Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Calories burnt during road cycle query
  • heavyman
    Free Member

    I have started road cycling, try to cycle 3 times a week. On Sunday I go a longer run and always wear a Garmin – I’m a stats man and can spend ages analysing them. One ‘issue’ is after a 30 mile cycle on Sunday my Garmin says I burnt 3331 calories, is this likely to be correct? My stats are up to date in the Garmin i.e. height weight etc

    geoffj
    Full Member

    Depends on climbing profile and how long it took, but that sounds unrealistic for a 30 mile road ride unless you are VERY heavy.

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    Garmin’s are known for wildly inaccurate calorie burn estimations unless you’re using an HRM. You probably actually burnt 600-1000 depending on the intensity

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    Blazin-saddles
    Free Member

    No, it’s not accurate. If guessing based on HR and elevation. It doesn’t know how much power you’re producing through a power meter so has no way of accurately knowing.

    Sorry, that massive Mars bar topped pizza you ate to refuel was over kill.

    heavyman
    Free Member

    Elevation gained (and lost) was 300m, some 8% hills which are tough for me, I’m 125kg. Forgot my HRM!

    midlifecrisis
    Free Member

    This site is very informative about this

    As a rule of thumb I reckon about 500 calories per hour

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    If you’re a stats man, get yourself a power meter. That’ll give you a much more accurate measurement of how many calories you’ve burnt.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Rule of thumb is your power output (in Wats) x time = energy output in Joules. The body is horrificaly ineficient so 1J = 1cal (1kJ=1Cal, 295Cal=Snickers bar), depsite the actual number being about 3.5 (i.e. the body needs 3.5 Calories to do 1 Calorie of work.

    Power in Wats = body weight x (FTW power/weight ratio)

    FTP power/weight ratio

    ~1 unfit, I’m only here for the cake
    ~2 middling to average group ride on MTB’s,
    ~3 quick roadie club run, (Cat 4 race)
    ~4 roadie who actualy races (Cat2 races)
    ~5 pro
    6+ Bradley Wiggins called, there’s been a mix up with your results as his seem to show a midle aged cake eating mountainbiker.
    7+ Alberto called, he wan’t the name of your butcher?

    So calories per hour = 3.6* (power/weight) * weight in kg

    So for me = 3.6 * 2.6 * 94 = 880Calories/hour

    But that’s average, over the time I’m actualy pedaling. On a road ride 10-20% of the time is probably coasting (or at least not pedaling as hard as possible) downhill, so nearer 600-700Calories.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    The Garmin stats are laughably optimistic, but on the other hand they seem to be fairly consistently optimistic. So they are useful for comparing one ride against another.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Something’s wrong there.

    My Edge 500 reckons I burn roughly 1000 calories per 90 mins of road riding.

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    TINAS, I use a power meter and that formula isn’t far off what I get if I’m riding at threshold. For a typical road ride I’d suggest halving the figure to get something more representative.

    geoffj
    Full Member

    There’s a setting on the edge 500 and 800s for activity class which probably affects things

    https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B3baae930-40ad-11de-5dd5-000000000000%7D

    and DC Rainmaker has a good page about calories burned etc

    http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    My Edge 500 reckons I burn roughly 1000 calories per 90 mins of road riding.

    If you’re fast or heavy then that’s probably not far off.

    For the OP , is that on the device or on garmin connect?

    geoffj
    Full Member

    I’ve just looked up a similar distance and elevation profile ride from when I was a similar weight to you, and it’s recorded as 1,600 ish calories. something not reet

    heavyman
    Free Member

    I use a Garmin Forerunner 405CX so it may not be accurate. Both Garmin connect and Training centre state same calories 3331. This particular run took me 1hr 55m

    Been on other runs, one was 22 miles and states 2426.

    Where can I get a power meter, would like to try that method out?

    When running I burn (Garmin says) around 670 cals an hour, I definitely have set the activity to cycle but maybe it thinks I have ran that far 🙂

    Dibbs
    Free Member

    Monday’s ride on Exmoor, using a Edge 810 (56 year old 10 and a half stone rider).

    Distance:40.56 mi
    Time:2:28:05
    Avg Speed:16.4 mph
    Elevation Gain:3,537 ft
    Calories:1,028 C
    Avg Temperature:56.9 °F
    Avg HR:138 bpm
    Max HR:162 bpm

    3000 calories sounds a bit high to me.

    heavyman
    Free Member

    Sounds like a good excuse to buy an 810 then 🙂

    TiRed
    Full Member

    10-15 calories per mile is a good approximation for typical road riding. 29 when I raced last (27 mph average). My calorie count comes from my power meter rather than an algorithm. 3000 is motoring some, I’d say more 1500 is more likely.

    I don’t measure calories on tht mtb.

    heavyman
    Free Member

    Thanks for the advice, I found it on the link from geoffj. If you don’t wear a HRM the Garmin (well def the 405CX) guesses the calories burnt, spose I should have seen it as the runs where I’d used the HRM had considerably less calories than the runs where I didn’t wear it.

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