Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories"? That can't be true. I weigh 70Kg, and I'm pretty sure I don't expend 10,000 calories riding a bike for a Km.


The calories we tend to think of aren't the same as the calories that we think we know. In regards to energy intake and eating food, a calorie is actually a kilocalorie. So your 10,000 calories to ride a kilometer is actually 10 kcal.


Unless they meant literally a calorie, not the more common large calorie or kilocalorie. In which case they'd be claiming that 1km ride burned ~10 calories, which is at least at the right order of magnitude. I weigh 73k, and according to my watch I burned 136 calories riding my bike for 6.4km yesterday, for an energy usage of 0.29 calories (not kilocalories) per gram-kilometer.


Calorie is a frustrating unit. When talking about food or exercise, usually we use the kilocalorie but just call it a calorie. I assume the previous poster was using the small calorie. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie.

So, that seems low to me. I would expect you to burn more than 10 kcal, but it seems the right order of magnitude at least.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: