Wondering how many calories you’re burning on your bike commute to work or weekend trail ride, or whether bicycling can help you with weight loss?
Read on to find out how many calories you can expect to burn riding a bike.
Calories Burned Biking: Outdoor
When we were kids, getting around and bikes just went foot in pedal.
We may not live on our bicycles anymore, but there are numerous benefits to biking for exercise, transportation, and fun.
Bicycling is an exercise that offers both a cardiorespiratory and muscular workout with low impact to joints and knees.
It can decrease stress, and you can easily speed up or slow down depending on your fitness level and goals.
Calories burned road biking
While you won’t get the same calorie-burning benefits during a leisurely bike commute that you would mountain biking, you can burn crazy cals on the road if you’re pedaling with enough intensity.
But say your commute is 15 minutes each way, and you weigh 150 pounds, you can still burn 232 calories just getting to work and back.
Better still, you won’t have to pay for parking.
Light effort (10 to 11.9 mph avg.) for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
309
386
464
541
618
696
773
Moderate effort (12 to 13.9 mph avg.) for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
364
455
546
636
727
818
909
Vigorous effort (14 to 15.9 mph avg.) for 1/2 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
455
568
682
796
909
1,023
1,136
Calories burned mountain biking
Navigating all those hills, inclines, and declines inherent to mountain biking leads to a more strenuous workout than a simple pedal across town.
A typical person weighing 150 pounds can expect to burn 477 calories in a half-hour pedaling uphill, and a whopping 715 calories in 45 minutes.
Of course, since the typical mountain biking experience also includes coasting down hills, your burn may vary.
General, for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
386
483
580
676
773
869
966
Uphill, vigorous, for 1/2 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
318
398
477
557
636
716
796
Competitive, racing, for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
727
909
1,091
1,273
1,455
1,636
1,818
Calories burned BMX biking
BMX biking doesn’t deliver quite the same burn as a vigorous trail biking experience with lots of hills, but this fun sport still packs a large calorie-burning punch: a 150-pound individual can expect to burn 580 calories in an hour.
General, for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
386
483
580
676
773
869
966
Calories Burned Biking: Indoor
Indoor biking is a great alternative to outdoor biking during inclement weather. Stationary-bike workouts offer the benefit of being better able to customize as well as monitor for results.
And you’ll find a variety of indoor biking classes at many gyms, health clubs, and spin studios.
Light to moderate effort (51 to 89 watts), for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
218
273
327
382
436
491
546
Moderate to vigorous effort (90 to 100 watts), for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
309
386
464
541
618
696
773
Vigorous effort (101 to 160 watts), for 1 hour:
Weight
100 lbs
125 lbs
150 lbs
175 lbs
200 lbs
225 lbs
250 lbs
Calories
400
500
600
700
800
900
1,000
Factors Affecting Calories Burned Biking
Your weight and the method of biking are just two variables that will affect calories burned, among other factors.
For example, if you keep pumping your legs during declines, you’ll burn more calories than if you simply coast.
Likewise, you’ll burn more fat if you mix up speed and intensity.
Steady-state exercise (peddling at low to moderate intensity throughout your workout) is a good way to increase cardiovascular health.
But high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — alternating periods of intense effort and rest — is just as effective in that regard, and perhaps even better when it comes to losing weight.
The caveat: You have to be healthy enough to do HIIT safely and effectively, so work your way up to it.
How to Calculate Calories Burned Biking
You can calculate your own caloric burn following these steps:
Look up the metabolic equivalents (METS) for the method(s) of biking you’d like to do in Arizona State University’s Compendium of Physical Activities.
Use Cornell University’s METS-to-calories calculator to convert the number from Step 1 to calories burned.
That figure may only be an estimate, but knowing that you just burned a few hundred calories while having a great time can definitely be motivating.
