Another trainer thread (sorry): Guessing the calorie burn
 

Sheesh! Another Sufferfest video today (I sure don't need to be buying any more of the videos, two is all it takes to keep me surrounded), an hour and ten minutes of agony. Remarkably intense workout. I cannot remember ever sweating this much in an hour, even doing stairmaster workouts with no fan close by.

I am so whipped after doing this about three hours ago I am seriously considering bagging it on the club ride tomorrow. Now THAT would be a major down-side to the trainer.

But how many calories am I cooking off? I'm still in the mode of trying to maintain a deficit every day, as I still have some weight to lose. I have no idea how to approximate - any ideas? I suppose in the end it doesn't matter that much, because I am not going to use it as an excuse to eat more. But I still like to track my workouts.

Would appreciate any ideas of how to best approximate. Asking here, since as per another thread this is the nicest, friendliest forum on the site. Not seeking ridicule so am not posting this on 41.:D

And if you find a video that is more intense than the sufferfest series, don't tell me about it. I have enough as it is.........:twitchy:

Hard to say. If you had a powermeter you would know. I think that is about the only way to measure work on a trainer unless you knew the exact resistance load and could run the math. Can't help you with that though.

The Sufferfest videos are fun, but no one does serious S&M like Coach Troy.

I would guess the calorie burn would be in the 750-800 cal/hr range.

Even Coach Troy recommends you don't do more than two of his sessions weekly.

Plus one.

My burn at my spin class is in the 700 to 800 range.

Two per week max - I can go for that. But I still have to get on the cussed thing on the days I don't commute - my bargain with myself. I just may adjust the intensity of my workouts a bit - maybe the days past two or three of the videos, I will just spin an hour whilst watching the news. But 6-800 calories per hour was in the realm of what I was thinking might be the amount. I'm just not able to afford the powermeter right now, but I do like the fact that we can get one from Kurt that will work with the trainer.

The trainer is hateful, but I do like the fact that I can make an hour or so of it fit into my day, where on a weekend my club rides usually eat 5 hours or more of the day by the time I get there, ride, and then get home.

This. Way too many variables to guess at it so if I am watching calorie deficit, I only count 500 calories per hour on the trainer.

That's kind where I lean - in being somewhat conservative. If I figger 35 calories per mile, do 18 miles in the hour (per the Cateye), it comes out about 600. So with the 500 number I don't get relaxed on the intake.

1 watt hour = 3600 joules

If you did 200 watts constant for one hour, you would produce 720 kj and burn approximately 720 calories.

That is the way I would figure it. When I am on a trainer, I wear a heart rate monitor. You can go on a rode ride with a heart rate monitor and get an idea of how fast you are going on flat terrain for a given heart rate. Knowing your heart rate on the trainer can yield an approximate miles ridden for the session. You can use one of the internet sites to convert miles and mph and rider weight into calories expended.

The thing is that calories expended is just an estimate and it probably has error bars of about plus 50% and minus 33%. One figuring a calorie balance, if you are careful and keep a food log and weigh or measure your food consumption and what you take in, you can get a pretty accurate idea of calories in. Figuring calories expended is a much fuzzier figure. Direct measure of calories expended is pretty much for laboratory settings only.

You mentioned using a KK... If that's what you're using and you know your average speed you can use that to get your average power using the equation here -> http://www.kurtkinetic.com/powercurve.php

I have no idea how accurate it is, but it might be better than a WAG...

HTH,
Dave

Very cool link. Too many numbers and stuff for this early in the morning, though.

Duh...Shoulda looked at the KK curve. That gives me a pretty decent guess at where I am.

I would not be doing a serious trainer session the day before a "real ride" of any consequence at all. Don't forget that you make your real gains while you recover.

Learning that. Two serious trainer sessions in a row is almost too much. Today, after the previous two Sufferfest sessions, I just spun up a sweat for about 35 minutes. Will probably do a video session tomorrow, then just spin at about 70% for an hour on Monday. Hopefully I can commute the remainder of the week, which cuts me slack from the trainer - and then a club ride on Saturday.