Accurate calories burned

[dsimon]

Which is actually true
Garmin
Strava
Ride with GPS

I get different number between them all IM also using the Garmin 500. Im a foody and want to know if im burning enough calories before Christmas dinner hahahah

[wasfast]

None of them. Power meter would be closest in kj's.

[cuwinbs]

i rode 35 miles today and strava said i burned 124 calories...:confused:

[ceolwulf]

They're all pretty much guessing. If you gain weight you didn't ride enough, that's only way you'll know :)

[kramnnim]

How accurate would the powermeter be? I haven't ever paid attention to the calorie thing, but have been curious. I probably should be more aware so I can make sure to eat enough on longer rides.

[dsimon]

yea I rode 35 today as well .....
garmin said 2500 calories
Strava " 1100 Calories
Ride with GPS 1900 calories.

Maybe Ill take the average of the three:help:

[Exonerv]

I was just reading about this in "Food Zone Portables." The introduction to the book gives a great detailed outline of the variables involved. I was surprised to learn that even elite level cyclists on the tour would rarely burn more than 1000 calories per hour - partly due to their high level of efficiency.

At 155lbs with my usual pace of 18-19 mph, the charts reflects me burning about 800 calories per hour. That figure is also consistent with my known running pace / calorie burn.

Here's a calculator that seems to give me similar results:

http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/cycling-calories-burned-calculator

I have not ridden with a power meter, but I would think the results would be pretty accurate as it's not based on pace, but actual power exerted.

The general rule of thumb outlined in the book is for activities lasting more than 2 hours, eat at least half of the calories you burn each hour. For me, that would likely be an intake of around 400 calories per hour.

[John H.]

Powermeter is quite accurate. KJ/calories is almost 1 for 1. Some say 95%, but that is for the most efficient of pedalers (not most of us).
Powermeter shows exactly how hard you have been pushing for how long.
The kj function allows you to rank rides in terms of there caloric difficulty.
For instance a 3 hour climbing ride (even at good tempo) will burn less calories than a steady endurance ride where you are on the pedals the entire time.
If you know you kilojoules from a ride, and you also know how many calories you burn per day (off the bike)- than you can pinpoint what you need to eat with a high degree of accuracy.
This is important for fueling, also important for anyone trying to lose weight. These numbers allow you to create a reasonable deficit so that you can lose weight without digging a hole.
I did a 3 hour climbing ride today that burned 1840 kj. If I did a 3 hour steady endurance ride, it would be 2100-2200. If I did 3 hours with some tempo work it would be at least 2400 kj.

How accurate would the powermeter be? I haven't ever paid attention to the calorie thing, but have been curious. I probably should be more aware so I can make sure to eat enough on longer rides.

[wasfast]

Make sure you don't just use the factory settings blindly in the Garmin. They are using a 3rd party program and there are several settings that are important.

Even set "correctly", the calories used don't correlate well to the kj's from the PM.

[dsimon]

How can I adjust it? Im just trying to see if i burned said 2000 calories I can go to 5guys and get a 1200 calorie lunch and not feel bad. and yes I exercise to eat or vise versa.

[daker13]

On my Garmin, which I occasionally take for a run for kicks, the difference between a bike ride and running is ridiculous--seems to think I burn 2500 calories riding two hours, and about 100 calories in 40 minutes of running.

[shovelhd]

Agreed that the powermeter is the most accurate. If you use a power analysis tool like WKO+ or Golden Cheetah, it will tell you Kj in the ride summary.

There's calories and there's calories. If you're riding to lose weight and gain fitness, 5 Guys isn't your best choice for calorie replacement.

[dsimon]

Right.......... but if i wanna cheat i wanna know my options. 5guys or something healthier :eek:

[MattTuck]

Well, here is the thing.... Even if you accurately know your output, several recent studies suggest that input is very complicated. In other words, different people process food calories differently.

[Louis]

Well, here is the thing.... Even if you accurately know your output, several recent studies suggest that input is very complicated. In other words, different people process food calories differently.

That is indeed a factor - you need to know if the "calories burned" number is the work done, or the amount of food calories you would need to consume in order to do that work.

The Concept II ergs give you the equation they use for this calculation, and by looking at it you can tell that they are assuming a 25% efficiency on the human body (I think that's the number, I'm doing this by memory) - so for every 100 calories burned on the erg you'd have to consume 400.

(Caveat, I can never remember when calories is capitalized and when it is not, and right now I'm too lazy to check)

[wasfast]

Avoiding the "5 Guys" question:), here's a few recent data points for entertainment. These are mostly solo rides.

