Going back to the last post, here is abit more about nutrition and 'Calories in and Calories out!' from Barry Murray from www.optimumnutrition4sport.com
'Calories and speedo and garmin calculations'
1st, if you burn 4000kcal... it is not a simple case of refueling with 4000kcal. A calorie is not a calorie. Refueling with 4000kcal of malt loaf versus refueling with 4000kcal of oats, nuts, salmon and sweet potato is a whole different story in terms of health and performance benefits
2nd: there is no such thing as really knowing what your energy expenditure is on a daily basis. It varies based on training, general physical activity and just individual genotype. I have never ever worked out a so called "based on your weight, training and physical activity, you burn 3500kcal a day"... that cannot be an accurate precise calculation !! Also what changes this big time is the individual fitness of the person. The fitter you get, the more fuel efficient you get. So a garmin telling you that you have burnt 2500kcal on a 3hr ride does not take into account your physiological fitness, aerobic capacity, fat adaptation etc !!
3rd: Energy In does NOT equal energy out !! This statement actually defies the first law of thermodynamics ! A good way to explain this is TdF riders.. the estimate on paper is that they burn around 7-9000kcal... yet the eat something like 4-5000kcal. So they have a so called energy deficit of 2000kcal !! that would mean that they should be losing over a pound every 2days... so thats around 10 pounds over the 3weeks... yet, their weight usually remains stable !! So its a complete farce... there are energy systems and ways of utilising fuel that we are still not fully aware of yet
