Can We Burn 10,000 Calories In A Single Bike Ride?

- How many calories? A hundred and thirty-four. You got another one up there, James?

Thanks, pal. You got another box? - I did just neck three.

Sorry. - That's all right. Good thinking, that.

That's 390 calories. (James laughs) (dramatic music) We could just keep going. Will we be able to?

I am really, really suffering now. I was focused on the top of this little climb, it was like my treat point, so just kept going to here, but the wattage was starting to go. Nine hours ten, 197 Watts average.

That means I've got about two and a half hours to go. I'm not sure I'm going to make it. (exciting music) We can thank our colleague Jack for this particular challenge.

It was his bright idea. Is it possible to burn 10,000 calories in a single bike ride? We didn't know, but it did sound like something we should try, so firstly, we asked our friend, Professor Louis Passfield how we could measure it, and secondly, just how long and how hard would we have to ride?

Well, firstly, he said, outside of a laboratory setting, we can use a power meter to simply measure our output because 1 Watt of power is 1 Joule per second and 10,000 calories equates to 41,840,000 Joules. Which sounds like a lot, but fortunately though we humans are relatively inefficient. 80% of the energy we use is just lost as heat.

So we actually only need to produce one fifth of that figure as power on the bike. Which means that it would take just 8,368,000 seconds or 2,324 hours of riding at one Watt. Now, fortunately, I think even we can sustain a bit more than that, so we can divide 2,324 by the power that we do sustain.

150 Watts, that's 16 hours of riding time. 200 Watts? 11 hours, 40 minutes.

Either way, we might need an early start. It's 4. 15.

That's no time to even think about riding a bike. (calm music) James. - Mmm?

- Have you ever ridden this kind of distance before? - No. Longest I've done is at least five hours, so I've never really thought about eating for a 10,000 calorie ride.

But yeah, this is quite difficult. Eating at 4am is not top of my list of best things to do. - [Simon] How are you actually feeling about today, James?

- I'm actually really nervous. I mean, we're starting off in the dark. It looks like we're going to be finishing in the dark.

And I've just got no idea how I'm going to get on, how my body's going to cope, how I'm going to feel talking to you for 15 hours. - No. (James laughs) - I just don't know how I'm going to get on.

- There is this massive physical element to it, isn't it, cause we're trying to go for a ridiculously long bike ride, at a certain wattage. But I think it's going to be mentally, isn't it? We could just keep going but will we be able to?

- Will we ever get there? (dramatic music) - [James] What are we doing? - [Simon] I think the sun's coming up, mate.

- [James] No. - [Simon] (laughing) Heh, no, it's not. - Already started burning calories.

- Okay, buddy, are you ready? - Let's do this. - All right then.

9,999 calories to go-o-o-o-o! Start right. - Yes.

Although this is likely to be a super long ride, distance is, of course, not the goal here, it's hours in the saddle. So, when I was planning this route, I wanted something to keep it interesting but without too much descending because then we'd struggle to keep the power up. And without taking us too far from base just in case we did all grind to a halt.

So, using the route planning app, Komoot, I created a 160km loop north from Calpe, before turning inland into the mountains and then back to the coast. Then a second loop of 160km, going further north along the coast, before a final, emergency finish circuit just in case we hadn't burned 10,000 calories already by that point. Something that we really, really wanted to avoid.

(upbeat music) - All right, we've made it to our first town: Xabia. I'm on 640 calories after an hour riding, how are you doing Simon? - Yeah, don't ask me what's showing on my Wahoo, it's not good.

We're struggling a little bit to find the right tempo, aren't we? It's strange. It feels like we're not going at training speed but we're going faster than we would if we we were trying to ride as far as we possibly could in a day.

It's like a balance of trying to burn calories but not burn matches. - Yeah, exactly, it's a bit of an uncomfortable pace, actually. - Certainly is, mate.

- But we're enjoying it. (upbeat music) It's ten to eight and we've been riding for about two hours and 45 minutes. - Yeah, we've only done 65km, but we've been battering against, well, it's been quite a strong headwind.

But, the good news is that that means the average power is pretty good. So, 195 Watts, which means that we should have burned quite a few calories. Morale is quite high, particularly because of the background.

You can see. . .

- It's beautiful. - . .

. that is the first bit of daylight. It's been quite long hasn't it, riding through the dark.

(serious music) Right, we've now finally caught up with you guys. We can explain a little bit about our strategy. So, we've taken a leaf out of Mark Beaumont's book, haven't we?

- We did - a man that knows more about this than most people. - Well, exactly. So, we're going to split our day up into four segments.

Now the plan is, if we can sustain just under 200 Watts, we should get it done in 12 hours, meaning that we're going to have four three-hour rides. Unfortunately, we're not as good at planning as Mark Beaumont, and so we still haven't reached our first stop yet and we've got four and a half hours in the saddle. - Yeah, that's right, and I think, I think you were looking for a Snickers.

