Andrew Jute McCoy, while fantasizing its usual tripe babbled:

It gives peak output and an average for the ride. So
the energy expended is the length of the ride (it only ticks the clock
when the wheels are moving) multiplied by the average output. But get
this, one kilowatt-hour is 860kJ. So, if you've gone for a ride that
will burst your average audiophile (middle-aged, overweight, fatarsed,
except for Patrick and me, who are ex-athletes and cyclists still) out
into heavy perspiration, say 100W average for an hour, which allows for
some extended peaks at 250W which will drive his heartbeat up to the
maximum, which does no one any good, is 0.1kW or 86kJ. In other words,
an hour's hard ride burns only 86 nutritional calories. You see, those
calories on food packets are really kiloJoules aka "nutritional
calories". You guys better stop eating altogether or you'll have to be
on your bikes eight hours a day.

So, let's look at the actual facts:

1 joule (J) is the amount of mechanical energy required to displace a
mass of 1 kg through a distance of 1 m with an acceleration of 1 m per
second (1 J = 1 kg × 1 m2 × 1 sec-2). Multiples of 1 000 (kilojoules,
kJ) or 1 million (megajoules, MJ) are used in human nutrition. The
conversion factors between joules and calories a 1 kcal = 4.184 kJ,
or conversely, 1 kJ = 0.239 kcal.

1 watthour = 0.859 845 228 Calorie [nutritional]
1 kilojoule = 0.238 845 897 Calorie [nutritional]
700 watthour = 0.938 715 476 horsepower hour
The power output of the human body is about 80 watts at rest, equal to
a bright light bulb.
The brain operates at about 10 watts- equivalent to a dim bulb (some
say ~20% of overall energy use).
Running at 6 mph brings power output up to about 700 watts (close to 1
horsepower)

So, just sitting still burns ~68.8 calories/hour. This suggests a diet
of ~1600 calories/day will meet absolute minimal *energy* needs for the
typical human. To be clearly distinguished from nutritional needs.

Assume a brisk bicycle ride is the equivalent of running at 6mph. Do
this for one hour. This will burn something just over 600 nutritional
calories.

Lastly, walking one mile and running one mile uses _exactly_ the same
amount of energy, as this is a function of mass x distance. Running
provides additional benefits for those who can tolerate it, but the
simple act of walking also provides very real benefits.

Mr. McCoy's math is as accurate as its circuit designs.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA