![]() ![]() RELATED: How and What to Eat on Rides of Every Length ![]() “If you do a VO2-max or sprint- interval workout where the efforts are really hard and short with subsequent really easy recovery intervals, you won’t end up with a huge kJ/workload expenditure, but you’re getting a big training effect,” he says. “When prepping an athlete for a specific event, like a multi-day stage race, I can make a pretty good estimate of what the week’s demands will be so I can ramp up workload based on kilojoules and I can prescribe that as a goal in their training cycle," he says.Įven if you have the most accurate calorie estimates possible, it’s important to keep those numbers in context, says Matheny, especially when you’re performing demanding workouts that don’t net high total kilojoules. So, if you performed 500kJ of work, you can feel fairly confident, within a 5-percent margin of error, that you burned 500 calories, says Matheny, who will sometimes factors in kJs when assigning workouts to clients. “Conveniently, kilojoules and calories burned in cycling convert to a 1:1 ratio,” says Daniel Matheny, a USA Cycling level 1 elite coach and the head coach at Matheny Endurance in Colorado Springs. RELATED: Your Guide to Power Meter Metrics Power meters come in hubs, crank arms, pedals (seen here), and more. You’ll get a number in kilojoules (kJ), a unit of work that recognizes the human body isn’t 100-percent efficient when turning energy from your fuel stores into physical work, like pedaling a bike. Here’s what you need to know to make them as accurate as possible.įor the most accurate calorie counts on your rides, use a power meter, which measures the work you are performing. “It’s easy to overestimate-and overcompensate.”Įasily get smart estimates of your on-bike burn with our online Cycling Calories Burned Calculator!īut where do those numbers come from? And how accurate are they? “The algorithms these companies use to derive calorie counts is a black box-they’re not sharing,” says Cheung, “but it’s reasonable to assume those calculations are based on a combination of heart rate, weight, age, and maximum heart rate along with activity level.”ĭepending on the information you input and the equipment you use, your calorie counts at the end of any given ride could be pretty spot on, in the general ballpark, or fairly far afield. “If weight loss is a priority, knowing your energy output is important,” says Stephen Cheung, PhD, professor at Brock University and co-author of Cutting-Edge Cycling. If you’re trying to lose weight (or at least not gain any), you probably pay more than passing attention to how many calories Strava, Garmin Connect, or your bike computer and software of choice says you burn on your bike. ![]()
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