Bicycling - Road and Mountain

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working hard in high gear or going fast in low gear

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bartleby9
bartleby9 Posts: 30
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My goal in bicycling is to lose weight and be more or less in shape. I bike as hard as I can (which tends to be around 10 miles per hour for 50 minutes) on a very hilly path. When I'm climbing the hills, i try to ride up them in as high a gear as I can which slows down my pace, but I am working very hard in the climb. I want to be burning the most calories I can in these rides. I can down shift the gear to go faster, but then it is much easier. Is my way of going slow and hard the best way to burn the most calories or should I change it to going easier and quicker?

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    There probably isn't going to be a big difference either way, but to error on the side of caution, a higher cadence (spinning the pedals faster) is probably going to burn more calories than pushing harder.
  • rides4sanity
    rides4sanity Posts: 1,269 Member
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    I'm with Jackson ^^ I like to climb with sufficient gear to feel powerful, but not so much that I can't keep a smooth fluid motion and decent cadence. If I miss a shift and gring up the hill my HR goes so high I'm probably anaerobic which means I ain't burning nothin', just sucking up my energy stores. Balance is good for the mind, body & soul.
  • bpotts44
    bpotts44 Posts: 1,066 Member
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    Try to keep your cadence at least above 60 rpm on the hills and shoot for 75 -90 on the flats.
  • krue1971
    krue1971 Posts: 167 Member
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    My 2¢ is if you are spinning (high pedal rpm) your knees will thank you in the long run. That being said, if I am mountain biking I will sit and spin if its a long climb but prefer to stand and power thru a short steep climb.
  • CycleCarolina
    CycleCarolina Posts: 23 Member
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    Higher cadence burns more calories. Counter-intuitive, but everything I've read supports that. One example:
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/454690-road-cycling-lose-weight-cadence/
  • bpotts44
    bpotts44 Posts: 1,066 Member
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    My 2¢ is if you are spinning (high pedal rpm) your knees will thank you in the long run. That being said, if I am mountain biking I will sit and spin if its a long climb but prefer to stand and power thru a short steep climb.

    Exactly, standing and stomping is a last resort for extremely steep and short distances. Otherwise, keep your pedaling cadence around 75-90.
  • cloggsy71
    cloggsy71 Posts: 2,208 Member
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    I don't know why, but my 'magic number' seems to be 87rpm (strange I know...) Anything under that & I feel as though I'm not at maximum efficiency...

    Guess I like to spin rather than grind :laugh:
  • phil85207
    phil85207 Posts: 20
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    My 2¢ is if you are spinning (high pedal rpm) your knees will thank you in the long run. That being said, if I am mountain biking I will sit and spin if its a long climb but prefer to stand and power thru a short steep climb.

    I have to agree, to avoid knee trouble spin up, Mashing equals problems with the knees.

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