How to burn calories like a Tour de France rider
- From: News Corp Australia Network
- June 25, 2013
THERE'S nothing like a major sporting event to give an armchair athlete the exercise bug, if only temporarily.
Tennis courts are thronged during and after the Australian Open, golf lessons spike around the US Masters, and you'll likely see even more lycra in the leafier suburbs over the next couple of weeks as the Tour de France gets under way.
It's generally accepted that Le Tour is the most physically demanding major sporting event in the world, but what exactly are those sweaty chaps putting themselves through as they speed through a fairly hilly 3400km (the driving distance between Melbourne and Perth) over 21 days while averaging anything up to 40km/h and powered only by those bony legs.
Well, as you might imagine, it ain't pretty.
Calories burned obviously varies depending on the type of stage and an individual rider's physique, but on one of the more savage mountain stages, a rider can burn at least 8000 calories, with some claiming the number can get closer to 10,000.
To give some context, an average man of the same age and weight having an average day (with no major exercise) burns about 2000.
All of which means Tour riders have to ingest an insane amount of calories, and not in a fun way.
Requiring an extra 6000 calories or so a day means a hearty breakfast - usually with plenty of oatmeal, cereal, even rice or noodles - is consumed anything up to four hours before a stage starts. The day is then filled with gels, chews, drinks and any other substance that can help the rider take in hundreds of calories every hour while racing without making themselves ill.
After the race, it's plenty of sugary fluids to rehydrate and perhaps some rice/egg-based food to replenish the body before a veg and protein-packed evening meal of between 2000 and 3000 calories to give the body enough fuel to replenish muscles before the next day's efforts. Fun, no?
Granted, your average office Joe is unlikely to be wolfing down that sort of calorie intake after his action-packed day of staring at a computer, walking to and from a car and then staring at a TV while occasionally glancing at another computer.
But what would Joe have to do to kick it like Cadel and burn four times the average amount of calories burned in a day? The answer, unsurprisingly, is plenty.
Assuming that an average Tour rider is 30 years old, 70kg and 175cm, his ordinary equivalent would have to spend more than 24 hours doing some everyday activities to come close to what a Tour competitor would burn ascending and descending l'Alpe D'huez over the course of 5-6 hours.
A solid 24 hours of cricket, golf, shooting baskets, table tennis, and even vigorous gardening or carpet laying might just require a few energy bars as you get close to 8000 calories burned.
If you wanted to knock those cals over a bit quicker you could try hitting a punching bag for 19 hours straight, getting on a rowing machine for 16 hours, skiing for 16 hours, cycling or circuit training for 14 hours or running (at 10km/h) for 12 hours. Adding some stairs to that run will get you over the line in just 7.5 hours.
If you need a competitive edge to get you there, 16 hours of tennis or soccer should do it, while a mere 9.5 hours of squash will work up a decent appetite for all those rice-based treats.
And if you don't mind looking vaguely ridiculous, you should know that just nine hours of rollerblading and 14 hours of ultimate frisbee will burn enough calories to match a Tour stage.
But you don't even have to get sporty. Fun everyday tasks like carrying groceries upstairs can easily get you there. And by easily we mean doing it for 15 hours straight. Cleaning the house for 37 hours will also do the trick.
The Lotharios among you might be rolling your eyes, assuming that forsaking a late night watching the Tour on TV for some calorie-busting bedroom antics will have you buff in no time.
Well, despite the multitude of articles extolling the exercise benefits of an active sex life, the truth isn't quite as, well, sexy.
The New England Journal of Medecine recently debunked such thinking - for men at least - calculating that an average chap burns about 3.5 calories per minute during sex.
Which means if you want to do it like a cyclist, you need to be able to, ahem, ride for 38 hours straight. Far be it from us to cast aspersions, but we've a feeling that might require a performance-enhancer or two.
And if you reckon that sort of filthy-minded thinking is best left to the youngsters, believe it or not the same amount of time spent fishing or playing lawn bowls should achieve the same calorie burn.
And finally, if you sit quietly and watch every minute of every stage of this year's Tour, you might come close to burning the same amount of calories as a rider does in one stage. It will just take you 113 hours instead of six.
Hours required to burn 8000 calories
Running up stairs: 7.5
Skipping rope: 11.5
Running (10km/h): 12
Ultimate frisbee: 14
Circuit training: 14
Cycling (casual): 14
Carrying groceries upstairs: 15
Soccer: 16 hours
Rowing machine: 16
Chopping wood: 19
Boxing (punching bag): 19
Cleaning gutters: 23
Cricket (batting and bowling): 23
Carpet laying: 24
Basketball (shooting baskets): 25
Table tennis: 28
Aqua Aerobics: 29
Sweeping the floor: 34
Cleaning the house: 37
Walking the dog: 37.5
Lawn bowls: 38
Sitting quietly watching TV: 113