I just came back home from a 2 hour ride and was wondering how many calories I burned, 2 hours averaging 34km/h with a few hills, stopped and talked for cerveloguy for about 15 min, just a nice easy ride…
In preperation for next season I want to lose about 10-15 more pounds, I’ve already lost about 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks. I know there are a million varibles such as weather, hills, intensity…,but does anyone here have a rough estimate? I think I remember seeing something like 1000 calories in an hour…true?
I think the variables have more to do with your own body ie. age, height, weight. I use my polar HRM, it gives me a “calories burned” figure, don’t know how accurate it is but at least I can judge how hard one workout was from another. Does anyone know if the Polar system for determining calories burned is close?
There’s NO WAY those online calorie estimators are near accurate for cycling enthusiasts. I would have burned 15,000 at my 12 hour MTB race this weekend.
Not.
Although I wish…
The Garmin is wishful at best b/c it factors heart-rate, but I still find it on the very optimistic side.
I’am 6’4, 19 and weigh 188 pounds, I have a HR monitor but really only use it indoors, I found it too distracting during the season, I took off my bike computer as well. I found that I was paying too much attention to my HR, speed, candence and it really began to piss me off as I wasn’t paying any attention to the actual ride.
I’ll strap-on (That sounded wrong) my HR monitor for my next ride and see if I can crunch some numbers
the closest you can get to estimating calories burned is to use a wattage meter and looking at the KJ’s expended to produce “x” amount of watts… KJ’s are a close estimation (at 4/1) of calories burned during a ride.
Like someone said earlier… a 2 hour duration alone means nothing… it’s dependent on where within the context of the ride the work (wattage) was performed.
A powermeter will give you calories burned - it varies a ton based on watts. If you double your watts - you double your calories…(or close).
At Silverman - I rode an average of about 156 watts (normalized in the low 160’s I think) - rode 112 miles in 7 hours - 9-10K climbing - heart rate average in low 140’s (max 195 or so, LT about 170). I think I averaged about 500 cals/hour. 5’9. 150 pounds. At these watts - on the flats - at 7000 feet - I go about 20-21 mph.
Most of my easy rides are lower watts and lower cals than this…so more like 400 cals/hour. I’d have to check my files and look (I don’t pay attention to cals).
1000 cals/hour? Seems like a lot - I think I’d have to average about 300 watts to hit that - and I’d be going like 30 mph on the flats…
the closest you can get to estimating calories burned is to use a wattage meter and looking at the KJ’s expended to produce “x” amount of watts… KJ’s are a close estimation (at 4/1) of calories burned during a ride.
Too many econ/finance classes, not enough physics classes?
The Polar HRM are really accurate if you input all of your data i.e. height, weight and also be sure to do the fit test. This should give you a result within 3-4%.
can i help you with a mortgage or with some investment banking??? Perhaps a mutual fund or two. How about playing it risky and getting into some derivatives. Options anyone!!! I would advise you to buy furniture first and then work on these other aspects but I admire your thriftyness… americans can learn from us… i currently live out of my van!!! SAVE MORE MONEY!!!
Okay… so the allergies and the allergy medicine AND the taper have gone to my head… back to bed now!
As others have said, a power meter will tell you the number the best.
But if you want to estimate, I found these values in an old triathlon book:
Speed kcal/lb./min.
(mph)
17 .057
19 .072
21 .090
23 .109
25 .139
Based on self-observation, these seem like decent estimates. If you are going to use a Polar HRM with calorie counting, I’ve found my Polar is close to my SRM, but only because I’ve had my VO2 Max. measured and punched it into the Polar.
My advice for the weight loss thing? Hold yourself to 250 calories/hour nutrition on the bike (if you can do so without bonking), and then just eat less afterwards. Long/hard ride is not a license to pig out.
It would be nice to use watts, however I can’t afford one…maybe next year. I think I will use my HR few the next week and see the results and crunch some numbers
I’d bet it’s more like 350 - 500/hour for a low-intesity aerobic ride (the intensity you want to be doing to lose weight). Just go out and do a 4-5 hour ride each weekend and take along bottles with water, a power bar, and a gel. Only stop to fill up your water bottles (with more water) and don’t buy any more food. Eat a healthy meal when you get home.
Best way to figure that out is to get your VO2 levels tested. The printout will give you your training zones as well as the amount of calories burned per hour at heart rates 100-max HR. Higher intensity = more calories burned. Good luck.
