Calorie calculations

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Schmuck_on_Wheels

Active Member
Hi,

I have just started using my mountain bike on a turbo trainer and am building my fitness up.

At present I am doing fairly short sessions daily of 10 miles in about 31 mins at a cadence of around 90 measured using a Wahoo sensor and phone app.

The Wahoo doesn't calculate calories but typing the numbers into Map My Ride gives a calorific value of 710 which sounds a little high.

Could anyone advise if that sounds reasonable. I am 42, 14st 12 lbs and 6'3".

Also is this level of cadence and speed appropriate for fitness/weight loss or do I need to step it up a bit?
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Sounds about double what it should be unless you are a gibbering wreck. Cycling is estimated to burn 30-40 cals a mile with reasonable effort, mixed terrain. Take device calculations with a very big dose of salt...and how do you go 10 miles on a turbo trainer, it doesn't move :whistle:

Get out and ride up some hills ;)
 

screenman

Legendary Member
How do you get the turbo to move that far, mine stays in the same spot. In reality you are doing 30 minutes on the turbo, not 10 miles. I would say a calorific value of 250 or less would be a better guess, and that is all it is.

I base this on my Cateye CS-1000, which normally shows about 8 to 10 calories per minute when giving mild effort.
 
OP
OP
S

Schmuck_on_Wheels

Active Member
Y
How do you get the turbo to move that far, mine stays in the same spot. In reality you are doing 30 minutes on the turbo, not 10 miles. I would say a calorific value of 250 or less would be a better guess, and that is all it is.

I base this on my Cateye CS-1000, which normally shows about 8 to 10 calories per minute when giving mild effort.

That that sounds more like it. Distance was purely based the sensor.
 
Location
Loch side.
I don't want to piss on your battery, but.... weight loss through exercise is very ineffective. You have to restrict your intake a lot. Truth is, if you restrict your intake but don't exercise you will lose as much as doing the same and exercising. Exercise does keep you away from the fridge and cookie shop and from that point of view it does help, but don't hedge your bets on counting exercise calories. You may as well count sheep.

BTW, energy is calculated in Joules (and converted to calories in non-metric countries). One Joule is the energy required to move one kilogram vertically to a height of 1 meter. Riding on the flat therefore seems like you are doing no work but you are still doing some work overcoming friction, air resistance etc. But, in the overall scheme of things that is very little energy expended in doing so. Human bodies are extremely efficient at converting fuel to energy and that works against us when we went to loose weight by expending calories. Therefore, it is best to restrict calories.

Further, the calories in , weight gain out, argument is also no longer valid. A calorie is no longer a calorie and the latest food science has it* that all calories are not created equal and fat (yes fat) calories may be better for us than carbohydrate calories.


* I'm fully expecting a storm to erupt over this.
 

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
Get out and ride up some hills ;)
Works for me. I have a very hilly commute, and it keeps me very fit. In January, I rode in the Audax Alpine Classic, a ride in the Victorian Alps east of Melbourne (yes, we do have Alps over here, although not as impressive as the European ones, of course). That weekend in January saw me riding 305km with 6000m climbing over 2 days, and my only training was my commutes. Thanks to plenty of hilly riding, my weight has stayed in a fairly healthy range for over 6 years now, and not changed much.
 
Location
Pontefract
H

I base this on my Cateye CS-1000, which normally shows about 8 to 10 calories per minute when giving mild effort.
8x60=480 10x60=600
when i used my edge 500 it was as low as 40cals a mile or 620/hr or so, the 705 reads a bit higher.
@Yellow Saddle however excercise at a lower H.R. burns more fat than carbs, so to lose weight on bike mild excercise on the flat will burn more fat than climbing hills at a higher H.R.,

However as you become fitter your H.R. will decrease for the same exercise, thereby become better at losing fat, i did an approximation as the units gps units websites do tend to be high, but to lose one pound of body fat you would need to cycle something like 350 miles, as @Yellow Saddle says its quite complex.
 

Soltydog

Legendary Member
Location
near Hornsea
My Garmin works calories out at nearly twice the figures quoted above & strava calculates it less than the figures, so just shows it's all a bit of guess work. Increase your cycling & make small changes (in the right way) to your diet & the weight will come off slowly. I've cut chocolate out pretty much 100% only allow myself a cream bun at work if I've cycled in & little things like that seem to be getting my weight in the right direction :okay:
 

Joshua Plumtree

Approaching perfection from a distance.
I don't want to piss on your battery, but.... weight loss through exercise is very ineffective. You have to restrict your intake a lot. Truth is, if you restrict your intake but don't exercise you will lose as much as doing the same and exercising. Exercise does keep you away from the fridge and cookie shop and from that point of view it does help, but don't hedge your bets on counting exercise calories. You may as well count sheep.

BTW, energy is calculated in Joules (and converted to calories in non-metric countries). One Joule is the energy required to move one kilogram vertically to a height of 1 meter. Riding on the flat therefore seems like you are doing no work but you are still doing some work overcoming friction, air resistance etc. But, in the overall scheme of things that is very little energy expended in doing so. Human bodies are extremely efficient at converting fuel to energy and that works against us when we went to loose weight by expending calories. Therefore, it is best to restrict calories.

Further, the calories in , weight gain out, argument is also no longer valid. A calorie is no longer a calorie and the latest food science has it* that all calories are not created equal and fat (yes fat) calories may be better for us than carbohydrate calories.


* I'm fully expecting a storm to erupt over this.

No storm, but I'm not sure I agree with all this.

Exercise, in my opinion, is a much more sustainable way to loose weight in the long term with the obvious proviso that you don't use it as an excuse to double your calorie intake.

Dieting on its own is very ineffective and gives you the metabolic rate of a hibernating hamster. The less you eat, the less you need to eat in other words.

Get out on the bike, increase/ adapt the muscles required and raise your metabolism.

And not all fat calories are good for us, Yellow Saddle. That's a very misleading statement, if I may say so. :rolleyes:
 
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