. . - Oh my God.

- . . .

at every opportunity, but never really found one. - No. - Huh.

(energetic music) We've just stopped at our first stop, four and a half hours in and, yeah, I'm feeling it, are you? - Yeah, this stop should have been an hour ago. We totally, totally messed up, but anyway, here we are.

The good news, I suppose, is that we've burned just shy of 4,000 calories already which, given that this is technically second breakfast, that's not a bad thing to get under your belt by, what, 10am. - Yeah, I think that's pretty good. - But, the bad news is we've got 6,000 more to go.

And I'm kind of running on fumes already. - It is kind of daunting. I can, yeah, still feel it in my legs, I can feel that throbbing pain and I have a feeling that's just going to get worse and worse and worse.

But morale is still good. - What have we done, mate? - It wasn't my choice.

- What have we done? This is going to be all head and not legs isn't it? This is like a mental challenge.

- I think you're absolutely right. I think we're going to find out more about ourselves that we ever thought we probably would. - There's a thought, isn't it?

I don't really want to know much about myself let alone you. (upbeat music) While we're still relatively fresh, let's address a fundamental point to this challenge. What even is a calorie?

Strangely, perhaps, it's defined as the amount of energy used to heat one millilitre of water by one degree centigrade. That, however, is a calorie with a little c. A Calorie is 1,000 small calories and that's typically what's used in reference to nutrition.

When we talk about calories in food, we're referring to their energy content. Energy which is stored in chemical bonds which we can then break or re-form in our bodies to release the energy that we need to breathe and think and pedal. Resting, we typically burn about 60 to 80 calories per hour depending on our size.

An hour walk will burn about 300 calories, again, depending on your size, and then cycling, we've seen, depends on our power output as well. An easy ride, perhaps, would be about 500 calories per hour. Now, to put that in the context of food, a banana contains about 105 calories.

A large bowl of plain pasta, 400 calories. And a kilo of body fat, meanwhile, is about 7,700 calories. (bouncy rock music) - Right, Si, we haven't spoken in at least an hour.

But don't worry because I've thought long and hard about this. And I take a leaf out of my old school days, with flash cards. - Flash cards?

- So. . .

- What are you on? - I've got some questions for you. - Oh yeah.

- First question: Favourite presenter. - Wow. - Yeah.

- That's a tough one isn't it? - Yeah it is. - Oh wow.

. . - Question number 40.

Favourite GCN video, of all time. - Oh, mate, that's a great question. .

. - Right, question number 43, bud. - Yo.

- Your favourite place to ride. - Ah, man, that's a great question. - I have thought about these, mate.

- I'm going to split it. . .

Like, I love riding my road bike in mountains but the Alps is a bit busy. . .

I'm going to say Bristol, where I live. - Ah, that's interesting, I wasn't expecting that. (sunny pop music) Hello - It's weird, you know, when we set out, I was thinking that I'd probably be craving like salt, and like starchy carbs, but, as you can see from this haul, all I want at the moment is sugar.

- Yeah. - Loads of sugar. Just desperate for sugar.

- Yeah, it is strange, and it's like we don't really know how far we can go and where our body's-- and how it's going to react in three, four hours. - [Simon] In another departure from the Mark Beaumont school of strict planning we're also now changing our route. Yes, that's right, James's careful Komooting has gone out the window.

Why? Well, honestly because I liked the first loop so much that I wanted to do it all over again. Sorry James.

(slow music) - So, I think this is our second stop? - Third stop. - Third?

Is it third? - Second and a half stop? - Yeah.

- Kind of lost count. - Yeah. - Basically we are no Mark Beaumonts.

Turns out we have nowhere near the discipline required to do four hour stints. - Absolutely not. - So, we've stopped where needed but the flip-side is we've found this amazing tapas bar in Denia, so don't know how many calories we've just eaten but the flavour was great.

Patatas bravas, Serrano ham. - Yeah, we've been tucking into everything. I've had some ravioli, we've had Mars bar sweets.

- Not here, they didn't sell Mars bars at the tapas place. - No, I'm afraid not, but we've been really filling up because we've got another four and a half hour leg to go and we've done seven and a half hours. - Yeah.

After my sugar hit, at the supermarket stop, this, like the potatoes, the salty potatoes just hit the spot like you wouldn't believe. - How are you feeling it now? You feeling good, or excited?

- I'm not feeling good. What? I've done seven hours, 40 minutes.

I've burned 6,144 calories. - [James] My legs are aching and I couldn't think of anything worse than getting on the bike right now. - Yeah, I can keep the tempo at the moment, that's fine.

But, we've still got four hours to go, haven't we? (James laughs) Shall we go? - Oh, don't.

We just finished our third stop, little lunch break, and we're leaving Denia now and we've got four and a half hours to go. You ready buddy? - No.

