We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Cycling calories?

lorrpb
lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
My garmin gave me 1200 calories for biking 20 miles (road bike on paved roads)in 3 hr including stops. MFP gave me close to 1400. Are either of those even closely realistic? I weigh about 160. Total elevation gain 663 ft, so a pretty basic ride.

Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    edited March 2019
    That's basically 400 kcal per hour. Much harder to use pace in cycling, for example you spend more time going up a hill than you make up on the way back down. What bike were you riding?

    Edit: are you on Strava? I'm curious what their calorie estimate is, they use a different method than Garmin or MFP, and is often better.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I’m not on Strava. This was a road bike used on mostly paved roads.
  • Beckenzahler
    Beckenzahler Posts: 26 Member
    Unfortunately those numbers seems way off.

    For comparison, I am a 230 pound male, riding an average speed of 15 mph. Enquiring experienced cyclists here and on other boards, I was adviced about 10 kcal/minute with my weight/speed, so 800 kcal for your trip.

    You being significantly lighter, your calorie expenditure is obv lower.
    Speed also factors in, as you spend more calories for the distance, the faster you ride.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,941 Member
    I go with 100 cal for every 5 km.

    That is close to what Strava gives me.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    This site is usual the first one a lot of cyclists on other forums go to.

    http://www.bikecalculator.com/

    I put in your time, distance, and weight, and assumed you're using the most common kind of tire (clinchers). It's telling me 190 to 205 depending on your hand position. I don't know if it's skiing for elevation gain or (probably) or the elevation you rode at. I think that's too low for 3 hours.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Do I remember correctly that you're using Gatorskins? If so, you need to add calories for that.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited March 2019
    I've always found my Garmin estimates perfectly reasonable.
    But I've never found the MyFitnessPal estimates other than hopelessly high. OK maybe one exception when I rode an MTB through sand, cinder and gravel including climbing a volcano - that shows how flawed using pace as the sole basis of calorie estimates is.

    1200 for 3hrs isn't a great deal but you want to exclude stops not include stops - have you set your Garmin to auto-pause? What was your actual moving time as opposed to elapsed time?
    For me 500cals/hr is a moderate ride at an endurance pace.

    I've also always found Strava estimates also perfectly reasonable but be aware if you link Garmin to Strava it will overwrite its own estimate with the estimate that Garmin sends it (that was a change last year).

    There's a lot of individual nuances that affect calorie burns including type of bike, aerodynamics and tyres that Garmin can't account for. For me I have a good bike, fast tyres but poor aerodynamics which tends to work out that Garmin's estimate, which I believe to be gross not net calories, seems to be pretty good and comparable to an indoor power meter equipped trainer which is accurate as you are going to get.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories