Calculating Accurate Calorie Burn via Distance & Time

Okay, so these are probably really stupid questions, and I still get muddled in the details, so I apologize for being naive. My goal is to reach my target weight for my age/height, which is apparently 90-110 lbs. I am currently 130. Then I want to focus on building muscle, which I know will add weight onto it, but it'd be nice knowing that's muscle and not fat.

First off, I am fully aware eating is more effective than exercising. I love watching Aaron Carroll's Healthcare Triage and have learned a lot about both. I actually eat far less than most people, because my stomach doesn't make me aware of when I'm hungry, and eating too much makes me feel super bloated (and by too much, we're talking like... a single bowl of cereal, two eggs, or a large from Mcdonalds fills me up for about 2 days by themselves).

I don't get hunger pains or a growling stomach. I barely reach my daily calorie intake for 1lb/loss a week unless we order out occasionally. I've always been this way and 120-130 has almost always been my weight for the past 25 years roughly. I think a portion is from fasting for years since I'm Buddhist, but it could also be my ADHD, or something medical. I often forget to eat daily, so I have to be reminded to eat. Naturally, this slows my metabolism down a ton.

Second, I use a stationary bike that is kind of like the cheaper alternative to a Peloton. I love it to death, and do about 30 minutes to an hour on high resistance 4-5 times a week. It's not really a set thing as I mainly use it to control my manic episodes when the bi-polar hits. The majority of my day is at the PC, so sedentary. So this is the most exercise I get.

I'm not super hardcore on losing weight. I don't have issues with being addicted to counting every calorie, and maybe that's why it's difficult for me to lose or gain any kind of weight. But I'd like to try anyway.

So my questions:

1. Is there any way to calculate the nearest accurate amount of burned calories from biking? I know bikes are inaccurate, and we currently can't afford the watches or monitors that are seen as mostly accurate, so we're wondering if there's any other way to do so. I log my distance and time, but it doesn't make a difference on most apps given they have no clue what my resistance was during that time.
2. My protein intake is low, as I don't actually know really what to focus on eating for that? I've mostly always been low carb, but the recommendations like eating more fish doesn't work out for me much because I get pretty sick from most fish aside from catfish. We get lean chicken and steak, but I imagine just those two things isn't really good overall as far as just... constantly eating that.
3. Are there any accurate monitors/watches we could look into that are far more affordable? I'd love to splurge on the more expensive/accurate ones, but uh... Unemployment currently owes me 7k and has no time frame of when I'll get that.

Thus far I've just been... well, eating what proteins I can, keeping carbs low, trying to make sure I eat period, and biking for an hour at high resistance (I think my usual speed on it is 8-11 mph for 30 min with 5mph slower cooldown every 10 min?). Sometimes I don't keep track since I just go the speed of the music I listen to.

So... Is there any advice that might help with the weight loss with the situation I'm in?

submitted by /u/rattlecat
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