Bicycling is an excellent exercise for calculating calorie expenditure. You can move at a fairly constant speed and your upper body doesn't move much, making it easy to keep a heart monitor around your chest. You will need a heart monitor that calculates the average heart rate over a cycling session.
Instructions
1. Strap the heart monitor around your chest and begin cycling. Begin recording your heart rate once it rises above 90 beats per minute (bpm.) This is important because the relationship between heart rate and calorie expenditure is relatively linear between 90 and 150 bpm for most people.
2. Cycle at the speed that produces your target heart rate. The calculation of your calorie expenditure will be most accurate if you cycle at a constant rate. However, it should still be reasonably accurate so long as you keep your heart rate between 90 and 150 bpm during the training session.
3. Stop recording your heart rate near the end of your training session before your heart rate drops below 90 bpm. Note your average heart rate and the time of your training session.
4. Calculate your calorie expenditure if you're male. This is given by the equation C = time x (-55.0969 + 0.6309 x hr + 0.1988 x weight + 0.2017 x age) / 4.184. C is the calories expended during your training session, time is the duration of your training run in minutes, hr is your average heart rate in bpm, weight is your weight in kilograms and age is your age in years.
5. Determine your calorie expenditure if you're female. This is given by the equation C = time x (-20.4022 + 0.4472 x hr - 0.1263 x weight + 0.074 x age) / 4.184.
6. Use a more advanced heart rate monitor to perform these calculations for you. Many heart rate monitors allow you to enter your age, weight and gender, which enables them to calculate your calorie expenditure. Test the accuracy of this type of heart monitor by comparing its reported calorie expenditure with your calculated value. You may wish to use the heart rate monitor's reported value if its reasonably accurate.
Tags: heart rate, calorie expenditure, heart monitor, training session, your calorie, your calorie expenditure, your heart