Calories burnt

andysport1

I reckon a lot of people over estimate.
Example my bike ride according to mfp 2469 cals
My garmin with hrm 1784 cals - cake 450, - 2 gels 397 ( we were out for 5 hours) if at home I would have been doing something so average 145 cals per hour = 725 so -725 = 212 calories
My net calorie burn for 5 hours out on the bike was 212 calories.

Quite interesting when you look at it from a different angle.

sijomial

Agree the MFP cycling calorie estimates are very exaggerated, at least for decent road bikes. Will be different if you are riding off road or riding a heavy/slow bike.

But I think my Garmin at least estimates net calories not gross calories (beware different Garmin devices work in different ways using different algorithms). I get just over 500cals/hr for rides in the 16 - 18mph speed range which is very similar to power meter net calorie estimates.

By the way did you skip a meal being out that long? It works out very differently if you swapped a meal for your cake and gels or if the cake and gels were in addition to your normal eating.

On my ride yesterday I burned about 1600 net cals and only ate/drank about 400 cals while riding but was home in time for my lunch and had a bigger meal than normal (+400 ?).
So my calorie balance was probably down 800 cals due to my ride.

Machka9

I just completed a difficult, challenging 51.4 km ride with 500 metres of climbing and howling wind.

MFP gave me 1114 calories.
Strava gave me 862 calories.
My own personal calculation of 100 calories for every 5 km gives me just a shade over 1000 calories.

Going with my own personal calculation, I've successfully lost the weight I wanted to lose.

TimothyFish

I assume you would've eaten something while you were at home for five hours as well, so you would need to add that amount back in to find your "net calorie burn for 5 hours out on the bike." Let's assume that you would've eaten 500 calories during that time, so that puts your net burn at 712 calories, not 212 calories.