As is the case with any exercise, the amount of calories you’ll burn from cycling is going to vary depending on factors like your weight, metabolic rate, the type of bike you own, and the speed at which you’re riding. On average, however, you’ll probably burn between 450 and 750 calories for every hour of cycling you do.
Today, we’ll be talking about calories burned from cycling, how to calculate them, and some other facts you might want to know about cycling as a form of exercise.
Calories burned Cycling Calculator
How Many Calories Do You Burn While Cycling?
Again, there’s no singular right answer to this question, as the number of calories you’ll burn from any given exercise will change depending on your height, weight, and metabolism. There are even more variables in cycling, as you have the type of bicycle you’re using, the resistance you’re facing, and the speed you’re travelling to consider as well.
For example, according to a study done by Harvard University, a 155-pound person cycling at a speed of about 12 to 13.9 miles per hour will burn about 596 calories an hour. However, the same person travelling just a little bit faster at 14 to 15.9 miles per hour would burn about 744 calories an hour.
How Many Calories Do You Burn After Cycling for 30 Minutes?
Once more, this will change considerably depending on several factors. Assuming you’re still a 155-pound individual travelling at a speed between 12 and 13.9 miles per hour, however, you can expect to burn about 298 calories after half an hour of cycling.
How Many Calories Do You Burn After Cycling for 1 Mile?
This will require even more assumptions on our part, but we can still give you a general idea of how many calories 1 mile of cycling will burn. If you are still a 155-pound person travelling at about 12 miles an hour, you will burn about 596 calories in an hour, as we’ve stated.
Going off of this figure, we can find out how many calories this person would burn in a mile by dividing 596 by 12 to give us 49.6, which is the number of calories you’ll burn in this instance.
What Burns More Calories: Road Bikes or Stationary Bikes?
In general, riding on a stationary bike and riding on a road bike is going to burn more or less the same amount of calories, since you’re performing the same action regardless of the setting. However, you’re likely to burn slightly more calories on a road bike than on a stationary bike.
This is because if you’re cycling on the road, you’ll likely have to deal with wind resistance and a variety of inclines that will cause you to work harder. In addition, there’s a wider variety of movement involved when you’re on a road bike, and since you have to pay more attention to your surroundings when you’re on a road bike, it can be a bit more engaging.
If you’re going cycling outside, there are also multiple types of cycling to consider, like mountain biking or BMX biking. If you’re into a more high-intensity type of biking like either of these, you’ll almost certainly burn more calories doing this than you would from riding a stationary bike.
Of course, pretty much any stationary bike you’ll find today will allow you to adjust the rolling resistance based on your preferences, so ultimately you’re not really going to miss out on much if you opt for stationary biking over road biking.
Is Cycling a Good Way to Lose Weight?
Cycling is an excellent way to lose weight no matter how you look at it. It’s an awesome cardio exercise, and because you’re riding on top of something rather than using your feet to get around, cycling takes a ton of stress off of your joints and can make it easier to maintain intense physical activity for longer.
However, for a cycling workout to be as effective as possible, you need to have a little bit of a strategy when it comes to how you cycle. Here are some of the things you can try while cycling that can help you lose weight a bit more easily:
Try High-Intensity Interval Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves alternating periods of low-intensity exercise with high-intensity exercise. If burning fat is your main goal, HIIT is one of the most effective ways to do so.
A HIIT cycling session might look like this: you start off pedalling at a low speed and a low resistance for maybe 2 or 3 minutes at a time. Then, when this time is up, increase the resistance and pedal as fast as you can for half a minute to a minute. Repeat this for about half an hour and you should have a pretty comprehensive workout.
Try Endurance Training
If you’re not too keen on really intense exercise, you could always just exercise at a moderate pace but for longer. Every time you go out cycling, try to stay out for just a little bit longer each time. Eventually, your endurance will go up and you’ll be able to cycle for way longer before you start feeling tired.
Try Cross-Training
If you want lots of exercise but don’t really feel like cycling all the time, why not try cross-training? Cross-training is just incorporating multiple types of exercises into the same workout plan. With cross-training, you can either alternate the exercise you’re doing depending on the day or have multiple exercises be a part of the same daily workout routine.
