# Estimating Calories Burned



## Augustine (12 Jul 2010)

I am cycling for fun and fitness and as part of that I'm trying to track how many calories I eat and how many I use up in exercise. I use the LiveSTRONG MyPlate to track both and, whilst it's great for food, I'm not sure it is giving me accurate calorie counts for cycling.

The problem is I can cycle one route and enter it into 3 different websites - MyPlate Loops; JogTacker; gMaps - and I get a massively different estimation from each. This evening I cycled round the hills nearby here in Bridgend for just over an hour. MyPlate said I'd used 820 kcals, JogTracker said 720 and gMaps over 1,000. 

I know these are all just estimates, but I can't believe they can be so different. Do you track calories expended in cycling? How do you do it?

Appreciate any help. 

P.S. I've lost around around a stone over the last 5 weeks so, even if the readings aren't 100% accurate, it is helping!


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## shrew (13 Jul 2010)

i dont actually track the calories i burn off cycling, just the ones i put in, if you want to drop weight and cycle a decent amont then just dont go over 2500 calories or so (less if your confortable with that) depends how much you want to lose and how far you cycle (as 2500 may not be enough to sustain you).

an average man doing some exersice needs approx 2500 calories a day. a keen cyclist can be using as much as 3500.

although its sorta nice knowing how many calories you burn off exercising it doesnt actually tell you how many your burning off in a day, so just ignore it, *1 stone in 5 weeks is awesome*, just dont starve yourself to do it, eat healthy food, If you crash diet your more likely to end up with saggy skin and stretch marks.


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## Augustine (13 Jul 2010)

thanks Shrew. i'm trying to be sensible - the LiveSTRONG website gives you a calorie intake target each day to loose weight at a steady rate. at the moment, since i'm very overweight, i'm aiming for 2 1/2 lbs a week. when i've lost another stone i'll slow up a bit. but the cycling really helps.


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## shrew (13 Jul 2010)

cool, cycling is imo the best form of cardio/ aerobic exercise available thats still enjoyable.

its great at fat burning, very low impact on your joints and gets you out and about )

joining an aerobics/ jazzisize / fighting fit type class would do you the world of good too, they usually play fairly fast paced music and get you moving about quite a bit & youll be the only bloke there so stand at the back and enjoy the view at the same time


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## youngoldbloke (13 Jul 2010)

I use a Polar HRM that records calories used, relative to the user details set. It may not be 100% accurate but at least allows comparisons to be made, and a record is retained in its files.


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## TheBoyBilly (13 Jul 2010)

+1 for using a Heart Rate Monitor. They need not be too expensive and will give you an idea of how much effort you are putting in to any ride/workout. For fat burning you'll be wanting to be in 60-70% 0f your Max HR and up to 80% for aerobic exercise. Like me you are just starting out so I'd leave the 80-90% region a miss until you know you can do it without hurting yourself. On an hour-long flat ride along the seafront I would expect to expend around 450-500 kcals (with perhaps 30-35% of those calories in fat) so 1000 in an hour would suggest a fairly good workout on those hills of yours. Interval training is very good. Find a decent hill that you know will take you say, 3 minutes to climb that you know you can come down again and relatively relax for 5-10 minutes just spinning, so - a 5 minute warm up, 10 minutes spinning, 3 minutes climbing, 10 minutes spinning, 3 minutes climbing....and so on for 4/5 reps with a 5 minute warm-down at the end. That would be a good hour or hour and a half of interval training which should shift some weight. Believe it or not I do this quite a bit on my Brompton as well as an MTB. It works and really gets the heart pumping.

Good luck,

Bill


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## Augustine (13 Jul 2010)

TheBoyBilly said:


> For fat burning you'll be wanting to be in 60-70% 0f your Max HR and up to 80% for aerobic exercise. Like me you are just starting out so I'd leave the 80-90% region a miss until you know you can do it without hurting yourself. On an hour-long flat ride along the seafront I would expect to expend around 450-500 kcals (with perhaps 30-35% of those calories in fat)



If I were to cycle with a higher HR, am I burning glucose (?) instead of fat? I've heard of HR training zones but I don't know a great deal about them. Can you recommend anything to read?


