Heart rate monitors, and Ride Yourself Lean

A couple of questions for you lovely people here:

I have a HRM (fairly cheap one, a Timex I think) and wondered how accurate in general you felt they were in terms of calories burned. I'm about 40lbs overweight but have been exercising pretty consistently for a year or more, so my fitness level isn't too bad (though it doesn't feel like it when faced with hills on my bike!). Just did a ride of 15 miles which took 1hr 15mins and my average HR was 140bpm - I know that is like a slug compared to lots of you but felt like a nice, sustainable pace to me. I didn't feel particularly out of breath apart from the one or two hills I encountered. Anyway, my HRM told me I burned 1300 calories which seems an awful lot. I'm trying to lose weight still so want to balance diet and exercise, but don't want to end up eating too much thinking I've burned a bunch more calories than I actually have, or eat too little to support the exercise I'm doing. Any words of wisdom would be great!

Also, I have the Ride Yourself Lean book and am going to start the "Big Weight Loss" program - 15 weeks, which would take me up till my birthday, hopefully I can make good inroads into the remaining weight I have to lose by then. Has anyone else done any of the programs in the book, and how have you found them? Would be interested in hearing anyone's views :)

Heart rate monitors that calculate calories burned are notoriously optimistic and unreliable. There are just too many variables and stacking variables upon variables increases the inaccuracy.

Thanks - I suspected as much!

I do weight watchers and I find cycling very hard to track. Always go on the low end. I track my rides as low intensity, even though, realistically, they are medium based on HR and sweat loss. I try not to eat my exercise points, unless it was a long ride day. Eating healthier, like avoiding soda, drinking more water and picking better snacks (string cheese, handful of nuts, fruit, yogurt) has made the biggest difference in my weight loss. Cycling alone doesnt keep it off (for me). It is a motivating factor--losing weight and eating healthier give me more energy for riding--and riding makes me feel like eating healthier :)

Good luck on your goals :D

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Originally Posted by TrekTheKaty

I do weight watchers and I find cycling very hard to track. Always go on the low end. I track my rides as low intensity, even though, realistically, they are medium based on HR and sweat loss. I try not to eat my exercise points, unless it was a long ride day. Eating healthier, like avoiding soda, drinking more water and picking better snacks (string cheese, handful of nuts, fruit, yogurt) has made the biggest difference in my weight loss. Cycling alone doesnt keep it off (for me). It is a motivating factor--losing weight and eating healthier give me more energy for riding--and riding makes me feel like eating healthier :)

Good luck on your goals :D

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This is good advice. Also make certain your HRM is set with your current weight. I do use the calories from my HRM report - but automatically knock off about 15% of the calories. If you can fit in any kind of strength training that would be helpful as well. Muscle burns more calories and will also help you on the bike.

Right now I am frustrated by a weight plateau...but I keep slogging away at all of the above. With my activity level I am not about to cut back on calories any more than I have.

+++++++1 for Weight Watchers. I've lost 51.5# since last October - with having a broken ankle too. I also track my cycling as low intensity. With WW you make better food choices. Good luck

Strength training is a great idea and if you want to increase your calorie burn on the bike, push yourself with some intervals or a couple of challenging hills. The key is to keep your body on its toes, so it's forced to do work and not plateau because your ride is predictable. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by TrekTheKaty

I do weight watchers and I find cycling very hard to track. Always go on the low end. I track my rides as low intensity, even though, realistically, they are medium based on HR and sweat loss. I try not to eat my exercise points, unless it was a long ride day. Eating healthier, like avoiding soda, drinking more water and picking better snacks (string cheese, handful of nuts, fruit, yogurt) has made the biggest difference in my weight loss. Cycling alone doesnt keep it off (for me). It is a motivating factor--losing weight and eating healthier give me more energy for riding--and riding makes me feel like eating healthier :)

Good luck on your goals :D

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Thanks - sounds like you're doing really well. I do try to eat pretty healthily, and I definitely find that the more I exercise the better I eat, and mentally I feel so much better - actually, the mental benefits are my main motivation for exercising and eating better, the weight loss and looking better are a nice bonus.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

This is good advice. Also make certain your HRM is set with your current weight. I do use the calories from my HRM report - but automatically knock off about 15% of the calories. If you can fit in any kind of strength training that would be helpful as well. Muscle burns more calories and will also help you on the bike.

