Towing a trailer behind bike, how many more calories??

Question

There are a million places to figure out how many calories I am burning while cycling, but I need to know how much more I am burning while pulling a bike trailer with my 30 lb son. A figure that I read said that pushing a stroller on a brisk walk would be about 20% more, Do you think that this would be accurate for biking as well?? I generally ride in a moderate gear, not easy and not hard. Please Help.

Answer 1

Here is your simple answer.

If you exercise at the same heart rate with the trailer on or off you will burn calories at the same rate. You will just be travelling slower (in lower gears) and take longer to do any given journey with the trailer on. Your calorie burn per trip will increase by the same percentage as the time taken to do the trip.

Any of these on-line calorie calculators based on heart rate give pretty vague results. The closer your are to average weight for height and average fitness the more accurate they will be, but still not great.

Here is the longer answer.

If your scroll down to the "Calculator Explanation" section of this link it presents all the things that effect the power (Calories per hour  = power ) to move most vehicles. If you are obsessive enough to do the sums you can get very accurate results for the energy needed to move your bike and trailer this way.

http://www.bikesatwork.com/hauling-cargo...

While heart rate versus power output varies heaps person to person, average body efficiency doesn't. Most people will wind up around 24-25% output body efficiency for cycling. By calculating output power required and factoring in body efficiency you can achieve quite accurate calorie burn results.

The power measuring device on these links works on this principle.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2006/sho...

http://www.ibikesports.com/documents/iBi...

Assuming that

The combined weight of you, your son, your bike, and trailer is around 225 lb. Your trailer is roughly two feet high and two feet wide + wheels. Everything is in excellent mechanical condition.

Then here is a guide based on conservative calculations. (most likely to be higher)

6 MPH -74 Calories/hour

7 MPH -97 Calories/hour

8 MPH -126 Calories/hour

9 MPH -160 Calories/hour

10 MPH -200 Calories/hour

11 MPH -249 Calories/hour

12 MPH -305 Calories/hour

13 MPH -370 Calories/hour

14 MPH -444 Calories/hour

15 MPH -529 Calories/hour

16 MPH -624 Calories/hour

17 MPH -731 Calories/hour

18 MPH -851 Calories/hour

19 MPH -983 Calories/hour

20 MPH -1129 Calories/hour

Answer 2

This is a good question, but it is hard to give a simple answer to.   the amount of calories you burn depends on a great number of factors including your basal metabolism, your weight, how hard you work, etc.

Now, not to be overly contrary, but calorie consumption is much more complicated than your heart rate.  A HRM only approximates calorie consumption based on factors you input like gender and weight; and on your heart rate over the duration of the ride.  An HRM can't possibly accurately account for your basal metabolism.

Since calories are a measure of the energy content of your food, a much accurate measure of calories consumed comes from a power meter.  Of course, like an HRM, a meter can't accurately account for your basal metabolism.  Plus, power meters are exceedingly expensive.

So, the upshot is, there is no really accurate way of measuring calorie consumption.  The question then becomes how accurate do you need to be.  You can add 20%.  You can try a HRM or if your ship comes in you can get a power meter.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

To be honest everything burning calories wise has to do with heart rate.  So here is the honest answer.  I would go to target, and into the exercise department and pick up one of those watches that monitors your heart rate and has a calorie counter.  THEY ARE GREAT and to me supersedes any websites calories counting estimate.  Just check your HR press the calorie counter and go!

They are $40 or so and worth every penny, you wont have to guess any more and especially when you add little modifications to your daily routines :)  

I'll attach a link for you :) hope this helped.

http://www.target.com/gp/search/601-7024...

Answer 4

1 millon if your fat

Answer 5

I think the calories going in are more important.