I use a Quarq Riken & Garmin 500. I download my data with Garmin Training Center. To see the kj's, I use Golden Cheetah. Both are free programs.

I'm 55 yo, 180 lbs so no lightweight rider. I'm also nothing special by any means in terms of capability or race results (sad but true)

12/14 (longer, moderate intensity ride) : 44 miles, 3000' vertical. 2:48 ride time. 190 watts AP.

Garmin reports 1394 calories. Golden Cheetah says 1642 kj's

12/15: (short ride with one 2 mile climb above threshold: 26 miles, 2116' vertical. 1:43 ride time 186 watts AP. Climb was 11 minutes at 286w.

Garmin reports 838 calories, Golden Cheetah says 981 kj's.

12/17 (fast group ride). 26 miles, 1:24 ride time, 1633' vertical. 244w AP. Main portion of the ride was 265w AP, 688 max power, 50 minutes.

Garmin reports 864 calories, Golden Cheetah says 930 kj's

12/21 (longer, moderate intensity ride): 52 miles, 3600' vertical, 3:26 ride time. 197w AP.

Garmin reports 1528 calories, Golden Cheetah says 1965 kj's

So the numbers aren't off a country mile but when the intensity goes up, the calories lag a bit. That's perhaps a good thing for weight loss as you would be on the conservative side.

Someone asked about the settings. The options are listed briefly in the Garmin 500 manual.

[false_Aest]

Which is actually true
Garmin
Strava
Ride with GPS

I get different number between them all IM also using the Garmin 500. Im a foody and want to know if im burning enough calories before Christmas dinner hahahah

I find the following equation to be ± accuracy as the 3 above.

[C(60H)/4 ± (17/3)] / [B -(-W) + RF/m][(G/T)3.14]

C = average cadence
H = hour riding)
B = bike weight
W = rider weight
F = front wheel spoke count
R = rear wheel spoke count
m = average miles per hour
T = time spent reading the forum
G = weight (in $1 bills) of all the money you spent on your bike stuff

[ceolwulf]

I find the following equation to be ± accuracy as the 3 above.

[C(60H)/4 ± (17/3)] / [B -(-W) + RF/m][(G/T)3.14]


This is what I will be using from now on.

[OtayBW]

:rolleyes:

[MattTuck]

I find the following equation to be ± accuracy as the 3 above.

[C(60H)/4 ± (17/3)] / [B -(-W) + RF/m][(G/T)3.14]

C = average cadence
H = hour riding)
B = bike weight
W = rider weight
F = front wheel spoke count
R = rear wheel spoke count
m = average miles per hour
T = time spent reading the forum
G = weight (in $1 bills) of all the money you spent on your bike stuff

Do you have the Pro version handy? You know, where you use kilometers, kilograms and swiss francs? :cool:

[#campyuserftw]

i rode 35 miles today and strava said i burned 124 calories...:confused:

Tell the truth. Strava knew your water bottles were full with egg nog. :)

My bathroom scale and the mirror on the wall tell me what I have or have not burned.

I <3 egg nog.

[false_Aest]

Do you have the Pro version handy? You know, where you use kilometers, kilograms and swiss francs? :cool:


mph --> k 1 = 1.6
lb --> kg 1 = .454
USD --> Swiss Francs 1 = .89

just plug it in somewhere. Doesn't matter where.

[Anarchist]

There is a podcast done by a fellow named Ben Greenfield, who does an accompanying blog, anyway, one of the posts on his blog rang true to me.

It said do not measure "weight loss" by a number on the scale. Pay more attention to the mirror and Bf%.

Seems right.

[CunegoFan]

There is a podcast done by a fellow named Ben Greenfield, who does an accompanying blog, anyway, one of the posts on his blog rang true to me.

It said do not measure "weight loss" by a number on the scale. Pay more attention to the mirror and Bf%.

Seems right.

Greenfield also promotes and distirbutes magic bracelets. I would think twice before taking advice from him.

The explanation of how the Encoder bracelet works:

"The Encoder is a piezoelectric bio-acoustic device that aerobically bio-tunes athletes by capturing and replenishing the vibratory energetics emanating from the athlete's kinetic movements during performance."

Sounds legit.

[carlineng]

A buddy of mine has a powertap that always records 0 watts. He hasn't bothered to fix it, and it still communicates with his Garmin, so all his rides on that wheel are listed at 0 calories and a suffer score of 0 on Strava. Pretty funny.