Right now I am frustrated by a weight plateau...but I keep slogging away at all of the above. With my activity level I am not about to cut back on calories any more than I have.

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Thank you too - I am getting back into strength training too, my OH and I made it to week 8 of P90X a couple of months ago and will start again soon and make it all the way to the end! Hope your plateau ends soon.

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Originally Posted by bluebug32

Strength training is a great idea and if you want to increase your calorie burn on the bike, push yourself with some intervals or a couple of challenging hills. The key is to keep your body on its toes, so it's forced to do work and not plateau because your ride is predictable. Good luck!

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And thanks to you as well. The Ride Yourself Lean program includes intervals so that will be good for me. As for hills, we live in Colorado so no shortage of those! I will know when I have got fitter when I can manage to cycle straight out of our house without dying! - I tend to go to trails which aren't as hilly right from the word go.

Oops, missed out surgtech - well done on your weight loss, very impressive, especially with a broken ankle. I've lost 60lbs but it's taken me longer than you. I've done WW in the past but now I use Sparkpeople.com - it is a supportive site with the huge advantage that it's free!

Thanks again all - I'll let you all know how I get on!

I think I have the book you are talking about, will hafta look. With all my books, I try reading in bed, get a few pages, and then pass out lol.:o So, it's probably in the pile.:rolleyes:

One thing I am thinking about doing is a resting metabolic breathing test. I have a link about it here... http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=43757

I know this won't answer your amount of calories question, but maybe helps with the HRM....

Most HRMs come with "stock" numbers that are based upon the 220-your age = max HR formula. From there, what percentage of max heart rate effort you want to work, you are suppose to be able to determine a number. There are formulas from that add in your calories etc.

Biking is a wonderful exercise... glad you have found it in your life... keep up the great work!:cool:

One way to check your max HR number in your monitor is to work your calculation backwards from your rate of PE (perceived exercsion, i.e. how hard your body is working). Example...

If you said that you felt like 140 bpm was an average HR pace you could maintain, with exception of climbs, for a while at a comfortable, but working, pace... that is probably about 75% of your max HR.

Your wind to speak is one of the best indicators as to how hard you're working also. 75% max HR feels like a jogging with a friend intensity, enough wind to chat/speak a short few words sentance, pause to breath, continue working etc. So...

If you take 140 bpm divide by 0.75 (75%) that gives you rough est max HR 186/187 bpm. What is set in your HRM now as max HR? If it's not this number, try manually over-riding it in the settings and see what the same ride produces for calories. Also adjust your weight changes as they occur.

You will also notice as you become fitter and fitter, those hills will start to change in terms of challenge and your residual wind to speak. A highway over-pass used to be my nemisis hill (could not speak, all wind needed to climb), about 3% grade up in my Garmin I think... then a 10%+ grade hill became my challenge (visualize 3 over-passes stacked up) to yield me near breathless. That's raising your aerobic ceiling or thershold, i.e. cardiac fitness level.

Last, just example of how off "stock numbers" in my HRM are for my current level of fitness...

At 42yo... 220-42 = 178 max HR. One of my last rides, pushing myself just above that 75% intensity, guessing 80% my HR was average 161... divide 0.80 = 201 max bpm. Last "real world" vo2 max test, i.e. sprinting uphill to escape a dog, my HR hit 189... in the 90+%, was seeing spots, verge passing out... so the backwards calculation is close I'd say.

Biking is a great exercise... glad you have found it in your life... keep up the good work!:)

Thanks for that - lots of interesting info in your post. I guess it is a bit of trial and error, I will see how I get on over the next couple of weeks and hopefully I will be able to work out if I'm not pushing myself hard enough or trying to do too much too soon. And of course I intend to enjoy the process!

I just read 'Ride Yourself Lean' and am also trying to lose some weight. The one tip in the book that seems to be the most helpful to me is to ride for 20 minutes in the morning before breakfast, and I do that with intervals. She says it speed up your metabolism for the whole day. I set up my Bike Friday on a trainer, so I can do that even if I am going riding that day. It seemed to have helped to break through a plateau. It also seems to help me get up hills better. I think that is the intervals.

I also found that when you are riding and losing energy, you tend to eat more than you really need. When I added electrolytes to my water, I was able to keep going on less food. Now I am very specific and bring the food I want on the ride instead of buying something on the way. That way I can control the calories. Half a PBJ on whole wheat bread works great midway through a ride.