Calories burned cycling calculator
Outdoor rides, exercise bikes and spin classes, worked out for your body and counting only what the ride adds to your day.
Updated
Your result
For 45 minutes of cycling (12–14 mph) at 65 kg:
350extra kcal
On top of the 40 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 390 kcal.
In your TDEE it counts as about 250–350 kcal. The low end allows for the body offsetting about 28% of exercise calories, the average in a study of 1,754 adults.
Calories burned cycling: the key numbers
- 45 minutes of cycling adds about 150 to 450 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on your speed and effort.
- An hour of cycling (12–14 mph) adds about 470 extra kcal at 65 kg and 720 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 7 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 4 to 10 METs: each from published studies.
- Done on purpose, it counts in your TDEE at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses (Careau, 2021).
Counting it in your TDEE
If you do this on purpose, add it as exercise on the TDEE calculator. It counts there at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses.
For your body and time
| Activity | Extra kcal | Compendium value |
|---|---|---|
| Leisure, under 10 mph (16 km/h) | 150 | 4 METs, Compendium code 01010 |
| 10–12 mph (16–19 km/h) | 290 | 6.8 METs, Compendium code 01020 |
| 12–14 mph (19–22 km/h) | 350 | 8 METs, Compendium code 01030 |
| 14–16 mph (22–26 km/h) | 450 | 10 METs, Compendium code 01040 |
| Light effort | 150 | 4 METs, Compendium code 01214 |
| Moderate to hard | 250 | 6 METs, Compendium code 01220 |
| Spin class | 400 | 9 METs, Compendium code 01270 |
Each figure uses the activity’s cost from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives it in METs of oxygen use per kg of body weight, so the extra scales with your weight. Only the part above resting counts as extra. What you’d burn anyway comes from your own resting rate (Mifflin-St Jeor), not the standard 1 MET: in 769 adults, measured resting burn averaged 0.84 kcal per kg an hour against the standard 1 (Byrne, 2005).
Compare every activity on the calories burned calculator.
More activities: walking, running, lifting weights, swimming, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, rowing, gardening, golf, cleaning.
Short answers
How many calories does cycling burn?
It depends on your speed and effort, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, 45 minutes adds about 150 kcal (leisure, under 10 mph) up to about 450 (14–16 mph) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 230 to 690.
Does a spin class burn more than riding outside?
A 45-minute spin class adds about 400 kcal for a 65 kg woman. The same time outdoors adds about 350 at 12–14 mph and 450 at 14–16 mph.
How many calories does cycling 10 miles burn?
At 12–14 mph, 10 miles takes about 46 minutes and adds about 360 kcal for a 65 kg woman. At 10–12 mph it takes about 55 minutes and adds about 350.
Should I eat back the calories from cycling?
Partly. In a study of 1,754 adults, the body offset about 28% of the calories burned through activity, on average (Careau, 2021). So when 45 minutes of cycling adds about 350 kcal for a 65 kg woman, count about 250–350 of it.
Sources
Checked against each source on 22 and 23 October 2026
- Herrmann SD, et al. (2024). 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: a third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci 13(1):6–12. PMID 38242596
- Byrne NM, et al. (2005). Metabolic equivalent: one size does not fit all. J Appl Physiol 99(3):1112–9. PMID 15831804
- Careau V, et al. (2021). Energy compensation and adiposity in humans. Curr Biol 31(20):4659–66. PMID 34453886
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–7. PMID 2305711