Calories burned riding

[eddwinn]

I seemed to have gotten thinner riding and such after taking a year off from the gym. I gained weight but once summer hit and riding i lost most of it. How many calories do you think are burned per ride. I guess it must vary by terrain/length/type of riding. I ride some pretty rocky, muddy, and difficult hilly terrain and usually for a couple hours every time (approx 4). What do you think burned ratio is if i spend 15 mins of it pushing my bike?

[renrek]

Last time I went woods riding, we spent 3 hours to go 22 miles in the rain and mud and pushing fallen trees out of the way and lifting the bike off myself about 5 times and restarting over 10 times. HRM said over a 2000 calorie burn. YMMV. 1 1/2 hours of moto tonite was 854 calories. Going to hit the woods again tomorrow. ?

[kyle450rider]

Last time I went woods riding, we spent 3 hours to go 22 miles in the rain and mud and pushing fallen trees out of the way and lifting the bike off myself about 5 times and restarting over 10 times. HRM said over a 2000 calorie burn. YMMV. 1 1/2 hours of moto tonite was 854 calories. Going to hit the woods again tomorrow. ?

How accurate is your HRM? That sounds like a lot of calories. I don't mean that in a bad way. Thats awesome if that is how much excercise I get when I go riding.

[renrek]

How accurate is your HRM? That sounds like a lot of calories. I don't mean that in a bad way. Thats awesome if that is how much excercise I get when I go riding.

It's pretty close (within 30 cal for a 1/2 hour 'ride') to my Nordic track elliptical for what that's worth. If I burn an extra 3500 or more HMR calories weekly, I lose weight. If I burn less, I don't seem to lose measurable weight. Since a lb of fat is roughly 3500 calories, it seems close. Burning calories at a rate of 600/hr is not at all unusual so, yeah, I think the HRM is in the ballpark for estimating calories burned. But, the "Your Mileage May Vary" caveat always applies.