Calories Burned Biking

Just look at the strong, fit bicyclists racing in Tour de France, and you know biking can transform your body into a lean machine, but calories burned biking depend on many factors. Learn all about calories burned biking so you can rev up your metabolism while riding your bike and feel inspired to pedal through that last difficult mile.  

Calculate your calories burned biking with a handy formula from Stanford University's Parking and Transportation Services Department. The calories burned biking depend on your body weight. For example, if you weigh 165 pounds and bike for 30 minutes, you will burn 302 calories. If you weigh 170 pounds, your calories burned biking for 30 minutes increase to 311. Your lean muscle mass influences the calorie burn, too. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn biking.

You can boost your biking calorie burn by attempting more hills, riding faster, and riding on more uneven or difficult terrain, which engages more of your core muscles. The weight of your bicycle or heavy loads in your bike panniers will also affect the calories burned biking. Heavier bikes or loads burn more calories.

You already know you can burn calories biking, but you might not know how efficient the biking calorie burn is. In fact, Exploratorium, the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception says 100 calories will fuel you for three miles of cycling, but those same 100 calories will can only move a car 280 feet. That makes calories burned biking calories well spent, saving you time over walking but requiring fewer snacks to keep you going.