calories burned calculator

[Lucyhan]

In 2006 I rode LEJOG and Back, and I was weighed before leaving, and weighed at the end. Back then I was 13st or more

Well don't keep me is suspense what was the difference between the beginning and end?

[Pompey Monkey]

In 2006 I rode LEJOG and Back, and I was weighed before leaving, and weighed at the end. Back then I was 13st or more

Well don't keep me is suspense what was the difference between the beginning and end?

Yes - This ^^

[Mick F]

You need to read my blog.
http://lejogandback.blogspot.com
Right at the end .......

My weight had many people guessing. I was weighed before the start at 13st 2lb. At 50p a guess you took a stab at my finishing weight. I can reveal now that I lost a little. I was weighed in at 12 stone 11 and a half pounds. Not much of a loss I know, but I bulked out on my legs, and muscle is heavier than fat. I lost a bit around my face, neck, shoulders and tummy. The sweepstake raised £24.

[Pompey Monkey]

You need to read my blog.
http://lejogandback.blogspot.com
Right at the end .......

My weight had many people guessing. I was weighed before the start at 13st 2lb. At 50p a guess you took a stab at my finishing weight. I can reveal now that I lost a little. I was weighed in at 12 stone 11 and a half pounds. Not much of a loss I know, but I bulked out on my legs, and muscle is heavier than fat. I lost a bit around my face, neck, shoulders and tummy. The sweepstake raised £24.

Well done that man!

[Mick F]

Thanks!

It wasn't long afterwards that my weight went up again despite continuing to drop for a few days.
I stayed at 13st ish for a couple of years and only started to lose weight slowly but steadily from 2010. Maybe that co-insided with completing a JOGLE on my Raleigh Chopper.

Bang on 12st this morning, but I have been down to 11st 12lb only a couple of weeks ago.

It's a little pointless to weigh yourself too frequently as weight varies throughout the day/week. Maybe once a month is best.

[Audax67]

Virenque (who, despite being an EPO-shooting arrogant swine, knew a bit about cycling) was once asked how much weight he lost over a Tour. "None", he replied. "A rider who loses weight wasn't in top condition to start with".

My own take is that I top up my reserves before a long ride and eat well throughout, and the weight takes care of itself.

[Ayesha]

Sweating is primarily a mechanism to cool the body by releasing a weak salt solution through sweat glands. It can happen without exercise, ie in a sauna.

It is possible to use incredible amounts of calories and not sweat.
This is done by exposing bare skin in sub-zero temperatures until the body starts a process to warm itself up, ie shivering.

Incidentally, the ‘lion’s share’ of calorie burn on a bicycle is combatting windchill. Maybe 3 x that of actual forward propulsion.
This, of course, is variable according to the quality and amount of clothing being worn.

I think you've missed my point Ayesha. Let's just take the red herring of the wind-chill and such out of it and consider two similar people on two similar treadmills next to each other in the same environment. The only difference is that one is fit and the other one isn't. What I am saying is that the unfit person will use more calories than the fitter person and therefore generate more heat and therefore sweat at an earlier stage than the fit person. If it is accepted that calories are energy and energy is heat then it stands to reason that the more heat you generate, the more calories you're burning.
I don't know why you've used the sub-zero situation to refute my post because it just agrees with what I said. Using calories creates heat, it's just that in your situation it hasn't yet become excessive heat, causing sweating.

I wasn't refuting anyone's post. Just mentioning some stuff than might have been overlooked.

People sweat without muscular movement in a sauna, FACT.
People use calories in sub-zero by shivering and don't sweat, FACT.
More calories are burned due to windchill on a bicycle ( in cool weather with shorts and thin vest ), FACT.

I'm not so sure about the first statement about sweating... because that's copied directly from Wikipedia

[nirakaro]

Hold on, am I not right in thinking that what muscle does, functionally, is convert chemical energy into kinetic energy; and that the heat produced is a by-product, and a measure of the inefficiency of the conversion? So the question would then be, does that conversion happen more efficiently in a fit than in an unfit person?

[StellaLdn.]

I got back to cycling in 2004 after a lay-off for eight years. Even prior to that, my cycling was tailing off.
It took me two years to get back to what I once was - a keen cyclist. Even then, it was another couple of years before I was even fitter (though older of course!)

In 2006 I rode LEJOG and Back, and I was weighed before leaving, and weighed at the end. Back then I was 13st or more.

