Training & Nutrition - burning calories

Howdy. I'm training hard and trying not to drop some muscle mass I've put on. On the weekends I ride up to 50 miles at 14 - 16 MPH on a mountain bike (on the road). I'm wondering about how many calories I'm burning. (140 lbs.) I rode 42 miles today but it was windy, snowing, and the roads have slush on them. I was slower, but I am feeling hungry no matter what I eat. How many calories am I burning???

hey--if you want to get REALLY technical, check this out: http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

You don't have to fill everything out, but I think it will be very useful in your case, since the weight of your bike is probably making you go slower, given the amount of effort you're putting in.

http://caloriesperhour.com

or google.

later.

A very rough but useful guideline is 40 calories per mile.

Howdy. I'm training hard and trying not to drop some muscle mass I've put on. On the weekends I ride up to 50 miles at 14 - 16 MPH on a mountain bike (on the road). I'm wondering about how many calories I'm burning. (140 lbs.) I rode 42 miles today but it was windy, snowing, and the roads have slush on them. I was slower, but I am feeling hungry no matter what I eat. How many calories am I burning???

40-45 calories per mile would be a good estimate, given your weight, speed, and bike (assuming you have knobby tires...if you're riding slicks it would be 35-40 calories per mile).

Keep in mind that of the 500 to 700 calories/hour you might burn, only 200 - 300 are from fat stores. And few of us can get to the upper end of that range without a lot of low intensity training to teach the body to burn fat.

Keep in mind that of the 500 to 700 calories/hour you might burn, only 200 - 300 are from fat stores. And few of us can get to the upper end of that range without a lot of low intensity training to teach the body to burn fat.

For weight loss, it doesn't matter whether you're burning primarily fat (via low intensity exercise), or glycogen (via higher intensity exercise). It's the average daily difference between Calories In and Calories Out that matters.

If I go out for an hour long walk, I'll burn about 300 calories. But if I go out for a bike ride, it's easy to burn 600 calories per hour. And if I go out for a run, 700+ calories per hour.

Since most of us are limited in terms of time, and since higher intensity exercise burns more calories per hour, higher intensity exercise is a more effective way to burn calories and lose weight.*


As for "teaching the body to burn fat" via "low intensity training":

a) our bodies don't really need to be "trained" to burn fat...a million years of evolution has made us pretty efficient at that.

b) "low intensity training" is an oxymoron (and the so-called "Fat Burning Zone" is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked).


* Note: this assumes a decent level of fitness. Beginners are advised to start slowly, and commit to 3-6 months of low intensity exercise with increasing duration, before going for higher levels of intensity.

That chart is interesting. It means my Garmin is way off (which I knew it was). I weigh 205, but I have the Garmin set to 150lbs.

Over the 142 hours I have rode so far this year, averaging 17mph, the Garmin says I burned 131,195 calories. According to the chart, I burned 117,895. So the Garmin is reading ~11% higher than the chart.

I rode a century averaging 20MPH last week and it was only off by 5%. I rode a century today averaging 17MPH and it was off by 10%.

I wonder what the Garmin uses to calculate calories burned.

According to most calorie burn calculators I've used, I generally burn around 60 calories per mile. I look at it on a per mile basis because...it's way easier to look at it that way than per hour for me, seeing as how I'm on the road all the time, NOT checking what time it is :p

Anyway, how many calories you burn, as another poster has said, is dependent on your weight and how hard you're pushing the bike.

According to most calorie burn calculators I've used, I generally burn around 60 calories per mile. I look at it on a per mile basis because...it's way easier to look at it that way than per hour for me, seeing as how I'm on the road all the time, NOT checking what time it is :p

Anyway, how many calories you burn, as another poster has said, is dependent on your weight and how hard you're pushing the bike.

Hmmmm...60 calories per mile? That's a whole lot higher than most "rule of thumb" numbers I've seen.

According to my calculations, a rider on a standard road bike, riding "on the hoods" at 17 mph over "rolling" terrain would need to weigh around 375 lbs to average 60 calories per mile. :eek: