How Many Calories Does Mountain Biking Burn?

A boring diet might not be the way you want to go, as every bit of life matters a lot to you. Biking is one of the ways to burn calories that helps us to stay in shape. It’s not an overwhelming exercise, rather it’s fairly easier, and people of all ages can easily do it.

MTB is one of those intense exercises that burn a considerable amount of calories, which is something quite easier for you to do if you are a pro biker.

Knowing how many calories mountain biking burns will help you to achieve your daily calorie-burning goal. It’s not that you can achieve all your fitness goals just by riding a mountain bike for hours and hours. However, it would be extremely helpful to stay focused on the journey of burning as many calories as you can.

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How Many Calories Does Mountain Bike Burn?

According to Harvard Medical University, a man—who weighs 185 lbs.—can burn around 500 calories by half an hour of cycling. That makes more than a thousand calories in an hour. Yet, it depends on your riding style and the terrain type on which you ride.

According to Mountain biking in general

According to Mountain biking uphill

Calculate Actual Calories Burned on Flat Road

Real Cyclist Example

If a bicycle rider travels 20 miles per hour, his weight is 70 kilograms.

Then per hour, he will burn 777 Calaroeis.

Does Mountain Biking Burn More Calories than Road Biking?

If you are really serious about burning a good amount of calories, mountain biking is the option. An off-road track with a mountain bike, and you are ready to go.

Road bikes are designed to take less time and energy on a plain road. However, mountain bikes are harder to pedal and have a very upright riding position that makes you burn more calories.

Factors that Affect the Calories You Burn Mountain Biking

Although mountain biking is one of the most effective ways to burn calories, there are some factors that influence the amount of calorie burning.

• Bike Size
• Cycling Cadence
• Track/Terrain
• Gender
• Time and Speed
• Distance
• Effort
• Heart Rate

Bike Size

Apart from the weight, tire size matters a lot regarding burning calories. Riding a bike with 29er requires less effort than what it takes to ride a 26er cycle. Due to the small dimension of 26 inches tires, you need to pedal more. Thus, more calories get burned. Have a look at the mountain bike size!

Cycling Cadence

Cycling cadence means the pedal revolutions per minute. According to the research of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, pedaling at a cadence of 80 rpm can let the rider produce some serious amount of power without losing any efficiency. So, the RPM counts; the harder you pedal, the more you can burn the excess fat.

Track/Terrain

There are different types of mountain biking; cross country, trail riding, all-mountain also called “Enduro,” downhill, and freeride. Choosing a different track will lead you to a different amount of calorie loss. Again, a harder and tougher track will make you shade more calories.

Gender

According to Desroches, while a healthy 165lbs. male rider can burn 600 calories per hour, an average female rider can burn up to 500 calories.

Time and Speed

Based on what we have discussed so far, you can calculate how many calories you can burn riding for a certain period of time. Again, according to Harvard University, biking12-14 miles per hour at a moderate speed can cause a 155 lbs. individual to burn around 300 calories in just 30 minutes. As you ride faster, you will burn more.

Distance

A 150 lbs. healthy man can burn up to 50 calories by riding 1 mile.

Therefore, 10 miles of biking can burn around 500 calories. Again, it depends on the other factors that I’m mentioning in this section.

Effort

The more rugged the terrains are, the more effort you will need. It can go up to 800 calories per hour, depending on the terrain. When on average flat roads will need less effort, and it shades around 13 calories per minute.

Heart Rate

Mountain biking needs a lot of oxygen flowing to large muscle groups. That can make the heart work steadily, developing your heart’s fitness up to 7%.

Slow Biking vs. Fast Biking

You want to either have a nice slow mountain bike ride for a generous amount of time, or you can have a fast and steady ride for a short time to burn the calories you need to burn. It is all up to you.

For burning 500 calories, you will need to pedal for more hours in slow biking. On the other hand, fast biking will take a lot less time to burn 500 calories because you will need to put more effort, and your arms, legs, and muscles of other body parts will move a lot more.

Biking vs. Running vs. Walking

These are all popular forms of exercise that bring great physical benefits. If you are to compare the exercises side by side, walking is a more relaxed and comfortable way to burn calories.

Running is far more intensive than walking, and it’s considered the best form of cardio exercise. After swimming, running is the best exercise from all aspects, which also burns way more calories than walking in terms of exercising for the same period.

Biking stays in between walking and running. This form of exercise burns more calories than walking, but less than what a person can burn by running. If you have issues that make you unable to run, biking would be the most preferable way of burning excess fats from your body.

How Do I Get to a More Accurate Estimate of Calories Used? 

Calories will burn when you engage in some physical activities, even if it’s about walking around the garden a few times.

As you are interested to know the accurate number of calories that you can burn while doing exercise, I would recommend you to use a fitness tracker or app that tells you the exact calories that you burn doing a certain exercise.

For example, if you bike for one and a half hours, start the fitness tracker or app before you take the first pedal. And see the information regarding burned calories after you finish the ride.

What’s a Good Estimate for Calories Burned per Hour?

It’s hard to tell how many calories a person burns during a day, as the individual has to do different things at different caliber. However, there are some estimated numbers depending on the activities.

According to the University of Washington, our body uses 15 calories per pound of our body weight while doing high-intensity activities on a regular basis. For people older than 55, their body uses 13 calories per pound of body weight at low activity levels.

Depending on your age and activity level, it would be from 95-105 calories per hour that our body burns each day.

Strava

It’s a fitness, and exercise tracking app specially made for athletes and people who regularly do some sort of physical exercise, be it walking, running, biking, swimming, even yoga. The app tracks and analyzes progress over time.

If you are a biker, you will be able to find new places to explore, get engaged with the racing community nearby your location, and get benefited from many features that are available for premium subscribers.

For those who are serious about burning excess fats by mountain biking, they will find the app extremely useful and super convenient to use.

Is biking good for burning calories?

In my personal opinion,  yes.  I have been biking since I was a child and  I can testify that it is one of the best exercises for burning calories  and it also helps you stay in shape.

It also helps with your cardiovascular health (improves heart strength) which will result in better blood circulation throughout your body. If you want to stay healthy, this is one cheap way to do so. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old; biking is very popular among people of all ages.

Can mountain biking help lose weight?

If you want to lose weight, why not take up mountain biking?

A number of riders who have lost weight over the years claim that climbing hills and mountains on their bikes are the best way to get rid of fat. And they say mountain biking can be a very fun activity too.

It has been estimated that 42% ( in 2017-2018) of the American population are obese and this figure continues to rise every year. Obesity can lead to life-threatening conditions.

So losing weight is essential for your health. If you could combine losing weight with having fun, wouldn’t it be even better?

Well, maybe… According to some studies, what you eat may play an important role in helping you burn calories while cycling. There’s also evidence that suggests that eating certain foods before a ride could help you lose weight.

Final Words

Burning calories through riding a bicycle depends on lots of aspects. You need to have a proper plan first; how many calories does mountain biking burn? Calculate and plan according to it.

If you haven’t started it yet, start slowly. It can be more or less 15 minutes a day or every other day. Soon, the biking time will increase gradually, and you will notice you are shedding a considerable amount of excess fats from your body.

Frequently Asked Questions