Comment by balfirevic
3 years ago
> A few hours on my bike can be 2,000-3,000 additional calories over base metabolic rate.
Are you sure? 2000 kcal in 3 hours is 770 watts of power output.
Edit: Wikipedia [0] says "During a bicycle race, an elite cyclist can produce close to 400 watts of mechanical power over an hour and in short bursts over double that - 1000 to 1100 watts; modern racing bicycles have greater than 95% mechanical efficiency. An adult of good fitness is more likely to average between 50 and 150 watts for an hour of vigorous exercise."
You are forgetting that the human body is nowhere near 100% efficient at burning fuel to put power into a pedal. To produce 400 watts of mechanical power, the body consumes about 4 times that amount of fuel (25% efficiency). Consuming 2000 kcal over 3 hours is thus closer to the more realistic 200W of power to the pedals, and even the higher ranges make sense if he's a good athlete. See this article: https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2020/05/14/how-to-convert...
> You are forgetting that the human body is nowhere near 100% efficient at burning fuel to put power into a pedal.
I'm not, because the parent poster explicitly said "That's not based on made-up calories but actual work from a power meter on the bike."
Which seems absurd, hence my comment.