How many calories does a 45 mile ride in the wind burn?

El Selb

Sorry, I know this subject title will probably infuriate a few people! Infinite variables - bike, tyres, wind strength, speed etc...but if it helps I did it on a road bike (cannondale synapse) with gatorskins on in quite windy conditions at times, averaging say 18-20mph ish.

Anyone make a fairly educated guess? How do you work these things out?

Lossie Loon

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

siamon

I did a 50 mile gentle ride today in 3hrs 20mins with 910m of climbing. My Sportstracker app said 2670, my Garmin 310xt said 1993 and my Garmin Edge 800 said 3227. I'm 175lbs after xmas and average heart was 140. The 310 was connected to the heart rate monitor. Therefore I must sorrowfully conclude that so hundreds of quids worth of tech hasn't got a clue....

napoleond

My Garmin 705 over reads calories by about 60%.
That's based on what it reads with my HR monitor vs a powermeter (which is about as accurate as it gets for measuring calories without blood testing).
I think as a (very) rough guess 7-800 is there or thereabouts.

DavidJB

7-800kcal/hour.

SBezza

If you are using it for managing weight loss, go for around 600 to 700 per hour, unless you are going very hard. It does depend on how many watts you are putting out really, and obviously without knowing this it will be a pure guess from all of the HRM.

Just as a pointer, my ride at the weekend. 6 hours used 4800 calories roughly on my powertap, Garmin showed 2,500, shows how far out a HRM can be ;-). That was on my training bike at near on 20 mph average for 70kgs.

Forget estimates based on age, weight, speed etc there are just too many variables to give an even remotely accurate figure.

essjaydee

Lossie Loon wrote:

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

So does a fatty like me (105Kg's) burn more :?:

Please tell me the answer is yes :?

hulla the hulla

essjaydee wrote:

Lossie Loon wrote:

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

So does a fatty like me (105Kg's) burn more :?:

Please tell me the answer is yes :?

I'm a smidge heavier than you and all the kit I own tells me I burn more than those whippet types. Recent 1hr 45 min 30 miler was showing as 1900cal ish. My Endomondo app on the iphone showed it as 2555 but I really can't believe it would be that high !

amaferanga

NapoleonD wrote:

My Garmin 705 over reads calories by about 60%.
That's based on what it reads with my HR monitor vs a powermeter (which is about as accurate as it gets for measuring calories without blood testing).
I think as a (very) rough guess 7-800 is there or thereabouts.

Interestingly my Garmin Edge 500 calorie figure for a ride equals the kJ figure from my PowerTap if I don't wear my HRM. With HRM it under-reports calories massively. With no power meter and no HRM it gets quite close to what I believe the calorie figure to be (based on similar rides ridden with the PowerTap).

So Garmin are using HR-based guesses for calories over the more accurate kJ figure. Not very clever.

amaferanga

hulla the hulla wrote:

essjaydee wrote:

Lossie Loon wrote:

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

So does a fatty like me (105Kg's) burn more :?:

Please tell me the answer is yes :?

I'm a smidge heavier than you and all the kit I own tells me I burn more than those whippet types. Recent 1hr 45 min 30 miler was showing as 1900cal ish. My Endomondo app on the iphone showed it as 2555 but I really can't believe it would be that high !

Endomondo is the most optimistic calorie guessing tool available.

Lossie Loon

essjaydee wrote:

Lossie Loon wrote:

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

So does a fatty like me (105Kg's) burn more :?:

Please tell me the answer is yes :?

Definitely. The heavier you are, the harder you have to work, therefore the more calories you burn.

essjaydee

Lossie Loon wrote:

essjaydee wrote:

Lossie Loon wrote:

Someone of average-ish weight (say around 70kg) would burn about 800 calories per hour on a road bike with an average speed in the high teens.

So does a fatty like me (105Kg's) burn more :?:

Please tell me the answer is yes :?

Definitely. The heavier you are, the harder you have to work, therefore the more calories you burn.