While sitting in the shade after a ride, chowing on Jen's delicious homemade bread, we discussed how expensive all of the "fake" food is that we eat while riding and running. Energy bars, powdered drink mixes, and those delicious Clif Bloks that in no way resemble anything from nature. During long, hard rides and runs their primary benefits are that they are easy to transport, don't spoil, and are readily digestible. But how much do we pay for those qualities?
The Cost of Real Food
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has compiled a "market basket " of food that provides a nutritious diet for eating at home. On a regular basis it updates how much it costs to buy all of those items in a grocery store. The menu is quite healthy--lots of fruits and vegetables and very little processed food, fried items or dessert (It's much more healthy than the way I eat...). They predict that a single male between the ages of 20 and 50 would spend $57.50 per week to buy the items in this basket. At 2800 calories per day, this works out to 29 cents per 100 calories.
The Cost of Triathlon Food
Here's a cost/calorie analysis of some typical food consumed during/after bike rides and runs.
Energy Bars Energy Drinks
|
|
Cost Per 100
Calories |
|
Energy Bars |
|
|
Clif Bar |
$0.42 |
|
Power Bar |
$0.53 |
Energy Drinks |
|
|
Hammer Heed drink mix (32 servings) |
$0.63 |
|
Hammer Perpetuem drink mix(16 servings) |
$0.63 |
|
Cytomax drink mix (27 servings) |
$0.52 |
|
Gatorade (51 ounce powdered mix from WalMart) |
$0.14 |
|
Energy Gels |
|
|
Clif Bloks energy chews |
$0.95 |
|
Gu enegy gel |
$0.95 |
|
Hammer Gel (27 serving jug) |
$0.85 |
These are just some typical prices; you can find cheaper prices by scouring the web and buying in bulk. Note that energy gels are the most expensive (but generally the most convenient for running), and energy bars are the least expensive (but hard to digest on the run or during a hard ride). A large container of powdered Gatorade is by far the cheapest--but note that you can't make a super-concentrated mix like the other drinks. In other words, you're stuck with 150 calories per bike bottle, whereas I can easily put 600-700 calories of Heed into a bike bottle.
The Nutritional Cost of a Bike Ride
|
Source of
Calories |
Number of
Calories |
Cost Per 100
Calories |
Cost |
|
Hammer Heed |
500 |
$0.63 |
$3.15 |
|
Clif Bar |
240 |
$0.42 |
$1.00 |
|
Real Food |
860 |
$0.29 |
$2.50 |
Grand Total
|
1600 |
|
$6.65 |
The total cost of $6.65 works out to $1.66 per 10 miles. Note that this is a conservative cost; it doesn't include the espresso smoothies we stopped for on the way home or the fact that I eat at restaurants a lot (both a lot more expensive than eating at home)--I use the USDA market basket cost simply as a consistent guideline to illustrate how cheap it is to eat real food.
Driving Would Have Cost Less in Fuel
I paid $2.95 per gallon of gas here in San Diego last week. I drive a Toyota Prius, which gets 50 mpg. Figured another way, it takes $0.59 of gas to drive 10 miles. I would have consumed $2.35 in gas to drive the same 40 miles that we rode. Even a car that gets 25 mpg takes only $1.18 to drive 10 miles, or $4.72 to drive the 40 miles. Note that piling all three of us riders into the car would have cost about the same in gas (it would increased the net weight of the car by less than 10%-not enough to make much a difference in fuel economy). Elizabeth and Jen burned fewer calories than I did (because they're much lighter), but amongst the three of us we probably burned $15 worth of food during the ride.
What About a Real-Life Commuting Example?
To be fair, most people don't commute 40 miles over the mountains (but they do go for a 40-mile recreational scenic drive, which is more the equivalent of what our ride was). I dug up some Powermeter files from when I was just out tooling around on mostly flat terrain, which is the type of commuting most people do (especially when trying to not work up a sweat). Using a typical example, I averaged 164 watts and burned 385 calories to ride 12 miles in 45 minutes. This works out to 320 calories per 10 miles (a full 20% less than riding hard through the mountains). Since I don't need food during such a short ride, I can replenish those calories with inexpensive "real" food at a cost of $0.93 per 10 miles (320 calories @ $0.29 per 100 calories). Compare this to the fuel costs of $0.59 per 10 miles of my Prius, or $1.18 per 10 miles of a typical car.
Don't Shoot the Messenger
No, I'm not necessarily claiming that it's cheaper to commute by car than by bike. I've only looked at fuel costs (food versus gasoline). I'm not considering fixed capital costs (the cost of the bike versus the cost of the car), maintenance costs (tires, tune-ups, etc.), the value of time spent/saved, parking costs, or insurance. I'm also not considering the presumed lower health care costs that come with being a fit cyclist --or on the other side of the coin the injury costs of cycling (how many cyclists do you know with broken collarbones?). There are a ton of variables that go into this equation and will vary for each individual.
But my calculations show that, for me, fueling my car with gasoline costs less than fueling my body with food to ride the same distance by bicycle. I haven't figured out why this is: I may need a mechanical engineer to give me data on the efficiency of internal combustion engines. I do know that the human body is quite inefficient (much of our generated power is wasted as heat).
|
Type of
Transport |
Cost in fuel
(food or gasoline) per 10 miles |
|
Cycle hard through the mountains |
$1.66 |
|
Cycle easy on
the flats (commuting) |
$0.93 |
|
Drive a typical car (25 mpg) |
$1.18 |
|
Drive a Prius (50 mpg) |
$0.59 |
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