Nasr313

Hello I was wondering if this info is right. I asked in the general page on the forum what would be a somewhat accurate calorie burn per mile for someone who is 265 pounds. And I got something like 20- 25calories per mile at 10 mph. And when using Strava and inputting my weight and bike weight it’s saying I am producing somewhere around 165 watts. I know Strava isn’t really that accurate. But let’s make it 135 watts to be safe. That would still give me around 45 calories per mile when using watts.

here is my math so if I am doing an hour and 15 minutes at 135watts that 1.25x135x3.6= 607.
and 607/13miles=46.6 calories per mile.

oh that formula I found online so if it’s wrong please let me know. I ask cause I am trying to lose weight and ever since I’ve been biking I noticed my hunger has increased by quite a lot and it seems to be on days that I bike. Other activities don’t make me this hungry.

pdlamb

I usually figure 100 Calories/3 miles. The exact number depends on a lot of things, including tires, tire pressure, rider posture, wind, speed, etc. To get a really accurate number, you pretty much need to get a power meter and a good (read: expensive) GPS to integrate it for you.

But now I'm going to start meddling. If you're doing this to help you lose weight, you need to spend that time weighing every bite you put into your mouth and logging it instead. You're getting more hungry as you ride? Drink more (water, unsweetened tea or coffee) to fill your stomach up. It's desperately difficult to lose weight through exercise. You're more likely to succeed by limiting your intake, instead. Pro cyclists who're trying to keep their weight down (before a big race) balance intake and exercise expenditures with power meters and food scales. You're probably not riding hard enough, fast enough to need to measure whether you burned 500 or 510 Calories today, when you're aiming to eat 500-1,000 Calories less than you burn for the day.

Nasr313

I appreciate the reply and get what your saying but everything you stated is already being done. I do weight everything I eat and have lost around 40 pounds doing it. I literally weight every single thing that I eat and try my best to eat healthy. I have also cut out sugar. But the issue with 20 vs 45 calories per mile is more then double so it’s not really that small. If I ride 20 miles in one day and calculate 45 calories per mile that’s 900 calories compared to 400 at 20 calls.So when you are cutting out 500 more on top of the 1000 calories I am already doing I can get really hungry. I just wanted to see if people who are similar in weight had a better idea.

Mmassey338

When I started this journey a little less than three years ago, I was 290#. I focused on eating right and increasing my mileage and within six months had dropped to 220#. I haven’t been watching what I eat, but have continued to increase mileage and my weight is now 230#.
There was a gentleman who posted and was a moderator here under the name Tom Stormcrowe. Read his posts and those about him, it might give you some incentive to stay with it.

guachi

A good estimate is that kJ = calories. Zwift counts a little low and it's more like 1.047kJ = 1 Calorie. But 1kJ = 1 Calorie is a fair estimate given the efficiency of riding (though it may be a little high).

So 135 Watts (.135 kW) for 75 minutes (4500 seconds) as used in the above example is 607.5 Calories (.135x4500). In other words, the formula you found is assuming 1kJ = 1 Calorie. An actual power meter is your best bet, however, if you really want to know your power output.

Nasr313

Yeah the issue with my thinking is that I am assuming 135 W is fair. When in reality that too can be way off. So I think my best bet is to calculate 30 calories per mile and see how well that goes. As long as I am trending down when it comes to my weight I am ok with that. I do eat my calories back and this helps me stay full. When walking I figured out how much I am burning and eat those back and still lose about 2 pounds a week. So I was hoping I was wrong on 25 calories per mile so that I can eat a bit more back cause of this increased hunger. I am now sure it’s just my body not being used to biking and the hunger will go away once I am used to it.

another way I can increase my calories burned is increase my speed as well but I just really love cruising and enjoying the view and I don’t want to be so focused on speed that I end up not enjoying the bike ride. I honestly would rather do an hour on the bike then do 10 minutes all out.

Barry2 

OP
You are not going to find an app to accurately guess your calorie burn based on a ride you measure.
A power meter will measure your output and give a more accurate estimate.
if you want a reasonable average human guesstimator give bikecalculator a try.

Barry

Riveting

See Bike Calculator
There's a lot of factors to consider, but in general it shows 28 cals./mile for your parameters.

EDIT: I now see that the post before mine points to the same calculator.

shelbyfv

Many have found that cycling is too efficient to be much of a factor in weight loss. Plenty of other health benefits of course, plus it's fun.

Nasr313

walking should be more efficient and I lose weight on that.

nvm I guess it’s not.

insignia100

Whenever I decide to eat back some calories burned from exercise, I use a very scientific method. I calculate the calories of half the time I exercised. My hope is that I'll avoid overestimating (hopefully underestimate) so I can eat back some calories while still being in a calorie deficit. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a power meter.

Milton Keynes

I think one problem a lot of people have is that they underestimate the amount of calories they eat and overestimate the amount of calories they burn. What I did to avoid falling into the trap of eating back calories burned is to just keep track of calories I consumed and ignore calories I burned.