calories burned?

[wnowak06]

anyone know how calories burned relates to power output. clearly they arent the same, b/c if they were I'd be producing 500 watts for an hour

 

[ric_stern/RST]

anyone know how calories burned relates to power output. clearly they arent the same, b/c if they were I'd be producing 500 watts for an hour

mechanical energy expended = power (/1000) * time (s)

Energy expended (Kcal) approx equals mechanical energy expended (in Kj) due to people riding a bike being ~ 20 - 25% efficient

ric

 

[fastcat]

anyone know how calories burned relates to power output. clearly they arent the same, b/c if they were I'd be producing 500 watts for an hour

I always wonder about the accuracy of any display that tells me how many calories I've burned. They tend to work based on HR, weight and age, so take no account of fitness level, efficiency etc. So I tend to disregard them.

Although, if you start from measured power output and work back to calories using Ric's formula then you should get a more meaningful measure of calories expended.