Bicycle riding is a common activity for burning calories. It allows you to burn calories at a constant rate simply by maintaining a constant speed or resistance. You can calculate the calories you burn with a high degree of accuracy by riding a bicycle and taking into account your VO2 max and your heart rate.
VO2 Max
VO2 max is the maximum rate at which you can use oxygen. It's a good measure of your aerobic fitness, and the use of your VO2 max greatly increases the accuracy of your calorie expenditure calculation. You can estimate your VO2 max with the formula [VO2 max = (D - 505) / 49.2], where D is your maximum 12-minute bicycling distance.
Heart Rate
Your heart rate has the closest relationship with your calorie expenditure rate when your heart rate is between 90 and 150 beats per minute, also known as bpm. You achieve the greatest accuracy for your calorie expenditure when you keep your heart rate within this range while bicycling.
Procedure
A heart monitor provides your average heart rate during your bicycling session and the duration of that session. Bike until your heart rate exceeds 90 bpm before you start the heart monitor's recorder. Speed up or slow down as needed to keep your heart rate within the target range of 90 to 150 bpm. Turn the heart rate monitor's recorder on after you complete your bicycling session, but before your heart rate falls below 90 bpm.
Calculations
The Journal of Sports Sciences offers the following calorie expenditure equation for females: Calories = [(0.380 x VO2 max) + (0.274 x Age) + (0.450 x Heart Rate) + (0.0468 x Weight) - 59.3954] x Time / 4.184. The equivalent formula for men is: Calories = [(0.404 x VO2 max) + (0.271 x Age) + (0.634 x Heart Rate) + (0.179 x Weight) - 95.7735] x Time / 4.184. These formulas require your age in years, your weight in pounds and the duration of your bicycling session in minutes.
Estimates
MayoClinic,com provides calorie expenditure estimates for common activities such as bicycling. Bicycling at 10 mph for 1 hour burns about 292 calories if you weigh 160 lbs., 364 calories if you weigh 200 lbs. and 436 calories if you weigh 240 lbs. These figures do not take heart rate, VO2 max, age or gender into account.
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