Originally Posted by terrymorse
And I don' t believe these calculators for a minute when it comes to bicycling, a non-weight bearing activity. Besides pushing on pedals, what other major activity is going on? Breathing, for sure, and I can't believe for a minute that a big person spends much more energy breathing than a small person.
Sorry, I can't get behind the notion that big riders burn substantially more than small riders at the same speed. It just doesn't pass the common sense test.
Terry's right. Except when climbing where a heavier rider must overcome gravity. At the same speed on a hill, the heavier rider will produce more watts, therefore expend more Calories. What typically happens though is at some point the lighter rider will pull away from the heavier rider (if both are equally conditioned) and they will produce the same watts, expend the same calories, but the heavier rider will be slower. Sure, it will take the heavier rider longer to get up the hill and thus he will burn slightly more total Calories on the climb, but it really isn't that much more as a percentage of the total Calories burned on the ride.