How accurate are...

bendewey
bendewey Posts: 23
edited July 2008 in Road beginners
calorie cunters on cycle computers. I only have a cheap £15 Cateye velo and wondered how accurate the calorie counter would be? Surely a fast hilly ride burns more calories than a fast flat/downhill ride?

What would be the best computer for accurate readings etc? I suppose it would have to be a cadence and heart rate one?

Thanks!

Comments

  • daz51
    daz51 Posts: 159
    they have calorie counters on exercise bikes at my local gym. It tries to work out how many calories you burn by inputting your weight then working it out from the speed or cadance you pedal at.

    cant see it being totally accurate tho, but i suppose you get what you pay for.

    As a rule of thumb cycling is amazing for calorie burning. if you ride at 5mph for an hour you burn 500 calories.
  • bill57
    bill57 Posts: 454
    bendewey wrote:
    calorie cunters on cycle computers.

    Might want to spell check here.
  • daz51
    daz51 Posts: 159
    haha
  • babyshambles
    babyshambles Posts: 149
    5mph, 500 calories!! wow thats a lot. There are quite a lot of women in this office who could do with that knowledge!!

    When they have finished their cakes i'll pass on the info
  • bill57
    bill57 Posts: 454
    I used to go to a spin class where they had calorie counters on the bikes. Only the fittest people there could burn 500 calories in an hour, took a pretty intense workout to do that.
  • idaviesmoore
    idaviesmoore Posts: 557
    Take all calorie counters (or cunters) with a pinch of salt. The gym based ones are well out (15-20% I think, but I'm not absolutely sure)even if you put your weight in. The ones linked to HRM are not so bad. As far as cycling computers are concerned they'll be as inaccurate as gym based machines if it's not linked to HR.
    'How can an opinion be bullsh1t?' High Fidelity
  • idaviesmoore
    idaviesmoore Posts: 557
    babyshambles wrote:
    5mph, 500 calories!! wow thats a lot. There are quite a lot of women in this office who could do with that knowledge!!

    When they have finished their cakes i'll pass on the info

    :shock: I'm saying nothing :wink:
    'How can an opinion be bullsh1t?' High Fidelity
  • julietp
    julietp Posts: 67
    Unless you are going 5mph for an hour up a very steep hill, I really cannot see how cycling burns 500 calories an hour. I think if you were doing 20mph on the flat with no wind for an hour for example I would have thought it unlikely that an average person would burn more than 300calories although if you were overweight and unfit you probably would.
  • babyshambles
    babyshambles Posts: 149
    Is JulietP implying that Bendewayin unfit and overweight ?? :D

    Surly when you are eating cake you must be burning some calories or does the food label take that into account... hmmmmm.

    Anyway, I sent the link to a couple of chubbies in the office... they didnt see the funny side :oops:
  • bill57
    bill57 Posts: 454
    Putting all the arguments aside, in't calorie counting a 'gym fad' more than anything? I thought we advocated cycing as a sport and lifestyle thing, with weight control being a welcome secondary benefit. The idea of people rushing out to cycle because they've put on a few pounds doesn't seem right (and I don't think it's the norm anyway), whereas we all know people who only go to the gym for this very reason.
  • XTCRider
    XTCRider Posts: 113
    My HRM is set up for my sex, weight and age, and cos I am overweight i burn around 1000-1200 calories an hour at 15-16mph. Everybody is different.

    People who burn about 300 calories/hr are probably stick thin and fit
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtcrider/sets/72057594126938720/

    I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike, I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like
  • monkey71
    monkey71 Posts: 24
    julietp wrote:
    Unless you are going 5mph for an hour up a very steep hill, I really cannot see how cycling burns 500 calories an hour. I think if you were doing 20mph on the flat with no wind for an hour for example I would have thought it unlikely that an average person would burn more than 300calories although if you were overweight and unfit you probably would.

    Very easy to burn in excess of 500 calories an hour during extreme intense exercise. I have often exceeded those figures on my SRM, especially during racing. Maybe some people just need to learn how hard they can actually push their body!!
  • babyshambles
    babyshambles Posts: 149
    Yes I certainly push myself, i just cant beleive that it could burn so many calories, i would have thought Julietp was more realistic. I dont trust calorie counters!
  • monkey71
    monkey71 Posts: 24
    babyshambles wrote:
    Yes I certainly push myself, i just cant beleive that it could burn so many calories, i would have thought Julietp was more realistic. I dont trust calorie counters!

    google is an amazing tool, plenty of scientific studies done on this subject, especially using gas analysis, the most accurate method., Have a look, you might be suprised how much you can burn in an hour. Tour riders generally lose weight during the 3 week tour because they physically can't eat enough to keep up with the demand over three weeks. Check it out, it's more than possible and although most hr monitors, gym equipment work on averages and formula's with a fair percenatge of discrepancy built in, scientific studies are their for all to see. SRM is probably the most accurate method other than gas analysis and I saw it quite often during hard training and racing.

    Asker Jeundrup has a very good chapter in one of his books, I think it's called performance cyclng or something similar, detailing the caloric demands of cycling.
  • richa
    richa Posts: 1,632
    I use the Cal Counter on my HR a a relative figure to help assess the effort that's gone into a work out or ride (and enables comparison of the two).

    I am usually working in the 700-800 range.
    Rich

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