Is all that exercise worth it?
Below are estimates of calories burned per pound per minute:
| Aerobic dance: | .062 calories |
| Basketball (full court, vigorous): | .097 calories |
| Bicycling (15 mph): | .049 calories |
| Bicycling (25 mph): | .139 calories |
| Canoeing (flat water, moderate pace): | .139 calories |
| Cross-country skiing (8 mph): | .104 calories |
| Golf (carrying clubs): | .045 calories |
| Handball: | .078 calories |
| Rowing (vigorous): | .097 calories |
| Running (5 mph): | .061 calories |
| Running (10 mph): | .114 calories |
| Soccer (vigorous): | .097 calories |
| Swimming (20 yards/min): | .032 calories |
| Swimming (50 yards/min): | .070 calories |
| Tennis (recreational): | .032 calories |
| Walking (at 3.5 mph): | .035 calories |
| Walking (at 4.5 mph): | .048 calories |
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*Note that activities performed
faster will burn more calorie per minute. This does not mean that
moving faster burns more calories, it means that when you
move faster, you move further during one minute.
How can you compute your calories burned? Let's try an example. Say you weigh 150 pounds and you are walking for one hour at a rate of 3.5 miles per hour. Multiply 150 pounds by .035 = 5.25 calories burned per minute. Therefore, you would burn 315 calories during your one hour walk (5.25 times 60 miuntes).
However, if you walk at a rate of 4.5 miles per hour, you will burn 7.2 calories per minute and 432 calories per hour. But you will have walked further (4.5 miles) than you walked with the 3.5 mph pace and, therefore, will burn more calories. |