How many calories does cycling burn?
Ever jumped off youur bike and wondered how many calories your pedalling has expended? We researched the answer for you.
Knowing how many calories cycling burns enables you to more closely match your energy intake and expenditure to maximise performance and manage weight.
Scientists use calories to measure the quantity of energy in food and drink. We use this energy to keep our body functioning as it should and move when we exercise.
Without access to a laboratory, it’s impossible to calculate our calorie expenditure particularly accurately. But using different methods, we can estimate how many calories we burn while biking.
In this article, we’ll run through these methods, explaining which is most accurate, and compare calories expenditure from cycling to other sports like running.
How to measure how many calories cycling uses?
In scientific trials, researchers use a technique called direct calorimetry to calculate calorie burn.
A mask over the participant’s face captures the gas they expel and analyses the content of it to approximate how many calories they are using.
The doubly labelled water method, which estimates calorie expenditure by recording someone’s excretion of water containing a detectable isotope, doesn’t have to be conducted in a lab.
A research team led by Jose L. Areta from Liverpool John Moore University used this technique to estimate a professional cyclist’s energy balance during the 2023 Tour de France Femmes. However, it’s not believed to be as accurate as direct calorimetry.
Away from the women and men in white coats, you can estimate how many calories your bike ride burns with simpler tools.
Convert from kilojoules
The best power meters will estimate the number of calories burned while cycling by recording your mechanical work in kilojoules.
Because we are only about 25 per cent efficient at converting energy from food into force at the pedals (much energy is wasted in heat production), one kilojoule is equivalent to one calorie burned.
In the same way, the power meter integrated into the best turbo trainers will also record kilojoules and your calorie expenditure while cycling indoors.
Using a power meter is much less accurate than the more scientific methods described above. It makes assumptions about your mechanical efficiency and the accuracy of your power meter.
If either or both of these are out, the calorie burn estimation could differ by 1,000 calories from the actual expenditure on a long bike ride.
Wear a heart-rate monitor
You can also get an idea of how many calories cycling burns by wearing the best heart-rate monitors.
Bike computers and ride-tracking apps, like Strava, estimate your cycling calorie expenditure by feeding your average heart rate during a ride into their own algorithm.
The main downside is that these algorithms are based on population averages and penalises fitter athletes.
If cyclist A rides at 250 watts at 130 beats per minute (bpm) and cyclist B holds 200 watts at 130bpm, the algorithm will spit out a similar total calorie burn for each.
However, because cyclist A has ridden at a higher absolute intensity, they will have expended more energy.
As a result, these generic heart-rate algorithms can undercount calorie burn by 3-20 per cent, according to a 2019 study by the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
You should, as these Belgium researchers did, use a chest-strap heart-rate monitor because fitness trackers and GPS multisport watches are even less accurate.
That said, these devices are likely to have become better at measuring heart rate and estimating calorie expenditure in recent years.
Estimate from MET values
Without power or heart-rate measurement, you can estimate how many calories you burn while cycling using an online calorie calculator.
Most of these calorie calculators use MET units, your resting metabolic rate (the energy you use in a day without exercise) and exercise duration.
Calorie expenditure = resting metabolic rate x MET x (duration in hours divided by 24)
Different types of ride have different MET values:
- Leisure ride, less than 10mph = 4 MET
- Riding to/from work, self-selected pace = 6.8 MET
- Steady ride, 12-13.9mph = 8 MET
- Hard ride, 16-19mph, not drafting = 12 MET
You can find a database of MET values for most physical activities online.
Which sport burns more calories: swimming, running or cycling?
Swimming, running and cycling can all burn a lot of calories, depending on the duration and intensity of your exercise. These factors are heavily influenced by your ability, so the fitter you are the more calories you’ll expend.
Elite runners and cyclists will burn through more than 1000 calories per hour at their tempo pace, for example. Less fit amateurs will use less energy at their moderate pace.
MET values for running range from 9.8 at 10 minute mile pace to 14.5 at six minute miles.
Even if you use a bit less energy while cycling compared to running, most people can cycle for longer than they can run. This will burn more calories in total.
Strong swimmers can expend a lot of energy when pushing the pace. In terms of MET values, fast freestyle equates to 9.8 MET while a steadier front crawl is equivalent to 5.8 MET.
But the best swimmers are unlikely to be able to swim for as long as runners and cyclists, resulting in a lower total calorie burn.
Jack Evans
