Warren's Unfortunate Baked Doritos Experience

[Nothing000]

I'm curious: given the same distance, say two miles, does a person burn more calories walking it or riding it on a bike. The first is much less effort but sustained for a longer period, and the latter much more effort, but for less time.

I think these two situations would only be similar if he rode his bike VERY slow. I think riding 15 miles would be better comparable to jogging 5 miles; not running very fast, just jogging. What do you think chroot?

 

[zoobyshoe]

I think my question boils down to a time/effort ratio. How much less time would I need to spend burning the same amount of calories if I were putting out much more effort for that time. I'm assuming the bicycle ride is requiring more effort per unit time, just less overall time. In real life the specifics would be quite variable and hard to measure. I'm sure they could do it in a gym using an exercise bike, though.

 

[chroot]

How often do you ride to work chroot? Two times I have ridden 30 miles one way, then stayed the night at that location, and then road back the 30 miles. And I thought that this was absolutely crazy! I could not imagine ridding 30 miles / day a few days every week. If you ride that a few times a week you must be very healthy.

Well, it rained literally almost every single day out here this March, so I haven't ridden much at all in the last month. Generally, I ride about 120-180 miles a week, depending upon how much time I have available. Generally, I ride to work (30 miles round-trip) three days a week, plus a longer ride on the weekend.

I wouldn't say I'm the pinnacle of fitness or anything, but I'm in good shape. I really don't think 30 miles a day is anything that special. I think almost anyone could do it after a month or two of training.

Most people think riding two miles is absolutely crazy. People have this notion that bicycles are kids' toys, good for pedaling around the neighborhood, and cannot be considered real transportation. That's just absolutely, totally false.

I am suprised someone that would ride 15 miles just to get to work would eat any kind of dorritos!

Well, I generally don't eat them. In fact, the healthier you are, the more disgusting those kinds of snack foods seem to be. It's rather ironic.

- Warren

 

[chroot]

I'm curious: given the same distance, say two miles, does a person burn more calories walking it or riding it on a bike. The first is much less effort but sustained for a longer period, and the latter much more effort, but for less time.

Calorie consumption is closely related to heart rate. Keeping a heart rate of around 160 bpm (riding 18-19 mph), I burn about 50 kcal per mile. I can cover two miles in about four minutes at this level of sustained effort, or about 100 kcal total.

A walker's heart rate may never go over 100, and probably burns about 200-300 kcal per hour. Walking is about 2-3 miles an hour, so the walker probably burns about 200-300 kcal over the same distance.

This makes sense, since bicycling is a much more energy-efficient mode of transportation than walking. Over the same distance, you can expect to burn two or three times as many calories walking versus riding a bike.

Many cyclists round the ratio versus running to about five, in the sense that a five-mile bike ride is about the same energy expenditure and effort as a one-mile run.

My 30-mile a day bike ride is thus really about the same perceived effort as a six-mile run. This is not easy, but almost anyone can do it.

- Warren