Originally Posted by
waterrockets
True, and I've used that method in my own diet and successful weight loss. My point is that the precision is higher than the accuracy. If you burn 5% more kj on a ride, you've burned really really close to 5% more calories, but the +/-5% accuracy will still be the same.
+/-5% is fine and still plenty useful, but I just wanted to temper the previous power-meters-accurately-track-calorie-burn statement.
I think you've got a point that you can overstate the mathematical precision of the power meter calculations, and even the Lim quote I posted admittedly gives some caveots.
The thing I rail against in the calorie threads is people who dismiss the powertap data because of the efficiency calculation, and then kid themselves that they are burning way more calories than they are because they aren't as efficient.
IMHO, 1.1 is mathematically supportable. Just a straight 1 to 1 is simple and conservatively safe.