cardio question

[mr. joe]

what up fellas,

i usually jog for 30-45 mins 4-5 times a week for cardio. Just today however, I decided to do the bike and see if i got just as good a workout. Im having trouble believing this damn machine so i wanted to ask to see if this bitch is lying to me or if its true. I set my weight in (162lbs), time (45 mins) and intensity (level 6) on manual mode and kept heart rate consistent at 60-65%. RPM was on average about 80-85. The machine says I burned nearly 800cals which seems like bullshit to me since it wasnt really that tiring at all. Also i noticed that as I pedaled faster and RPMs rose the rate at which the cals were burning began to slow down, leading me to be a bit suspiscious. Is this normal or is it too good to be true? Also is it better to do bike or run....thanks

[VEGETA990]

Its too good to be true. there is no way you can burn 800 calories and not feel like you are doing that much, if that was the case, loosing weight would be very easy and the weightloss industry would be out a couple of billion dollars each year. Your RPMs are good, but if I were you i wouldn't pay any attention to all that other bullsh*t.

which is better - depends
both the bike and the stepper are low impact exercises, which are great if you have joint problems or are slightly injured. I like both of them also as a warmup or cool down to my run as well.

as for burning calories in the least amount of time its a close race between the stepper and a run. if you run on the tradmill at 0% incline, you can probably burn more calories on the stepper (i know you didn't ask about the stepper, but i'm throwing it in there anyway).

my advice - for cardio 1st stretch, then ride the bike for 5 or 10 minutes to get the blood flowing, then go for your run. if you are running on a treadmill, don't run at 0% incline, instead, run at 3 or 5% incline. it doesn't sound like much, but to me, running at a 5 % incline feels harder than running outside.