Working out calories used

[jimboalee]

If you're only trying to get an idea of what you can eat to lose weight then the 50 calories a mile is a reasonable estimate. Speed is unimportant it's how hard you're working, obviously your speed and stamina will alter as you get fitter/lighter.

When I was commuting 40 miles a day I reckon I burned about 1800-2000 calories extra a day, certainly this was borne out by my intake versus my weight loss. This was true at the start when I struggled to break 10mph average and at the end when I was at 16mph average. My rough guess is I was running at about 75% of power. Anything less than 75% and I believe the calories burned would drop dramatically. When I've done the longer social rides, at low speeds, I've not felt any need to eat anything extra at all.

The only thing I would add is that it should be distances of 10 miles upwards for weight loss assistance. I don't bother counting any rides shorter than this now. I can't imagine anyone doing training/exercise rides of sub 10 miles anyway. But I do feel I get better weight loss from a 40-50 mile at 75% than from a 20 miles at 90%.

What you can eat TO LOSE WEIGHT is half of what the online calculators say AFTER 2 hours exercise.
For the first 120 minutes, forget it.

 

[jimboalee]

How Garmin do it.

They have a 'cook book' Watts vs Velocity curve for an Average raceboy on an average bike.
It is trimmed with the 'weight' inputs.

For ascending and descending, they add or subtract the theoretical cals calculated from the total mass and rate of change in elevation.

 

[MacB]

What you can eat TO LOSE WEIGHT is half of what the online calculators say AFTER 2 hours exercise.
For the first 120 minutes, forget it.

Agreed, I was probably only eating an extra 500 calories a day, hence why the weight came down rapidly But it was enough to stop me bonking or running on empty.

 

[kewb]

my hrm does it for me last trip read
cal burned = 3872 . something
fat burned 512. something
avg speed 14mph
max speed 24mph
total time 6hrs minus breaks i suppose .
heart rate was between 156 and 124 i think , i keep track of the other stuff but neglect heart rate as its in hrm memory .

 

[jimboalee]

It's been said before, and I'll say it again...

"There is no direct correlation between Heart rate and Wattage output".