Cycling Calorie Calculator
Estimate the calories you burn on the bike from your weight, time, and intensity — or get an accurate figure straight from your average power.
The basics
Calories burned cycling, explained
Estimate without a power meter
The simple method uses METs — a standard measure of exercise intensity. Calories burned ≈ MET × your body weight in kilograms × hours ridden. Easy spinning is around 4 METs, a steady endurance ride about 6, and hard racing 10-12. It’s an approximation, because it infers effort from pace rather than measuring it, but it’s close enough for most riders.
The accurate way: power
If you ride with a power meter or smart trainer, you can do better. Your total work in kilojoules — average power multiplied by time — is almost exactly equal to the calories you burned. That’s not a coincidence: the human body is roughly 24% efficient, and the conversion from kilojoules to dietary calories happens to cancel that out, leaving a near one-to-one relationship.
Why kilojoules ≈ calories
It’s the tidiest number in cycling: 600 kJ of work is about 600 calories burned. Because power meters measure work directly, the power method sidesteps the guesswork in weight-and-intensity estimates. In Ride Cave, every ride logs both, so you always know what you spent.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories does cycling burn?
It depends on your weight, how long you ride, and how hard. A 70 kg rider burns roughly 400-600 calories an hour from a steady to brisk pace, and well over 800 at race intensity. Enter your details above for a personal estimate.
How do you calculate calories burned cycling?
Without a power meter, calories ≈ MET × body weight in kg × hours, where MET is a number for the intensity. With a power meter, it is more precise: your kilojoules of work (average power × time) are almost exactly equal to calories burned.
Are kilojoules the same as calories on the bike?
Nearly. One kilojoule of mechanical work corresponds to about one dietary calorie burned, because the body is roughly 24% efficient and the kJ-to-kcal conversion cancels that out. So if your head unit shows 600 kJ, you burned roughly 600 calories.
Do I need a power meter to estimate calories?
No. The weight-and-intensity estimate is close enough for most riders. A power meter just makes it more accurate, because it measures the actual work you did instead of assuming it from your speed.