- Ha. Nor me. - I think this is a joke.

- Oh, it's a really bad one. It's a really bad joke. (serious music) We've got a big headwind and drag.

I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm hurting. - Yeah.

- I'm really hurting. My legs are sore and they've had enough of putting out 215 Watts. I'm getting out of breath, I'm over-heating, I've had enough of Simon's chat.

Ran out of flash cards. - Yeah, mate. For me, I've got a really sore back.

Like, every time I jump off the bike I kind of have to hobble around. - Whoa, I'm setting the pace to 270 Watts. - Go on, mate.

Yeah, every time I get off the bike I'm hobbling around. Otherwise, I'm kind of okay, it's that weird feeling isn't it, we're still getting the power out, there's no reason to stop, it's just uncomfortable. I think we just need something else to take our mind off it.

You say you've run out of flash cards? - Yeah, I've run out of flash cards. - Okay, mate, I've got an idea.

- Have you? - Do you know what we need? - What do we need, mate?

- We need a montage. Yeah! (upbeat music starts) - Oh my God.

- Now we're talking. Can we have a montage? Yeah!

(upbeat rock music) Did that help? - To be honest, mate. No.

- No, me neither. - Still hurting. - Well, never mind.

Four hours to go. - Four hours to go? - Yeah.

- No. - Yeah. - Oh.

Break it to me lightly, Si. (happy pop music) Gone past the nine hour mark. I've passed my longest ever distance, my longest ever time on the bike, and I'm kind of in no man's land now.

I don't really know how my body's gonna really cope. My brain's gone a bit funny, I feel a bit drunk because-- it's a weird feeling, it's hard to explain. You feel, like, cloudy, your brain feels a bit cloudy so forgive me if I slur my words.

But yeah, we've been setting about 230 Watts for the last hour and a half, hour and 45, up this bit of a climb into a headwind. But Si's doing a fantastic job. He's kind of been this pace-setter all day really.

He's been better at just sitting at certain Watts than I am, I'm kind of stop-start, stop-start, I just want to go. He's very much helped sit at a constant pace. But I think we're both really kinda starting to struggle.

Don't really know what else to say. I'm going to eat this Mars bar and I'm going to really enjoy it because we've got three hours left. - I am really really suffering now.

I was focused on the top of this little climb, it was like my treat point so I just kept going to here, but the wattage was starting to go. Really feels like James is holding back to stay with me, which I feel a bit bad about. But yeah, every time I try and get out of the saddle, my back goes.

Not had that before. I think it's just the relentlessness, you know? Long rides, like that 16 hours with Mark Beaumont, there's a lot of time we weren't even pedalling, so you can stretch your back.

But here it's just on all the time, even to the point where we're riding downhill with our brakes on to keep the wattage up. But, er. .

. Yeah. .

. Nine hours ten, 197 Watts average. That means we've got about two and a half hours to go.

I'm not sure I'm going to make it. (serious music) - [James] Do you know what it's called? The golden hour.

Do you want me to hold your bike, mate? - I think I need it like a Zimmer frame. You got another box?

- I did just neck three. Sorry. - That's all right.

Good thinking that. That's 390 calories. (James laughs) ("For the Record" by HDBeenDope) We're nearly there, buddy.

- Yeah, man, you've done good. - Thanks, pal, and yourself. Right, we've been riding in the dark now for about an hour which hasn't been too bad, has it?

They're nice roads, the only bummer is having to put your brakes on. But we're in a bit of a pickle now. Because we've done 312km, we've averaged 199 Watts and we've been riding for 11 hours and 26 minutes, meaning that we have just 18 minutes remaining of riding before we hit 10,000 calories but we have to sustain 199 Watts but the problem is it's all downhill to Calpe and our route finishes at 324km, so the question is, mate, can we sustain 200 Watts downhill into Calpe and yet still get 11 hours and 42 minutes on the clock?

- First thing, mate, I'm glad you're a mathematician because I just wouldn't be able to do that with my head as it is now. I reckon we just absolutely smash on our brakes, crank out the power because there's going to be nothing more demoralising that having to get to Calpe and then do another loop. - That is a very good point.

- And I don't know if I could hack that. It's been a mental battle, this. - It has.

- It's been an absolute mental battle but we're nearly there. - That sums it up perfectly, James. Right, come on buddy, let's do it.

- 18 more minutes-- (Simon cries out in pain) How's that back? (ominous music) - James, we're done, mate. Well done.

- Mate, that was brutal. - How are you feeling? - Mate, I'm depleted in, I think, everything, physically, mentally destroyed.

That's hands down the hardest thing I've ever attempted. - Yeah. - And that's saying something.

- I cannot tell you how much pain I'm in. - I am holding him up, just to let everyone know. - He literally is.

My back is in bits. But just the sensation from my legs, I've never felt it before in my life. - Good work, bud, yeah.