bikeseattle.org

An article from Transmogrified asking an interesting question.

“The logic goes thus. Everything we eat is produced somewhere, processed somewhere and transported to our supermarket and from there to our homes. It takes energy to do that. A major contribution of the energy needed to produce, process and transport our food comes from fossil fuels..”

He goes on to say that a 154lb person riding at 10 mph will need to ride 125.7 miles to burn 36oo calories (evidentally what the daily US diet is). From there we get some MPG numbers based on if you’re vegan, veggie, or carnivorous.

They’re good numbers, but I thought I’d add a bit to this. At least for the average US male, 154 seems a bit light. I’m wondering if it’s closer to 200. This place says that it is 189.8 (from 2002 data).

So now we say a 189lb person riding at 10mph will need to ride 102.5 miles to burn 3600 calories, which then of course drops your average MPG number.

Interestingly enough the best way to increase your MPG is to lose weight, eat more, or ride slower. Of course riding at 10mph is about as strenuous as walking at 3.5mph, so I’ll ignore the “why not just walk” argument.

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