Cycling calorie calculator

If you ride with a power meter, calories burned are almost exactly your kilojoules of work: 180 W for 2 hours is 1,296 kJ, about 1,290 kcal. Without power, the calculator estimates from heart rate or average speed, which is less precise. Pick the method that matches your data.

Calculator

I have

Ride time

Hours:minutes:seconds

Average power

Calories burned

1,291kcal

1,296 kJ of work

Most accurate: within about 5 to 10 %.

Power: kcal = kJ ÷ (4.184 × 24 % efficiency), so kcal ≈ kJ. HR: Keytel et al. (2005). Speed: 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities METs.

How the cycling calorie calculator works

The calculator gives you three ways to estimate the energy you burn on a ride, depending on the data you have. Power is the most accurate, heart rate is a rough estimate and average speed is the roughest. It is one of the free LeCoach cycling calculators.

Method	What you enter	How it works	Accuracy
Power	Average power and ride time	kcal = kJ ÷ (4.184 × 24 % efficiency)	Within about 5 to 10 %
Heart rate	Average heart rate, weight, age, sex, ride time	Keytel et al. (2005) equations	Can be 20 % or more off
Speed	Average speed, weight, ride time	MET × kg × hours	Ignores wind, hills and drafting

Worked example. You ride for 2 hours at an average of 180 W. Your work is 180 × 7,200 seconds ÷ 1,000 = 1,296 kJ, and the calculator shows about 1,291 kcal. With heart rate instead, a 40-year-old man weighing 75 kg who averages 140 bpm for 2 hours gets about 1,612 kcal. From speed alone, 25 km/h for 2 hours at 75 kg gives 10 MET × 75 × 2 = 1,500 kcal. Three methods, three answers: use the best data you have.

Why kilojoules and calories are almost the same

A power meter measures the mechanical work you put into the pedals, in kilojoules. Your body burns far more energy than that, because most of it leaves as heat. Cyclists typically turn only about 20 to 25 % of the energy they burn into work at the pedals. The calculator assumes 24 %.

Two numbers then nearly cancel out. One kilocalorie is 4.184 kJ, so kcal burned = kJ of work ÷ (4.184 × 0.24) = kJ ÷ 1.004. In practice, kcal ≈ kJ: if you know your kilojoules, you know your calories.

Efficiency is still the main source of error. At 20 % efficiency the 1,296 kJ ride above would cost about 1,550 kcal; at 25 % about 1,240 kcal.

Average power	Work per hour	Calories per hour
100 W	360 kJ	about 359 kcal
150 W	540 kJ	about 538 kcal
200 W	720 kJ	about 717 kcal
250 W	900 kJ	about 896 kcal
300 W	1,080 kJ	about 1,076 kcal

Body weight does not appear in the power method. The watts already contain the effect of your weight, the hills and the wind.

Calories from speed: MET values

Without power or heart rate, the calculator uses MET values for road cycling from the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities. One MET is roughly the energy you use sitting still, about 1 kcal per kg of body weight per hour.

Average speed	MET	kcal per hour at 75 kg
Under 16.1 km/h (under 10 mph)	4.0	300
16.1–19.2 km/h (10–11.9 mph)	6.8	510
19.3–22.4 km/h (12–13.9 mph)	8.0	600
22.5–25.6 km/h (14–15.9 mph)	10.0	750
25.7–32.1 km/h (16–19 mph)	12.0	900
32.2 km/h and over (20 mph and over)	15.8	1,185

Speed says little about effort: a solo ride into a headwind and a sheltered group ride can share an average speed and cost very different amounts.

Want this worked out for you every day? LeCoach builds your training around your own numbers.

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Indoor versus outdoor rides

Power works the same indoors and outdoors. 200 W on a calibrated smart trainer is the same work as 200 W on the road.
Heart rate often runs higher indoors at the same power, because there is no cooling airflow. That pushes the heart rate estimate up.
Do not use virtual speed from an indoor app with the speed method. The MET values are for real outdoor riding. Use power or heart rate instead.

More in indoor vs outdoor cycling training.

Calories, eating and body weight

Whatever your reason for checking calories, treat the number as an estimate, not an exact budget.

Fuel the work. Long or hard rides need carbohydrate before, during and after. Under-fuelling makes sessions feel harder and recovery slower. Our guide to fueling cycling workouts explains how.
Look at weeks, not single rides. Day-to-day weight jumps up and down with water and food in your gut.
Be gentle with deficits around hard training. If weight loss is a goal, cycling for weight loss covers how to do it without losing the quality of your training.
Ask for help when it feels hard. If eating around training feels stressful, or you are losing weight without trying, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian.

Common mistakes

Using normalised power. Work comes from average power, zeros included. Normalised power overstates it.
Adding resting calories on top. The result already includes what you would have burned sitting still for those hours.
Trusting a device without power data. It has to estimate from heart rate or speed, with the same limits as this calculator.
Using speed for group rides. Drafting can save a lot of energy, so the speed method overestimates.

For day-to-day fuelling, read daily nutrition for cyclists. You can also ask LeCoach how much to eat around tomorrow's ride, and it answers from the workout's planned duration and intensity.

Sources

Ainsworth BE et al. 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities: a second update of codes and MET values. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2011;43(8):1575-1581.
Keytel LR et al. Prediction of energy expenditure from heart rate monitoring during submaximal exercise. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2005;23(3):289-297.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories do you burn cycling for an hour?

It depends mostly on your power. At an average of 100 W you burn about 359 kcal an hour, at 200 W about 717 kcal and at 300 W about 1,076 kcal. Without power, the 2011 Compendium puts a 75 kg rider at 22.5 to 25.6 km/h at about 750 kcal an hour, but wind, hills and drafting change that a lot.

Is a kilojoule the same as a calorie on a bike?

Almost, for the kilojoules your power meter shows. Those kilojoules are work at the pedals. Because your body is only about 24 % efficient and one kilocalorie is 4.184 kJ, the two effects cancel out and calories burned come out very close to kilojoules of work. A 1,296 kJ ride is about 1,291 kcal.

Is the calorie count on my bike computer accurate?

With a power meter, it is usually close, because it can count the actual work you did. Without power, the device has to estimate from heart rate, speed or both. Those estimates can be 20 % or more off, because heat, fatigue, wind and drafting change heart rate and speed without changing the energy you burn in the same way.

Do you burn more calories cycling indoors?

Not at the same power. 200 W for an hour is the same work indoors and outdoors. Indoor rides often feel harder and push heart rate higher because there is no cooling airflow, so heart rate based estimates may read higher indoors. Use power when you have it, and never use virtual speed with the speed method.

Does body weight change how many calories I burn cycling?

With the power method, weight does not enter the formula, because watts already include the effect of your weight. A heavier rider simply needs more watts to ride at the same speed, especially uphill. The speed and heart rate methods use weight directly, because they have no other way to estimate the work.

Should I eat back the calories I burn cycling?

For long or hard rides, you need to replace a good part of them, mainly with carbohydrate, to recover and train well. If you are trying to lose weight, a steady, gentle approach over weeks protects your training better than big deficits on hard days. If you are unsure what suits you, a registered sports dietitian can help.

Why does Strava or Intervals.icu show more calories than this calculator?

We calculate work in kilojoules and divide by about 24 % efficiency, so kcal roughly equals kJ for power-based rides. Strava and some other apps often use a heart-rate based estimate instead, which tends to run higher because heart rate rises with heat, fatigue and dehydration even when the power you are producing has not changed.