Roads, terrain, gearing best for burning calories.

[dazza500]

I'm trying to lose a few pounds over the winter. There seems to be a lot of confusion over what kind of calories are burnt per hour over varying terrain/Road types and surfaces. The best I can find is 450 cals/h normal riding on flat terrain.

But this varies enormously and some sources quote 8-900 cals per hour. Does anyone have any definitive peer review data?

I live in fairly undulating countryside with a few steep hills. So, long rides at medium pace or short ones with intensity?

Any advice/resources greatly appreciated

[iviehoff]

I'm trying to lose a few pounds over the winter. There seems to be a lot of confusion over what kind of calories are burnt per hour over varying terrain/Road types and surfaces. The best I can find is 450 cals/h normal riding on flat terrain.

But this varies enormously and some sources quote 8-900 cals per hour.

Surely depends enormously on how hard you ride? Maybe you have the discipline to ensure you ride hard on the flat, but I would have thought it easier to ensure you have a hard calorie burning ride if you go for hills and aim to place a substantial number of them between yourself and home, so you have no alternative but to ride up and down them at reasonable pace to have a thorough workout. Also hillier rides are more scenic and improve the incentive for that reason too.

[dazza500]

I guess it does but I can't find any reliable sounding stats for riding at any kind of level of intensity.

I can't get to work without taking in at least three 2-300m climbs of a morning. So I know what 'rolling hills' Are all about

I'm trying to follow a 1600kcal per day controlled diet but I need to find out pretty accurately how many extra cals I'm burning on the bike.

A useful guide to different terrain and levels of work would be a good start.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Without complex measurements and monitoring you could base it on a cheap Heart Rate Monitor, which has estimates for calorie burn.
Without at least heart rate the results will be not accurate.

Its estimated that a zone of 60 - 70 % Max Heart Rate is best for fat burn.
Chest strap HRM will do this for you.

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exerc ... lator.aspx

Edited -
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exerc ... lator.aspx

[Mark1978]

Interval training,
- Speed up
- Oopps, dog, slow down
- Speed up
- Another dog, slow down
- Speed up
- {FFE - family-friendly edit } another dog
etc

[dazza500]

Hahaha. You did a funny!

[Mick F]

Over the past six years, I have readings for my HR over maybe 24,000miles and it gives me about 750cals per hour.
Usually about 100ft per mile total ascent, and at an average moving speed of 12mph.

This is all calculated by Ascent (my activity program) where I input all my recordings from my Garmin 705.

[Adam S]

Over the past six years, I have readings for my HR over maybe 24,000miles and it gives me about 750cals per hour.
Usually about 100ft per mile total ascent, and at an average moving speed of 12mph.

This is all calculated by Ascent (my activity program) where I input all my recordings from my Garmin 705.

I hope you're discounting the miles spent towing a concrete block up the hills of Cornwall

[flatout]

30 cal per mile is a good rule of thumb.

Speed does not have as much influence as you would imagine.

Since having a Garmin and HR monitor that rule has remained pretty resilient.

[Mick F]

Maybe for you.
I use 70cals per mile.

I ride maybe 100ft per mile every single time I go out.

[dazza500]

If I could do 750 cals an hour I'd be properly happy! Trouble with that kind of figure though is if you were doing two hard hours a day and keeping below 2000cals dietary intake then you should be in deficit
roughly 1800 cals a day = half a pound a day weight loss.

Four days a week cycling and roughly I should be losing 2.5-3lbs a week.

I tried this during the summer and kept my intake down to about 1800cal a day and hardly lost any weight over an 8 week
period. Maybe 3-4lbs in total.

And that was pretty hard riding about 2hrs a day, four ir five days a week.

Either my calculations are way out of my body is not working! I'm getting a bit concerned now because diabetes is in my family and I know I have to lose at least a stone in weight. Any ideas?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Unless you are using a Heart Rate Monitor it appears you wont get much closer than 65 - 80 % accuracy, based on speed and time
With HRM 75 - 85 %.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how- ... armin.html

As for loosing weight its not the calories its eat less, that worked for me I never counted calories.

[snibgo]

I've had the privilege of riding with Mick F. He is a far more powerful cyclist than I am, and simple physics tells me he can burn far more calories per hour than I am capable of. So I would be wary of applying his (or anyone's) numbers to anyone else.

My own numbers are, very approximately: 40 miles over mixed terrain in mixed wind need 2000 calories of food, so 50 calories per mile. (But my miles are much slower than Mick's.)

[Mick F]

I've had the privilege of riding with Mick F. He is a far more powerful cyclist than I am, and simple physics tells me he can burn far more calories per hour than I am capable of. So I would be wary of applying his (or anyone's) numbers to anyone else.

Exactly.

Why am I powerful?
Mainly technique, and training on all the hills round here.

I never rush, but always get a move on. I use all my gears and am not fearful of riding down hills at full tilt. I ride often, almost five times a week, and at the moment, I'm averaging 82miles a week. I've gone nowhere this year - no long journeys and only three times ridden over 80miles. Little and often is what is keeping me fit - I try to do somewhere between 15 and 20miles each time I go out. Every single time I go out, I have to climb a big hill - the village is situated in a steep-sided valley and the summits are two miles away from here. Gunnislake Hill is one of the most fearful hills on a main road in the whole of JOG to LE ................. and I live at the bottom of it!

Just coz I use 750cals per hour and 70cals per mile cannot be "the rule" for all cyclists everywhere. You need to take into account terrain and average speed. The more hills you ride and the harder you ride, the more energy you will require.

[flatout]

Maybe for you.
I use 70cals per mile.

I ride maybe 100ft per mile every single time I go out.

Good point well made.

Having gone back to check. The figures I had from an unknown book extract were (all cycling on the flat);

13mph - 26 cals/mile
15mph – 31 cals/mile
20mph – 38 cals/mile
25mph – 47 cals/mile
30mph – 57 cals/mile

Another book (Fitness and Health) quotes 5-15 cal/min for easy to hard.

There are of course still too many other variables at play for any rule of thumb to be accurate.

Irrespective of the rate of energy burn, 4 days x 2 hours at 750 cals/hr would burn 6,000 cals = just under 2lb/week.

But it is a long term business. Over a year that would be over 6 stone.

Cake stops would put a brake on that!