I've continued to carry on cycling, and I'm even fitter and leaner now and have presently broken the 12st barrier. My diet is an Eat Anything and Everything diet. I care not a jot if I have fried breakfasts every day or drink three pints of beer in the evenings. I have real butter on real bread and eat chocolate biscuits and crisps, and I'm still losing weight slowly and steadily! ........... and I'm happy as well.

Last year, I decided to ride an average of ten miles a day ie 3,650miles in the year. I topped 4,000!
This year, I'm well on the way to reach 5,000miles.

You're a man after my own heart, Mick. I, too, eat and drink what I like, although I try to keep an eye on it, meaning, I will compensate on other days. Lost a bit over two stones in a year, first with just walking an hour every day, then I started cycling longer routes (not just to quickly get from A to B). What best works for me: alternating HIIT with easier rides for a couple of hours, but I try to cycle at least 30 min a day, mostly end up doing an hour or 90 min.

[Lucyhan]

Mick F wrote:
I did my ride yesterday.
Three pints of beer at the pub less than half a mile from home.
I wasn't too hungry for tea, so had fish fingers and beanz and a slice of bread and butter, but was I ready for breakfast!

Two rounds of thick bread and butter, mushroom, tomato, egg, three rashers of bacon. YUM!

Do you write down what you eat every day, both days when cycling or not? They do say that is one of the best methods of weight control, to write everything down.

[Mick F]

No, I don't write things down, but I have a good memory for stuff like that, and I enjoy breakfasts. Best meal of the day!
Also, when on a particular subject on here, I take notice of what I do, so I can report back with some certainty.

BTW, fish and chips this evening from the local chippy.

[1942alexander]

Hold on, am I not right in thinking that what muscle does, functionally, is convert chemical energy into kinetic energy; and that the heat produced is a by-product, and a measure of the inefficiency of the conversion? So the question would then be, does that conversion happen more efficiently in a fit than in an unfit person?

Following this line of thinking and ignoring whether the premise is correct or not, does it not follow that the fitter person would expend less energy and therefore generate less heat?

[1942alexander]

Sweating is primarily a mechanism to cool the body by releasing a weak salt solution through sweat glands. It can happen without exercise, ie in a sauna.

It is possible to use incredible amounts of calories and not sweat.
This is done by exposing bare skin in sub-zero temperatures until the body starts a process to warm itself up, ie shivering.

Incidentally, the ‘lion’s share’ of calorie burn on a bicycle is combatting windchill. Maybe 3 x that of actual forward propulsion.
This, of course, is variable according to the quality and amount of clothing being worn.

I think you've missed my point Ayesha. Let's just take the red herring of the wind-chill and such out of it and consider two similar people on two similar treadmills next to each other in the same environment. The only difference is that one is fit and the other one isn't. What I am saying is that the unfit person will use more calories than the fitter person and therefore generate more heat and therefore sweat at an earlier stage than the fit person. If it is accepted that calories are energy and energy is heat then it stands to reason that the more heat you generate, the more calories you're burning.
I don't know why you've used the sub-zero situation to refute my post because it just agrees with what I said. Using calories creates heat, it's just that in your situation it hasn't yet become excessive heat, causing sweating.

I wasn't refuting anyone's post. Just mentioning some stuff than might have been overlooked.

People sweat without muscular movement in a sauna, FACT.
People use calories in sub-zero by shivering and don't sweat, FACT.
More calories are burned due to windchill on a bicycle ( in cool weather with shorts and thin vest ), FACT.

I'm not so sure about the first statement about sweating... because that's copied directly from Wikipedia

I thought I had already simplified this problem to a very basic understandable level but you seem to want to put the red herrings back so I'll try to deal with them. We are discussing calories burned by physical exercise and whether the readouts are correct or not.
Calories used in a sauna are, on the whole, not consumed by physical activity. The energy comes from an external source, usually a 3kw heater. I compare this to going to somewhere like Dubai in their hottest month when everyone will sweat if they are out in the heat. It has no relevance to exercise induced sweating and as such is a red herring.
Shivering is a physical activity and is done purely to raise the core temperature of the body when it gets below a certain level. It stops when your body temperature reaches somewhere near the norm, just like your temperature when you're about to start a bike ride. You probably won't be sweating then, will you? If you could carry on using that same amount of energy by activity, after you have stopped shivering, you would, no doubt, start sweating.
As for wind-chill, why not head winds, weight of bike, terrain, tyre pressures, over dressed, under dressed, road conditions... all affect calories burned but all immaterial and removed in my analogy.
Sweating isn't compulsory you know. Sometimes you can have a ride and not sweat. I was using the point when you start to sweat only as a reference point which everyone can recognise and understand instead of some elaborate measuring equipment that most of us will never have access to.