Calories burned during cycling

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2008-09-29 4:44 PM

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Subject: Calories burned during cycling
I was looking at a few different calorie calculators, and according to the generic googled calculators, at 155 lbs. I am burning around 1100 calories every 90 minutes while biking at around 17 mph.

Is that anywhere close to accurate??? That seems ridiculously high...

NOTE: I'm not using this for any medical purpose, and I realize the number can vary widely from person to person. I just want to know if that seems accurate + or - a couple hundred calories, or if it's just incredibly off.


2008-09-29 4:47 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

fendermh1027 - 2008-09-29 4:44 PM I was looking at a few different calorie calculators, and according to the generic googled calculators, at 155 lbs. I am burning around 1100 calories every 90 minutes while biking at around 17 mph. Is that anywhere close to accurate??? That seems ridiculously high... NOTE: I'm not using this for any medical purpose, and I realize the number can vary widely from person to person. I just want to know if that seems accurate + or - a couple hundred calories, or if it's just incredibly off.

Sounds about right based on my brother's garmin calorie counter.  We did a 75 mile ride about 2 weeks ago and it took us just shy of 5 hours.  His garmin said we had burned approximately 4000 calories, and he weighs about 215. 

 

2008-09-29 4:47 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
Calculators are purely estimates.  Although a heart rate monitor would give you a better estimate. 
2008-09-29 4:59 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
that sounds accurate to +- a few hundred to me.
2008-09-29 5:04 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

i burn something like 900-1200 for an hour.

 it's crazy.

2008-09-29 5:30 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
I'd say that's high by at least the couple of hundred calories you mention.

I've got a PowerTap, which gives me exact information on how much energy (kiloJoules) I've expended on a ride. 1 kJ actually only equals 0.2390 Cal (kcal). On the other hand, your muscles aren't really all the efficient in turning food into energy and only about 20-25% of the Calories you eat are turned into muscle movement. Hmm....1 kJ=.239 kcal and 1 kcal of food burned= ~.23 kcal of actual muscle movement. See where that leads? Basically, however many kJ you expend, your body had to burn that many kcal worth of food to do it.

With that said, I'm 165 lbs. but also ride in a pretty aero position. For a moderate effort ride over hilly terrain @ around 18 mph (19-19.5 mph on flatter terrain), I burn right around 100 calories every ten minutes or 900 in 90 minutes.

I would have to increase my intensity pretty significantly to get up to 1100 calories in 90 minutes.

Edit to fix a really dumb typo.

Edited by dgunthert 2008-09-29 5:32 PM

2008-09-29 5:36 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

Cycling is a very efficient activty; a good general guideline is .3-.4Cal/km per kg of mass.  So for you, about 22-30Cal/km - at 17mph, that's about 7-800Cal/hr which would put the calculator fairly close.

Like what a HRM spits out for calories, the calculators are just a guess but IME, the calculators tend to be a little more conservative on the numbers of calories expended during exercise.

Shane

2008-09-29 5:55 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

I too have a power meter that gives KJ burned.

I only hit 10 cal/minute doing hard intense intervals. My normal rides are about 500 calories/hour. It all comes down to how hard ie power you put out. Some folks put out more or less to go same speed and it is hard to compare your 90' ride to mine as terrain makes a big difference.

I have Garmin and will use it on my rides and it normally estimated calories burned about double what my power tap does and often more and I believe power tap is much more accurate as it is based on the actual power I produce.

2008-09-29 7:27 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
My Garmin gives me what I thought were really high calorie readings but now after reading this thread, I guess you really do burn those kinds of calories. Talk about motivation to ride more.
2008-09-29 7:32 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
At 200 # I burn approx 1000 per hr at fairly intense rides up to 1400 for really intense rides.
2008-09-29 8:11 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
I know after a 90 min ride I want to eat around 3,000 calories

2008-09-29 9:07 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

I'm about your weight. On a recent ride my Garmin said:

  • Time: 2hr 12 min
  • Distance: 33.5 miles
  • Average speed: 15.3 mph
  • Climbing: 1350ft
  • Calories: 1621

I have no idea if this is at all accurate

2008-09-29 9:17 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling
KathyG - 2008-09-29 5:55 PM

I only hit 10 cal/minute doing hard intense intervals. My normal rides are about 500 calories/hour. It all comes down to how hard ie power you put out. Some folks put out more or less to go same speed and it is hard to compare your 90' ride to mine as terrain makes a big difference.



Hopefully, everyone interprets Kathy's post as supporting mine, since I certainly do. It's pretty intuitive that I burn calories at a higher rate. Generally speaking, as a guy I almost certainly weigh more and have a higher density of muscle fiber, so even for a given speed, I can and will need to produce more power.

She's right that terrain makes a big difference, as I noted in my post. The same 10 cal/min for me can produce speeds ranging from 17-20 mph depending on that terrain.

Everything I've ever read, tested, and seen indicates that Garmins overestimate calorie usage and HR monitors wildly overestimate it.
2008-09-29 9:25 PM
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Subject: RE: Calories burned during cycling

dgunthert - 2008-09-29 10:17 PM 

Everything I've ever read, tested, and seen indicates that Garmins overestimate calorie usage and HR monitors wildly overestimate it.

What about a Garmin with HRM?

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