you should buy a power tap to get your wattage, a heart rate monitor that links to your garmin to get your heart rate and power output over the contours of the ride you just did. Then you can plot a graph of your weight/fat% and plot a graph of your calorific food intake and then further seperate the calories down into food groups and subsequent low and high GL/GI food and somehow plot his on a graph. Once you have done that you can buy a gun and shoot your own brain out. Though on the build up don't forget to draw a graph of the price of guns and ammo building up to the event. Maybe you could also plot a graph of which organs are currently in the greatest demand so you have an idea of which organs will go first once your body has been through the autopsy.
wow alex you seem angry are you ok?
so very angry
I think you'd be better off graphing Coffee Drunk versus Misplaced Anger alex.
alex - I think you're missing the opportunity to include a Venn diagram showing how the food you've eaten splits between carbs, fat and protein.
How about a scatter graph of where the individual pieces of your brain may end up.
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TSY - seriously you must have tri's coming up. How do you have so much time to worry about these things after all the training and work (I assume)?
I think people expect too much (precision) from most gadgets. They are guides (even power meters) not perfection. Use them as tools to help but dont get tied to them. Too much analysis, too little time training/competing doesn;'t make for success.
MFP gave me a shock with calories in M&S salads today - wow, time for a ride! So much for being healthy!!
I think this graph may work
THM - I don't worry about any of this stuff. All I'm bothered about is my body feeling good enough to do the next training sesssion.
Just been looking at the results of my first Tri as it happens... top 4% overall and top 8% for my category.
Good job - so the swim training has been working then!! All those early OW mornings worked out!!
Are you very young - I am trying to get my head around top 4% overall but top 8% for my category?
Well done - just have a little tease earlier. I got anal with swimming a few years back, so its all tongue-in-cheek!
32... I'm in the largest category 30-34. Edit or rather the category with the largest number of fast racers.
If I was under 30 or >35 I'd placed higher in the specific category.
Silly thing is I had a proper day of swim training the week after my first race, going faster already. Main area I need to work on now is my run.
think people expect too much (precision) from most gadgets. They are guides (even power meters) not perfection. Use them as tools to help but dont get tied to them
Correct - and that's how I use them. A useful indicator, but nothing more
However, to take issue with this:
My Garmin isn't the most accurate measure for calorie burn for me. if I have ridden I allow myself about half of what I have burnt on the Garmin
When I got my Edge 500 I read a lot of reports about the HRM function over-estimating calorie consumption.
Sure enough, it was giving a calorie burn about 25% more than my old Polar HRM.
HOWEVER, a quick fiddle on the PC to fine tune the riders details sorted it out. You do need to be very particular with rider weight, age and max / resting heart rates - and change the settings as you change....
Once I had dialled these in the Garmin unit gave out very similar figures to the old Polar one.
ETA - The MFP calorie burn is editable. Just overtype with a more representative figure. Use your own guestimate or use a garmin / Polar estimate as you see fit
HOWEVER, a quick fiddle on the PC to fine tune the riders details sorted it out. You do need to be very particular with rider weight, age and max / resting heart rates - and change the settings as you change....
+1.
Rubitrack links nicely back to Withings so updates the 'Athlete Log' automatically with HR, weight etc which makes that easier as all tracked in one place.
I'm curious to see what split of carbs / fat / protein people are aiming for via MFP et al...
TSY - ok I guessed correctly, you are a young pup!! Funny when I started tri's years ago, the biggest AG was 40-45 ie middle aged men, just hit 40, trying to keep fit, enjoying a bit of bling etc. So the results were often the other way around. Now that tri is more widespread/mainstream/expensive the AG mix seems a lot more balances with more younger people involved. Leaving the old timers to tread the familiar = sprint, olympic, (buy more kit), HIM, IM, had enough => do something else cycle!!!
Well done on your results.
Always use my less-than-perfect Polar to overide MFP calorie estimates.
Exactly.The Southern Yeti - Member
All systems use an algorithm. Like any other calc of this type it provides a best fit for a population... which is why saying Polar is accurate and others aren't is wrong IMO.
Still, at least we can all agree that consuming fewer calories than we burn through exercise leads to weight loss.
Still, at least we can all agree that consuming fewer calories than we burn through exercise leads to weight loss.
iDon't know about that... I've got a good analogy about a car I could use?
I'm loving being a called a young pup... most of the time I'm told I'm an old git.
Enough about me...
Have I mentioned that I'm set to help in a study for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metablosim this week... first step is a load of testing then they may ask for a food diary and monitor my activity levels.
I use a hrm to get a more accurate approximation of calories burned. I use both run keeper to track routes and mileage and MFP to record calorie requirement and in/output. Both give pretty inaccurate Claire fuselage according to my HRM. But to be fair as long as you only use one source of calorie use it will work out.
I've been using it for a week or so. I've also lost a bit of fat definitely (belt has got tighter) but I don't have any scales. I only do it roughly based on a best guess with some dishes. I don't have that many illusions about it being mega accurate but I think partly just the act of being aware about what you eat helps a lot.