coming down again.

WCA – that’s what I figured, the software was configured differently.
For what its worth, around New Year I was struggling to burn 500 calories per half hour, on Thursday I hit 777 calories in 30 minutes so I’m assuming my aerobic ability has improved. I’ve had the Mio for a couple of years now, its only because I bought the MS Band last week & have been comparing the two systems that ive been puzzled.
I use the Mio on the turbo anyway.

These calorie calculations are nonsense. There are lots of formulae, all of them pretty arbitrary. For a given HRM, it may give a reasonable indication of how much harder one ride is than another, but comparing results from different hrms is a waste of time.

As mentioned above. The only thing that can pretty accurately measure calorie consumption is a power meter as it knows exactly how many watts have been produced.

All HR monitors are educated guessing at best, sometime just making it up.

op, here’s a link to british cyclings guide to training with heart rate monitors. I would read through this to build an understanding of heart rate zones, work out your own and then perhaps do some GCN you tube turbo sessions to get the hang of using them.

TBH I would forget about the calories burnt figure its pretty meaningless.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/article/izn20140808-Understanding-Intensity-2–Heart-Rate-0

Ta Wilburt, will have a browse. The Mio has a programmable HR zone setting so will be useful in that respect.

Your average HR doesn’t mean anything to us without your max HR.

Personally I ignore the calories used estimates on Strava, unless I’m particularly keen to justify a bowl of ice cream.

🙂

Well… The Mio has had me hit 200bpm before now!
I regularly hit around 189bpm on rides whereas the MS Band has my max at 168bpm, but I’ve only had it a week. Average resting HR appears to be 43bpm according to the band.

Your max is probably 200bpm, your challenge for the next week(should you choose to accept it) is to tell us the maximum heart rate you can sustain for one hour?

An hour? Probably zero! (as in I’ll be dead on the floor)
I’m out doing a hilly road ride tomorrow so will have more data via both machines after that. I seem to average around 163bpm for long road rides, but maximum per hour? No idea..

What is a decent 30 minute calorie burn

there is no such thing, everyone is different. It’s a meaningless measure anyway.

The average HR is about as useful as the calories burnt but I wouldn’t try to work out you hour threshold on a mountain bike ride, there usually a bit stop and start chat with mates etc.

Use your turbo and a specific workout thats designed to calculate your “threshold heart rate” there are loads on the web usually- warm up 10 minutes, couple of high intensity 2 minutes of so then at some point 20 minutes giving it as much as you can. The average of that 20 minutes x 95% is your threshold heart rate( the maximum you can sustain for an hour.

Plug that number into a zone calculator and it will give you the zones you should be useing in workouts.

Sounds a faff but structured workouts using zones are the quickest way to get fitter.