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## TheBoyBilly (13 Jul 2010)

Augustine said:


> If I were to cycle with a higher HR, am I burning glucose (?) instead of fat? I've heard of HR training zones but I don't know a great deal about them. Can you recommend anything to read?



Have a look here mate:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

There are other very good websites with loads of info, not to mention a fair few sages on these forums. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination but have found by far the majority of folk here to be most helpful. I think it is fair to say that you will still burn fat at a higher Heart rate but that you will improve your aerobic, then anaerobic thresholds the harder you push yourself. For now though I still think riding as you are (with interval training thrown in) is a very good start to a healthier, fitter you. It may also be worthwhile to consider some sort of weight training once or twice a week.

Bill


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## lukesdad (13 Jul 2010)

From what youve described and your style of riding I would say you are using 250-500 cals an hour. Flat ride- bottom end ,hilly ride -top end. id be very surprised if you were getting above 500 an hour.


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## lukesdad (13 Jul 2010)

Also you wont burn anything useful untill you ve been going for 45 mins. So on an hour ride burning fat ain t going to happen. Longer non stop rides is what you are looking for.


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## Threelionsbrian (14 Jul 2010)

lukesdad said:


> Also you wont burn anything useful untill you ve been going for 45 mins. So on an hour ride burning fat ain t going to happen. Longer non stop rides is what you are looking for.




That may be true, but all the time he's going up them hills he's thinking twice before filling his face. He's also getting fitter raising his rate and probably then venturing out on longer rides with the desired effect. Keep peddling you'll get there if you want to!


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## Threelionsbrian (14 Jul 2010)

Its a strange business heart rate training.

My Max should be around 176 but i have had a 188 constant for a few seconds once. 

My 10 Mile TT Average was 177 one night.

I am always 160 + at least when climbing any hill.

During my Turbo warm up i am anaerobic just spinning out? @92 RPM

How accurate are HRM's ?


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## lukesdad (14 Jul 2010)

Threelionsbrian said:


> Its a strange business heart rate training.
> 
> My Max should be around 176 but i have had a 188 constant for a few seconds once.
> 
> ...


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## jimboalee (14 Jul 2010)

What most folks who write on here find is that when they are training on an ergometer or 'Roadload tracking' turbo, their legs fill up with lactic acid and start getting painful before their heart stops.

I don't take HR training seriously at all. I listen to my legs. When they are too painful to move, I quit the session and let my physiology do its hypertropthy stuff. You know, grow new capillaries, increase muscle cell volume, increase Alveoli usage etc.

The definition of "Fitness" is the increased ability to transport O2 and fuel to the muscles, and to exchange CO2 for O2 in the lungs.

When you are not fit enough to efficiently transport O2 to the muscles, Lactic Acid energy production will start, no matter what your heart rate.

Your heart rate and breathing rate is increased as a result of signals to the brain given out by a sensor in your neck. The sensor detects a rise of CO2 in the blood ( from muscular activity ).

Muscles produce CO2 when they perform 'ergs', the unit of energy. 1 erg = 2.388E-08 Calories. 1000 Calories = 1 kCal.

Therefore, kCals are ONLY directly related to the WORK you perform, NOT your heart rate.


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## Augustine (14 Jul 2010)

OK, this is clearly all a little more complicated than i expected! i'm enjoying cycling round here - though soon we're moving to Cambridge and i suspect hills will be much harder to find - so i'll keep going and 'listen to my legs'. if they start actually talking out loud i'll come back to you.

thanks for all your help, Mike


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## Augustine (14 Jul 2010)

actually that sounded sarcastic and i didn't mean it too. am genuinely grateful for the help. when i get fitter, if anyone fancies a ride out around Cambridgeshire, let me know!


