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Calories Per Hour Cycling

Started by KT26, Jun 02 2008 05:11 PM

4 replies to this topic

#1 KT26

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Posted 02 June 2008 - 05:11 PM

I wore my Garmin heart rate monitor cycling yesterday (for the first time) just to see what sort of heart rates I was getting on a long ride.

Everything on it was accurate, including the distance I had gone, (matched my bike computer to within 1km) but it said I had burnt 3800 calories! This is for a 3.5 hour, very hilly ride.

Is it really possible to burn so many calories or should I not be relying on this function?

Thanks everyone...

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#2 JustinS007

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Posted 02 June 2008 - 06:24 PM

View PostKT26, on Jun 2 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

Is it really possible to burn so many calories or should I not be relying on this function?
Yes, it's possible, but you'd want to be 120kg and riding at about 80% VO2max!

I find that the Garmin 305 overstates the calories burned by quite a bit when I'm on the bike. My old polar and also an Oregon Scientific HRM that I use are more accurate and so I know about what I burn from them.

FWIW, I'm 33, 68kg, ride a really crappy old road bike and burn about 720 calories per hour at an average heart rate of 140 (VO2max = 194).

J.

#3 KT26

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Posted 02 June 2008 - 09:15 PM

Great! Thanks for that! My stats are pretty much the same as yours so 720 calories gives me a better indication...

I'll just pay attention to the heart rates for future cycling expeditions...

#4 Sportsman

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Posted 03 June 2008 - 12:46 AM

View PostKT26, on Jun 2 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

I wore my Garmin heart rate monitor cycling yesterday (for the first time) just to see what sort of heart rates I was getting on a long ride.

Everything on it was accurate, including the distance I had gone, (matched my bike computer to within 1km) but it said I had burnt 3800 calories! This is for a 3.5 hour, very hilly ride.

Is it really possible to burn so many calories or should I not be relying on this function?

Thanks everyone...
Did you have it set for "Biking"?
Have you uploded to TC or Sporttracks? What did they show.

#5 KT26

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Posted 03 June 2008 - 07:30 AM

View PostSportsman, on Jun 3 2008, 12:46 AM, said:

Did you have it set for "Biking"?
Have you uploded to TC or Sporttracks? What did they show.

Um, yeah, I actually had it set for running....I'm just using Garmin performance centre at the moment and trail runner because I have a mac and can't seem to get sporttracks working at the moment...

This might sound like a stupid question but can it differentiate between running and cycling?
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