Cycling Calories Burned Calculator

Cycling calorie burn depends on your body weight, the intensity of effort (measured by speed or power output), and duration. The most accurate method uses MET values (Metabolic Equivalent of Task), which are standardized effort multipliers.

Calorie Formula (MET method):

Calories = MET × Body Weight (kg) × Duration (hours)

MET values for cycling (from the Compendium of Physical Activities):

Worked example: Rider weight: 80 kg (176 lbs) Speed: 13 mph (moderate effort) → MET = 8.0 Duration: 1.5 hours Calories = 8.0 × 80 × 1.5 = 960 kcal

Power-based, for cyclists with a power meter

A power meter measures the mechanical work you actually did, which makes it far more accurate than any speed band. The arithmetic runs in two steps.

Step 1, mechanical work: watts × seconds ÷ 1,000 = kilojoules

Step 2, metabolic cost: divide by gross efficiency, which for trained cyclists sits between 22 and 25%

Worked example: 200 watts for 60 minutes (3,600 seconds).

• Work = 200 × 3,600 ÷ 1,000 = 720 kJ
• At 24% efficiency: 720 ÷ 0.24 = 3,000 kJ of metabolic energy
• 3,000 kJ ÷ 4.184 = 717 kcal

The shortcut every cycling computer uses: kilojoules of work ≈ kilocalories burned, one for one. That looks like a coincidence and is not. Converting kJ to kcal divides by 4.184, and dividing by roughly 24% efficiency multiplies by about 4.17. The two nearly cancel. So 720 kJ on your head unit means you burned about 720 kcal, and you can read the number straight off the screen.

Key variables: Wind resistance increases calorie burn sharply above 15 mph. Climbing adds 30–60 calories per 100 feet of elevation gain per 100 lbs of body weight.