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## TheBoyBilly (14 Jul 2010)

Jimboalee is a font of wisdom and knows his stuff, but in this case I think the information is maybe little too advanced for fitness beginners like Mike and me. I use the PolarPersonalTrainer website to give me guidance with workout plans etc which revolve around three heart-rate zones (i.e. 60-70%, 70-80% and 80-90%) I use the low zone for warm-ups/down and long-ish low intensity fat-burning rides and the other two for my intervals. It seems to work for me. I have no idea (well I didn't until Jim enlightened me) about co2/o2 etc. Even Lactic acid is a bit of a mystery to me. But all I'm trying to do is get rid of this excess weight I am carrying about and generally improve my health. 
That said, I do enjoy Jim's posts - I even think he could write a book - and hope he doesn't take this personally.

Bill


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## Bayerd (14 Jul 2010)

TheBoyBilly said:


> Jimboalee is a font of wisdom and knows his stuff, but in this case I think the information is maybe little too advanced for fitness beginners like Mike and me. I use the PolarPersonalTrainer website to give me guidance with workout plans etc which revolve around three heart-rate zones (i.e. 60-70%, 70-80% and 80-90%) I use the low zone for warm-ups/down and long-ish low intensity fat-burning rides and the other two for my intervals. It seems to work for me. I have no idea (well I didn't until Jim enlightened me) about co2/o2 etc. Even Lactic acid is a bit of a mystery to me. But all I'm trying to do is get rid of this excess weight I am carrying about and generally improve my health.
> That said, I do enjoy Jim's posts - I even think he could write a book - and hope he doesn't take this personally.
> 
> Bill



Jimbo certainly is a font of wisdom, he's helped me understand how much I'm burning on a session, how much to eat etc..

I lost 4 stone in weight last year and improved my fitness no end at the same time. Basically all I did was to ride more or less every day, slightly increasing the distance every couple of weeks or so, but always making sure I was riding as hard as I could for between 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour each session. In the beginning I was always out of breath, and regularly had lactic acid build up in my legs. 

Now that I'm fitter I currently ride about 60 miles a week spread over 5 days out of seven. I rarely get the leg burn or get out of breath, but I guess I'm now at a stage of maintaining my current fitness level.

My advice would be to forget about HRMs, just go out with the aim of getting out of breath and get your legs burning, be out for at least 1/2 an hour a day, you'll soon see a difference.

It's after this that other choices start creeping in, ie, where should the next challenges lie? Distance? Speed? Racing? all of them....

I'm currently at this dilema, and not really where to turn to next, probably join a club I guess, the thing is, would I be accepted on a souped up BSO?


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## jimboalee (14 Jul 2010)

Tip.

Supplement your cycling with some jogging or a speed-march. This will tone the abdominals and obliques.
Also do some rowing. This will tone the spine and traps. 

Too many novice cyclists neglect the midriff, it doesn't get much demand on a bike. In the same vain, the spine muscles support the weight of your torso.

Cycling trainers prescribe 'The plank', but this is Isometric. Rowing is Isotonic where intensity is more or less constant but the spine moves its entire range. The rowing machine can however, be adjusted to high level to strengthen the dozens of muscles connecting the vertebae.

Strain ONE muscle in the Lumbar region and it keeps you off the bike for weeks. Its not just that muscle, all the others stop in sympathy, and its painful.


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## lukesdad (14 Jul 2010)

Cross training is very benefitial IMO.


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## Garz (14 Jul 2010)

I generally deduct around 20% off of any calorie counting computers estimates.


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## TheBoyBilly (15 Jul 2010)

jimboalee, I don't think my joints are up to jogging at my current weight. I will give the rowing machine a go next time I pop down to the gym however. Other than that what other exercises would you suggest for the upper body? I know I am going to struggle with new trousers soon as it is only the, ahem, larger waist sizes that go over my thighs. It has always been a bit of a struggle getting strides that fit.  

Bill


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## jimboalee (16 Jul 2010)

TheBoyBilly said:


> jimboalee, I don't think my joints are up to jogging at my current weight. I will give the rowing machine a go next time I pop down to the gym however. Other than that *what other exercises would you suggest for the upper body?* I know I am going to struggle with new trousers soon as it is only the, ahem, larger waist sizes that go over my thighs. It has always been a bit of a struggle getting strides that fit.
> 
> Bill




Chin ups with a knee crunch, with 5lb ankle weights .


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