Various different devices give different figures.
My simple cycle computer (Cateye Velo 8), for example, doesn't know how much I weigh, or anything about elevation changes or the wind. It simply assumes that the faster I go the more calories I must be using, despite the fact that going fast usually means a downhill or a tailwind and going slow is either a headwind or going uphill.
Also, doing 60kph downhill is far from a rest for me as it means my legs are doing about 180rpm.
For my flat commute (12km at about 26kph average) it usually gives me a reading of 240kcal.
My GPS (Garmin Forerunner 405) knows my speed, elevation, heart rate, age, weight, max HR, etc so you'd think it would have a better idea about kcal consumed. Nope, it claims, for the same commute, about 700kcal.
Based on my experience (reading books/papers, playing with GPS data, cycle computers, various websites, etc) I'd say that for an 80kg me on an average 200km Audax (i.e. 2000m climb) at a reasonable average (about 21-22kph) I use about 4500kcal. So for a similar 300km ride (with 3000m climbing) I'd use about 7000kcal.
Hillier/Faster/Heavier; add a bit. Flatter/Slower/Lighter; lose a bit.
Another way of thinking about it, I'd guess that over average terrain (10m climb per km):-
550kcal an hour if you're going hard (i.e. sub 30-minute 10 mile TT speed of 20mph+)
350kcal an hour at usual Audax pace (22kph)
200kcal an hour at pootling pace (16kph)
Exactly. Stick to what you can compare, such as distance, speed and time.
My simple cycle computer (Cateye Velo 8), for example, doesn't know how much I weigh, or anything about elevation changes or the wind. It simply assumes that the faster I go the more calories I must be using, despite the fact that going fast usually means a downhill or a tailwind and going slow is either a headwind or going uphill.
Also, doing 60kph downhill is far from a rest for me as it means my legs are doing about 180rpm.
For my flat commute (12km at about 26kph average) it usually gives me a reading of 240kcal.
My GPS (Garmin Forerunner 405) knows my speed, elevation, heart rate, age, weight, max HR, etc so you'd think it would have a better idea about kcal consumed. Nope, it claims, for the same commute, about 700kcal.
Based on my experience (reading books/papers, playing with GPS data, cycle computers, various websites, etc) I'd say that for an 80kg me on an average 200km Audax (i.e. 2000m climb) at a reasonable average (about 21-22kph) I use about 4500kcal. So for a similar 300km ride (with 3000m climbing) I'd use about 7000kcal.
Hillier/Faster/Heavier; add a bit. Flatter/Slower/Lighter; lose a bit.
Another way of thinking about it, I'd guess that over average terrain (10m climb per km):-
550kcal an hour if you're going hard (i.e. sub 30-minute 10 mile TT speed of 20mph+)
350kcal an hour at usual Audax pace (22kph)
200kcal an hour at pootling pace (16kph)
yello said:
Exactly. Stick to what you can compare, such as distance, speed and time.
