How Many Calories are Burned by Cycling?
For bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort, which is a typical intensity activity under the general description of cycling activities, the average calories burned by a person weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg) in 30 minutes is 345 Calories. In one hour bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort will burn 689 Calories.
Summary of Cycling Information and Charts
To help you find the information you need, we first focus on bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort which is the most common cycling activity. This is followed by the activities with the highest burn rate which is bicycling, > 20 mph, racing, not drafting, and the lowest which is bicycling for leisure at 5.5 mph, giving the average calories burned per minute and per hour, along with food calorie equivalents and our new proprietary calories burned score© and calories burned rank©The calorie score gives an indication of the relative burn rate of the cycling activities measured as a percentage score out of 100 for the different cycling activities, where 100% is the maximum calorie burn which we estimate from running at a pace of 4 minutes per mile which is a world class speed for running for 30 mins.
The calorie rank is the rank of the cycling activity compared with all other 800 activities in our database to give an indication of the percentage of activities which have a higher or lower calorie burn. A rank of 1 means it is the highest ranking activity in terms or calorie burn and a rank of 100 means it is the activity with the lowest carlorie burn compared with all other activities.
Effect of Intensity on the Calorie Calculator
Although the above is a typical example for cycling, the calculator we use to determine the calories burnt depends on the intensity, duration and your body weight. At the bottom of the article we have a variety of different intensities which can be personalized based on your weight and the duration of the activities, using our free calculator.
Calorie Score and Calorie Rank for Cycling
At dietandfitnesstoday we have a new proprietary concept of a Calories Burned Score© and Calories Burned Rank©.
Calories Burned in 30 Minutes for a Typical cycling Activity
As we have previously mentioned Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort is a moderate and typical level of intensity for cycling and can be used as a general representative approximate measure for calories burnt by cycling. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) burns 345 Calories, while an average woman weighing 163 pounds (74 kg), in 30 minutes burns 296 Calories.
Calories Per Minute
The calories burned per minute for Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort is 11 Calories per minute, for a typical man and for a typical female is 10 Calories per minute.
Calories Per Hour
The calories lost in one hour is 689 calories for a typical man, and 591 calories in one hour for a typical woman.
How to Burn 100 Calories
To burn 100 calories for a typical male would require 9 minutes of the activity bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort and to burn 100 calories with the same cycling activity for a typical female would take 10 minutes.
Score and Rank
Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort has a Calorie Burned Score© of 32.70 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 32.70 % of the highest realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calorie Burned Rank© of 49.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 49.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 117.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort
Equivalent Activities
The following activities burn the same number of calories as Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort -
- actively coaching while playing sport with players
- calisthenics (e.g., push ups, sit ups, pull-ups, jumping jacks), vigorous effort
- carrying 25 to 49 lb load, upstairs
- carrying heavy loads (e.g., bricks, tools)
- carrying moderate loads up stairs, moving boxes 25-49 lbs
Comparison with Inactivity
30 mins of inactivity for example just sitting and watching television burns 43 calories for a typical man and 37 calories for a typical woman. Which means Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort burns 8.6 times more calories than the equivalent time of inactivity for an average man and 8.0 times more calories for an average female.
Food Calorie Equivalents
This level of 345 calories burnt by an average man bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort is equivalent to 0.6 Big Macs, 1.2 snickers bar, 2.9 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 1.2 cheeseburgers, 1.2 slices of pizza or 0.9 large blueberry muffins.
For an average female burning 296 calories is equivalent to 0.5 Big Macs, 1.1 snickers bar, 2.5 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 1.0 cheeseburgers, 1.0 slices of pizza or 0.8 large blueberry muffins.
Weight Loss from Cycling
To answer the question how many pounds will I lose from the activity cycling? Taking this example of bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort in 30 minutes, the weight loss for a typical man is a minimum of 0.05 pounds, and a typical woman would lose 0.04 pounds.
Based on 4 sessions per week of bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, the approximate time taken to lose one pound is 5 weeks for a man and 6 weeks for a woman, assuming no other changes in lifestyle or eating habits.
The same 4 sessions per week of bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, would lose 1kg in 2 weeks for a man and 3 weeks for a woman.
Cycling Activity with the Highest Calorie Burn
The highest number of calories burned for an average person is achieved by bicycling, > 20 mph, racing, not drafting. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man burns 681 Calories, while an average woman in 30 minutes burns 584 Calories.
This activity of bicycling, > 20 mph, racing, not drafting has a Calories Burned Score© of 67.70 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 67.70 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 9.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 9.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 6.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than bicycling, > 20 mph, racing, not drafting
Since this level of activity is in the top 15% of all activities it is not advised to attempt this level of activity if you are just starting out on a new fitness regime. In fact this level of intensity may be beyond all but the highest levels of fitness.
Cycling Activity with the Lowest Calorie Burn
The cycling activity with the lowest calories burnt is bicycling for leisure at 5.5 mph, which for an average man in 30 minutes burns 151 Calories, and for an average woman burns 129 Calories.
This activity of bicycling for leisure at 5.5 mph has a Calories Burned Score© of 12.40 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 12.40 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 80.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 80.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 486.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than bicycling for leisure at 5.5 mph
Average Calories Burned by Cycling
Based on the the list of 24 cycling activities, shown below, the average calories burned for an average male, weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) is 351 Calories for 30 minutes of cycling. The average burnt for an average female, weighing 163 pounds (74 kg) is 301 Calories for 30 minutes of cycling.
You can browse other common activities from our database, from the links below or visit the compendium at https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/home.