Calorie Anomaly

[Kevlar281]

I have just recently started stationary rowing and I like to log the estimated calories burnt to chart along with my weight loss. This week I had a very unexpectedly high calorie estimate that was followed the next day by another 600+ calorie burn. I hand't thought to much of it but tonight when I got home from work I got another 600+ calorie burn. I posted all of my 10,000 + meter days and as you can see times don't vary that much. So why the spike in calories? Any thoughts?

Concept 2 Model C

12/12/08 – Distance: 10,023 meters Time: 51:01 minutes Calories: 554
12/15/08 – Distance: 10,023 meters Time: 49:50 minutes Calories: 557

01/05/09 – Distance: 10,020 meters Time: 52:17 minutes Calories: 537
01/06/09 – Distance: 10,027 meters Time: 53:08 minutes Calories: 534
01/07/09 – Distance: 10,028 meters Time: 51:19 minutes Calories: 542
01/08/09 – Distance: 10,023 meters Time: 52:12 minutes Calories: 540
01/09/09 – Distance: 10,026 meters Time: 52:22 minutes Calories: 538

01/12/09 – Distance: 10,020 meters Time: 55:08 minutes Calories: 528
01/13/09 – Distance: 10,026 meters Time: 51:58 minutes Calories: 625
01/14/09 – Distance: 10,028 meters Time: 50:53 minutes Calories: 671
01/15/09 – Distance: 10,022 meters Time: 51:46 minutes Calories: 549
01/16/09 – Distance: 10,023 meters Time: 50:36 minutes Calories: 601

[Nosmo]

If your pace is uneven you burn more calories then if it is constant. If you can look at the individual splits you will see more variation in pace on the high calorie days.
The math is as follows:
Calories is proportional to time * power, but average pace is inversely proportional average velocity or the cube root of power. The average of the cubes is not the cube of the average

[Cazneau]

These numbers aren't too scientific. Still, know you are burning a lot of calories with those workouts.

If you want to ramp up the calorie burn, and avoid getting bored, add some interval training.

[Citroen]

How are you measuring the calories?

Are those the numbers from the PM2 monitor or are they from your HR monitor watch?

[Ducatista]

Calories is proportional to time * powerzzzzzzzzzz...

My brain works well in some respects, but man does it shut down fast when faced with anything remotely algebraic.

"Burn more calories" sparks the synapses, though. Good argument for paying more attention to changing up the pace on long rows.

[Kevlar281]

If your pace is uneven you burn more calories then if it is constant.

On my 600+ days my pace was very even.

How are you measuring the calories?

Are those the numbers from the PM2 monitor or are they from your HR monitor watch?

I'm using the monitor that's on my Concept 2; it's one of the old school ones that uses watch batteries.

[Citroen]

I'm using the monitor that's on my Concept 2; it's one of the old school ones that uses watch batteries.

http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/ergometer.html explains how the calories are calculated.

[Nosmo]

If your pace is uneven you burn more calories then if it is constant.

On my 600+ days my pace was very even.

Not sure what to say about that. You may want to go back and look at those days. I believe you can change the log to pace or watts and see if the splits are as constant as you remember.

[c2jonw]

The monitor starts by calculating watts and then goes to a chart for the equivalent pace and calorie values. Even pacing will give you lower values than uneven pacing as mentioned before, so this is likely the source of the variation. C2JonW