For the last 2 months I have been doing 7K steps every day (except for taking like 4 days off a month) and today I decided to switch to cycling as I assumed that I would get more workout and burn cal faster than walking as walking takes me around one hour. But today when I switched, I became dead tired, like extremely tired after doing 26 minutes of cycling in my neighborhood, burnt 65 cal (which in some way feels less than how much effort it feels I put in) and average speed recorded was 7.5Kph.
I don't use heart rate monitor, or any fitness watch, but installed Zeopoxa cycling app for this so that I could aim for 407 cal burn, as much as I burn when I walk. 7K steps is considered moderately active for my age (I am 23 years old)
I am not the kind to take exercise/workout very seriously or in fact seriously, but since I don't head outside and study at home, I want to do enough to remain healthy and have a decent exercise routine in some form or another.
I am a bit confused as to what happened here, if it is normal for me to feel this tired or did the app genuinely underestimate the cal burn? Is the speed way too slow?
Ideally I would like to reach a point where I am able to burn as much cal as I burn from walking (407 cal) and preferably more faster than how long it takes me in case of walking (that is 1 hour 7 mins)
Also I might sound completely dumb in saying all this as I am not an exercise person (all I have ever done in the form of exercise is steps) so this is a new territory for me and I want to learn. I am genuinely confused and would like some info on this.
by Disastrous-Doubt8146
4 Comments
If you aren’t recording heart rate (against test results you did to establish zones) or going off power… Any calorie number is junk.
Half an hour is definitely more than 65 calories, but how many….?
You either need proper/better data, or ignore it and just know that you did 20 minutes which made you tired.
But if you’re getting that tired after only 20 minutes you either are going out WAY too hard, or are dehydrated, or in some other way sickly. I’d wager you’re going out too hard and feeling cooked right away and are dehydrated.
Just go for an enjoyable ride. It should feel pretty easy, and just go. Try to ride for an hour. It should never really feel hard, but cumulatively it’ll end up being a good workout. Let it be FUN and enjoy riding your bike and you’ll do it regularly. (If it’s hard / feels like work, it’ll suck, and you’ll want to quit.)
Cycling does not burn a lot of calories because the bike is doing a lot of the work. What cycling does is allows you to exercise longer.
Odds are you aren’t in very good shape because I’m going to bet that most of your 7000 steps are at a leisurely pace rather than an actual exercise pace.
Different muscle groups are used which is why cross training is important.
Cycling requires certain gear to get the most accurate data.
If you’re looking to have fun and cross train – cycle around and have fun until you’re tired.
If walking is your main workout – focus on that and fill your cross training days with something fun that is exercise. Like swimming, hiking, cycling.
Lots of missing info so there’s a bit that could’ve skewed the data but my initial thoughts based on the data is that it seems accurate.
7.5 kmph is like a speed walking pace and on a bike you have mechanical advantage so it’ll be less intense than actually walking at that pace. Elevation is also pretty small and wouldn’t really have an impact.
Without an HR monitor we can’t see how hard you were physically working but based on your perceived exertion I bet something on your bike was rubbing and creating friction – Like the brakes touching, sticky cranks, or just general friction in the system.