rousseau

You didn't have all of the numbers, obviously. Here's what I did today.

rousseau

Another interesting thing: I started this thread on Monday of this week (July 31), which was when I started using my custom Excel file to keep track of my calories. According to my calculations I am currently, at midnight Friday after five days, at -6,927 calories.

I've also lost 2 pounds this week. Coincidence? I think not!

But each day the deficit was wildly different, which I'm thinking means that I don't really have a good handle on this diet (as in "the food you eat") thing yet. I think I need to fine-tune my approach to what I eat, which is something I've never done in my 40 years on this earth.

I also haven't eaten ice cream since I mentioned it in this thread, god help me.

jkmartin

A 2 pound weight loss at your current weight is within the margin of error of most scales. It could also be explained by when you used the restroom last or whether you were sitting, standing, or laying immediately before weighing yourself.

I put in your exact numbers but changed the wind speed to 0. This dropped power to 190 watts and Calories to 667. At around 12-15mph more energy is being used to overcome wind resistance than gravity and I'm going to assume that you don't have a constant headwind. This is also closer to my general rule of 30-40 Calories/mile. All these programs suffer from wanting constants and averages and actual road and weather conditions rarely oblige.

Cycling is a good way to burn calories but diet remains the most important consideration. I recently completed a 20 day, 1100 mile tour and managed to gain weight.

Good luck.

rousseau

I've actually been weighing myself at the same time each morning, so there has been consistency there. I do understand that you drop a number of pounds after a hard ride, etc. Again, the proof in the pudding will be whether I'm a further 2 pounds lighter by next weekend. We went to an Indian restaurant today, and I managed to hold myself to half of my plate of butter chicken and chickpeas, getting the rest in a doggie bag. It was a revelation to come out of that place without feeling uncomfortably gorged, but I still calculated the meal at close to 900 calories--today will be my "splurge day," then.

The winds here are regularly between 20 and 40 km/h. I admit the way I've been using the wind is inexact, because I divide it by 1/3 in order to "even it out" over my whole ride, which starts and finishes at the same point. Hmmm...am I fooling myself on this score? Thing is, it is really windy in southwestern Ontario. I count a grand total of four days in my ride log over the last five months which could be considered somewhat calm, i.e. the wind speed was below 20 km/h. So I know that over a 30 or 40 km ride I'm expending a serious amount of energy to keep my averages up to what they are.

<shrug>

Kathy_Green

You were given some really good advice by other members. It essential that you complete a food diary and be 100% honest. The only way to do this is by measuring your food to know exactly what you take in over the course of the day. A calorie isn't just a calorie. Carbs and protein contain 4 calories per gram ingested. Fat on the other hand contains 9 calories per gram and alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. Small changes that take place over time usually will be more effective than trying to change diet all at once. One small change that I can recommend is switching ice cream to low fat frozen yogurt. It isn't as tramatic as you might think. Focusing on the positive aspect of the changes you make, makes it easier than focusing on deprivation.

There is no clear way to determine an actual BMR for each person, it can only be estimated. What I do is figure what I want to weigh using the following formulas.

Female 5'=100 pounds add 5 pounds per inch over 5' tall and has a standard deviation of +/- 10%
Example I am 5'3" which would equal 115 pounds, +/- 10% gives a range of 104-126 pounds. My current weight is 122 pounds so I am on the heavier end. My body fat percentage is 20%. I know this to be correct since I have had body composition done by using hydrostatic weighing and DEXA.

Sorry guys I don't remember what the men's formula is off the top of my head, but if you are interested I will look it up for you.

mugaliens

I think that sounds about right. When I work out hard on the gym's fanciest cycling machine, complete with Polar HM receiver, it tells me I'm burning more than 900 cal/hr, which is close to the calculated 1077 that Cycling Magazine says I'm burning according to their formula.

LowCel 

If that is right then I need to quit riding real bikes and start riding cycling machines. I can't even burn that many calories an hour going all out during a race.

C Law

It looks to me as if the power number is too high on that calculation. From just playing around with the calculator, the 'Hands on the tops' option throws the whole calculation off. Try the hands on the drops option

I threw in my ride from this morning and it says my power is just shy of 400 for a three hour ride with my hands on the tops. . While I would love to believe that, It just ain't so.

With the hands in the drops clicked, it brings me more towards the high two's, which is closer to accurate.

Anyway, I would use a figure of 25 calories per Kilometer for a bigger guy like yourself and maybe 19 calories per kilometer for a smaller rider. It would be closer to accurate that that calculator at least.

LowCel 

Wow, I didn't even notice the wattage. I would love to be able to put out that kind of wattage. Tomorrow I'll try to remember to enter my information into that chart and see what it comes up for me as far as wattage goes then I'll compare it to what my powertap says.

LowCel 

OK, did a little comparison. I much prefer the numbers I get from kreuzotter. It has me with an average wattage of 238 watts compared to 168 watts that my powertap shows. It also has me as burning 1,646 calories compared to 1,214 from my powertap.

Here are a couple of screen shots.

rousseau

The whole "wattage" thing is completely beyond me, I'll admit. I would have assumed that the guy who set up the program knew a thing or two about it, but I'm certainly not in the least bit knowledgeable about it.

The calculations lower down on the page certainly do look impressive, though!

I don't have anything to monitor my heart rate, power, etc. Maybe down the road I'll get into that. But a question and a comment, first:

Is 330 watts of power for a 225-pound guy doing 27.62 kms over 58 minutes completely beyond the realm of possibility? My bike, a Giant Kronos with a chro-moly frame from the previous millenium, weighs 12.7 kgs/28 pounds. You skinny guys might be doing a lot of "spinning" out there, but for me to average 27-28 km/h over an hour is a serious, full-on effort with only one or two 20-second stages down hills where I can coast for a bit. Not to mention that I live in a very windy part of North America, so I'm getting that average with punishing winds for between 1/4 and 1/3 of my rides.

Just curious, is all. But that ties in with this:

I started this thread on Monday, July 31, which was ten days ago. That was the day I made up a table in Excel to track the calories I'm eating and burning. I'm basing this on a BMR calculator and the site in question at www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm. According to my calculations, I'm running a deficit of 14,462 calories over the last ten days. I'm also 5 pounds lighter over that period.

This, it seems to me, pretty darn accurate!

I'm not trying to be argumentative whatsoever, because I'm an absolute beginner at all of this. I'd like to see some definitive proof of errors in the numbers. It's just that, well, it seems to be working out on my end.

SSP

The proof, they say, is in the pudding.

That said, don't expect to keep losing at that rate. Some of it may be water loss, especially if you've been cutting back on carbs.

Longer term, a loss rate of 0.5-1.5 lbs per week (on average) is desirable. This rate of loss is considered reasonable by most experts, and it's easier to achieve and maintain over time.

You might also want to track your abdominal circumference over time...it's considered by some to be a better indicator of fat loss than the weight on the scale, and has been strongly identified with health status.

Best of luck, and congrats on your success to date.

LowCel 

I'm glad to hear you are losing weight, that's great. As long as you are losing weight the accuracy of the numbers don't mean jack I guess, just keep doing what you are doing. I hope it continues to work out for you.

As for putting out 330 watts for an hour that would be a pretty impressive number no matter what you weigh. I do know that I used to weigh 220 pounds, now weigh about 170. My power has remained about the same (maybe going up a little the past few months) however my power / weight ratio has increased. I have never been able to put out 330 watts for over fifteen minutes. I'm just a cat 4 / sport racer though so not sure what this actually proves.