Calorie confusion - HELP!

DirtyArticle

Hi All,

I'm hugely confused about how many calories you burn when mountain biking and I'm looking for a fairly accurate measure - details below.

I'm fairly fit but trying to lose weight and have started using myfitnesspal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) to record/restrict my calorie intake and measure my exercise levels. It gives you a daily calorie intake target (in my case 1640) which you shouldn't exceed unless you've burned off calories exercising - so if I burn off 500 calories exercising I can eat 1640 + 500 calories that day.

But I'm getting wildly different calorie estimates from various sources for the same ride details and to make sure I don't over eat or under eat I want to best possible measure, ideally without getting more kit although I would consider a HRM if needed.

I suppose you need details so here goes:

Height: 185.4 cm /6ft1
Weight: 110kg/17 st (no comments please as you can clearly I'm trying to stop feeling morbid about my obesity )
Bike/kit: 17.5kg/2st 10 (no comments here, I'm stuck with the bike I have and think more weight means more calories burned)
Tires: 2.20

Example ride:

Distance 27.5km/ 17.1mi
Elevation 314m/ 1,031ft
Avg speed 12.3kph/7.6mph
Moving Time 02:14:28

Strava (which takes in account all the above data, except tires) estimates: 758
Myfitnesspal taking in account time/body and bike weight estimates:
"Cycling, <10 mph, leisure bicycling" setting: 982
"Cycling, mountain bike, bmx": 2103

The Myfitnesspal categories seem to be taken from these http://www.nutristrategy.com/fitness/cycling.htm

I'm guessing the Strava one is most accurate but want to make sure it sounds right. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Ben

Rankles

To be honest it's a lot of slightly inexact science and maths (unless using a lab to calculate various factors) to calculate so I'd just use the exercises section on myfitnesspal to estimate it and generally you'll probably burn more so will get a bit extra out of it.

My fitnesspal works best for losing weight without necessarily obsessing over eating too little after exercise. Just make sure you put away a couple hundred calories an hour on longer rides and then about 300-400 afterwards and you should be fine.

DirtyArticle

Hi Rankles,

Thanks that makes sense, I did the same route today only slightly longer but in the same time and Strava came out at 849, which pretty much matches what you are saying.

YeehaaMcgee

As far as I know, the only accurate way to measure calories burnt, is by using some analysis equipment. Everything else is an estimate - of varying accuracy.

MountainMonster

Using a dedicated Heart Rate Monitor, which can be picked up from most sports stores for fairly cheap, will give a better estimate, and be more on target, but even then, don't take the calories burned for pure science. The programmes on phones and such are almost useless, as they don't actually view your heart rate and how YOUR body is.

YeehaaMcgee

MountainMonster wrote:

Using a dedicated Heart Rate Monitor, which can be picked up from most sports stores for fairly cheap, will give a better estimate, and be more on target, but even then, don't take the calories burned for pure science. The programmes on phones and such are almost useless, as they don't actually view your heart rate and how YOUR body is.

Endomondo can at least see your heart rate on some phones, provided you have a bluetooth heart monitor (although I have no idea how common such a thing is in practice).
But, like you say, even then it's just a more accurate estimate.

njee20

Apparently Polar have patents on the algorithm to work out calorie consumption that is widely acknowledged to be the most accurate.

The older Garmin units are way way off, and even if you have HR/Power information they don't actually seem to use it. Mine reckons I'll do >1000 on an easy 30 minutes into work some days!

YeehaaMcgee

njee20 wrote:

Apparently Polar have patents on the algorithm to work out calorie consumption that is widely acknowledged to be the most accurate.

... of the estimating methods.

njee20

Yep, never said anything to the contrary.

YeehaaMcgee

I know, just clarifying, dear boy.

DirtyArticle

If I'm honest I don't really need it to be perfectly accurate although I can appreciate why people might for competitive training. I'm just trying to get fitter and lose weight. As long as the estimate I'm using, in my case from Strava, is fairly accurate then I can make sure I don't over or under eat. It must be about right as the weight appears to be failing off me. Who would ahve off thought it I've found the secret to weight lose - eat less and do more exercise!

