hokiesean24

Any comments? I am just curious. I have been mapping out my morning rides the past few days and putting my info in, it of course regurgitates it and throws out what I assume to be an estimate for the number of calories I burned during the course of my ride. How accurate do you think these calculations are?!?!

For sake of comparison, I am about 5'10, 195 lbs and rode 27.1 miles this morning at a avg speed of 17.80mph. There were 3-4 pretty difficult climbs in the ride. Any estimates on what I should have burned?

Thanks!

Brandy

Not accurate at all.

johnny99

Unless you know exactly what their formula is, I wouldn't trust it. I use 40 calories/mile. More miles = more calories.

WickedShark

Are you saying you average 40 calories a mile?

Not sure how you can figure out that you use 40 calories for a mile. I am no expert but I would assume that if one mile was climbing and your heart rate was at say 160bpm and the next mile you are on flat ground and your heart rate is at 135bpm you would not burn as many calories as you did while climbing the hill. Does that sound reasonable or am I incorrect on this?

Booger

That's why it's an estimate. If you're climbing 500 feet/mile and are at 90% max heartrate, adjust upward accordingly.

johnny99

40 calories/mile is just a rough estimate, but I have not seen a formula that is significantly more accurate without using a power meter. Obviously, a faster speed gives you more miles/hour and thus more calories. Slacking off gives you less miles/hour and less calories. Hills climbs and descents tend to average out. Heavier riders may use more than 40 calories/mile on a hilly loop.

waterrockets 

I just did a quick spot-check with a couple of my commutes, comparing to my PowerTap, and it overestimates.

It's also not consistent. I get got 312 kC with a 19:21 duration, 340kC with an 18:21 duration, and 322kC with a 20:21 duration. So a steady climb in effort is met with a valley in estimates.

So, it's worthless.

aham23

ESTIMATE.........

the only true way to measure calories burned would be in a science lab. so we work with estimates and move on. later.

hokiesean24

Thanks for the input. Just for the record, the mapmyride.com estimate for my ride as outlined above was 1522 calories. Using the estimate of 40calories/mile = 1084.

jbishhh

Mapmy ride will also count your heart rate and cadence or speed into their calcualtions. I am having an issue right now where I commute to work 20 Kmph each way. I use my iphopne synced with Wahoo fitness heart rate belt and bike cadence counter. Since I live on a mountain, The path to work is a 162 meter descent and my avg heart rate is 138/max 165. Mapmyride claims I burn 880 calories.

My ride home is uphill all the way and takes me 20 minutes longer with an average HR of 160/ max 180 yet Mepmyride claims I only burn 619 calories on the uphill climb vs 880 going downhill. This tells me something is terribly wrong with their calculations.

bbbean 

Based on my results using a power meter and HR monitor, I've found that MMR estimates calories at 1.5 to 2X actual value. My own rides vary from 20-30 calories/mile on an average, moderate effort ride to 50-60 calories/mile in a hilly road race. YMMV, but there's no reason your numbers shouldn't be within 10-15 calories/mile of those numbers.

BB

YOJiMBO20

Dang necroposts! i thought Brandy was back for a second!

floridamtb

I think I read somewhere that road cycling burns about 600 calories an hour. ON a recent 49 mile ride MapMyRide said I burned 3490 calories, Strava said 1745 calories. I can assure you that there is no way I burned 1163 calories an hour. I would cut MMR calories in half at least.

Sdjclevland

For a 20 mile ride it overshoots my calories by 500 compared to my heart rat moniter

Minnesota Expat

Very weird. I was wondering about this very subject just a couple days ago. Then this six year old thread is bumped this morning?!

I rode 37 miles last Saturday, with some good hills, and averaged 17mph. My Sigma ROX 5.0 with weight entered, temperature, a heart rate monitor, cadence counter, altimeter and speedometer, reported 1782kcal. I entered the ride into MapMyRide and got 2539kcal?!?!

Well, I trust the Sigma data and assumed the difference in calorie count with MapMyRide is the lack of real data (besides the ride profile, weight, and distance/speed). Without knowing their respective formulas for calculating calories (certainly that is proprietary), who knows.

Minnesota Expat

jbishhh. So you are synched into MapMyRide with your Wahoo HR belt and cadence counter? And you're still getting squirrely data? Cause, my Sigma doesn't synch with MapMyRide and I assumed that explained the difference in calorie counts. Sigma has it's own data analysis program.

gamby

FWIW, a 190lb rider burns more calories per hour than a 160lb rider.

bikerjp

Are you using a heart rate monitor? Without a HRM the data is useless. 40 calories/mile is a fairly decent estimate so MMR is probably way off for the ride you cite above.

You might give ridewithgps.com a try. I always thought their calorie data was kind of high compared to Garmin Connect which I thought might be the most accurate given it's their computer I'm using. However, now that I have a power meter I see that ridewithgps is fairly close to the power meter data.

sfrider 

At 160 lbs I go by 25 per mile plus ascent divided by four. 100 flat miles = 2500 kcal. 60 miles and 6k ft = 1500 + 1500 = 3000 kcal. If you weigh 10% more just add 10% to the total.

Close enough.

Looigi

For me, 700/hr for my riding is close enough based on using a PM for few weeks. Some rides were higher and some lower, but overall, 700/hr is close enough for my purposes.

saint mucus

Okay two year bump, sorry for using the search feature SO has map my ride gotten any better? I'm 6'1 190 lbs. I've used it on three rides so far, different routes but all three rides were 16 miles, on the 1st two it said I burned 858 calories each ride at 1 hr 20 min and elevation gains of 619 ft and 888 ft , the third ride it shows 974 calories at 1 hr 10 min and an elevation gain of 583 ft.

surgeonstone

If interested in loosing weight or maintaining weight at a steady level, ignore every calorie calculator made, they are all garbage. Even if they were accurate, psychologically they are a fail, one will always eat more than you need by using them.