YeehaaMcgee

DirtyArticle wrote:

Who would ahve off thought it I've found the secret to weight lose - eat less and do more exercise!

You should ask for a nobel prize!

.blitz

DirtyArticle wrote:

It must be about right as the weight appears to be failing off me.

You will of course get to a point where the weight no longer falls off because your lighter body requires fewer calories to fuel itself.

At this point you will have to eat less and/or exercise more if you want to continue to lose weight.

DirtyArticle

.blitz you're exactly right. That's why I'm using myfitnesspal which dictates how many calories to eat. It's failing off me because I'm consistently meeting the daily target.

mcnultycop

1640 calories is pretty low. How long have you been sticking to that? How are you feeling?

DirtyArticle

I've been doing it for over three weeks, very strictly. It's working and I feel fine - bit tired but that's difficult to separate out from life, going to bed late and doing much more exercise lately. It is low and actually because I've lost weight it's recently dropped me to 1580, but the idea is if you do exercise you compensate. I do a look of walking during the week, about an hour at lunch so I'm able to compensate and eat more. That's why I wanted to know the MTB calorie burn

mcnultycop

I'm not surprised it is working, based on your size (no offence meant with that, I'm heavier) you could eat nearer 3000 calories and maintain your weight, so if you are eating about half that (plus whatever you exercise away with your additional allowance) then the weight will come off. Just be careful and keep an eye on yourself, I'd be trying to eat around 2200 calories in your position if I was counting exactly. I've lost weight keeping an eye on calories but mainly by eating the right things (loads of veg and protein) and lifting weights and cycling. Good luck with it.

YeehaaMcgee

DirtyArticle wrote:

I've found the secret to weight lose - eat less and do more exercise!

.blitz wrote:

You will of course get to a point where the weight no longer falls off because your lighter body requires fewer calories to fuel itself.

At this point you will have to eat less and/or exercise more if you want to continue to lose weight.

Argh, infinite loop error!

MagnePange

Infinite loop error or not: the only way to lose weight is to spend more than you gain.

There are some tips that could be helpfull so let me go a bit beoynd your question:

1. Don´t calculate so much. Like it´s said above. Whatever you use it´s just an estimate. The best way to loose weight is controll of weight morning and night. This will make you learn how much you can eat, train and still recover and loose weight. Also keep track of how your recovery feels and how hard you did work out. This way you will learn the relationship between: weight, food, recovery and training intesitiy.

2. Don´t eat evning meals. Fat starts to burn after about 9 hours. Best way to have such a long starvation is during sleep. Try to fill up with water or green tea. During night we recover. Recovery means huge cell turnover in your body. This coast energy. If you skipp the night meal chances are that body fat is used as substance for recovery instead.

3. Skip al those meaty meals. Learn to love veggies and beans. You can eat a lot of them so you wont feel hungry and still get a really low cal meal. If you go for veggies: eat a lot. Don´t fall in to the overambitious trap to train, cut down on meal size and switch diet at the same time....

4. Take one thing at the time: don´t stress in to overambitious riding. At 110 kg you will gain riding speed just by loosing weight. So focus on the weight first. When you have a resonable weight, say 90 kg for your lenght, you could focus more on hard workouts that needs a lot of energy for recovery.



Best of luck

/MP

mcnultycop

Number 2 above is some of the most misinformed advice I've read on the internet in a long time.

I'm losing weight by eating a shitload of meat and other proteins, and eating 5-6 smaller meals a day, including one at 2230 when I've finished in the gym 4 nights a week.

MagnePange

Noope. No 2 is not misleading.

It´s correct and true.

You might lose weight by eating an night meal - that depends on the no of calories you been eating during the day. There are many ways to do loose weight. You might eat McDonalads at 02.00 every night and still lose weight - if you are overweight and don´t eat anything else. Or if you train at a very high level. How good that will make you feel (and ride) is another question.

The general advice is still to skip eating late foods.

Fore sure - go ahead as long as it works for you. Just try to remember that your way is not the only way.

Cheers!

/MP