How Many Calories Does Inline Skating Burn?

According to recent medical research, inline skating is considered to be the third topmost activity that can help improve physical fitness and maintain overall well-being. According to the researchers, inline skating is even better than jogging in the context of burning calories. So, how many calories does inline skating burn?

For the average person, inline skating burns around 8 to 6 calories every minute when done at a rate of 20 MPH. That calculates to about 520 calories every hour. A person 185-pound may burn 622 calories every hour.

Many factors influence caloric expenditure [source] during physical activity or exercise. Let us examine how these factors play a role during inline skating and figure out how many average calories a person can burn during the sport.

Calories Burned During Inline Skating

The number of calories you burn during an inline skating session may depend on your weight and skill levels besides all other factors. The heavier a person, the more calories he or she burns. Likewise, the faster you skate, the more calories you burn. Following figures give a rough idea about the number of calories burned while inline skating at normal speed by people of different weights [source]:

• A person weighing 125-pound may burn 420 calories every hour
• A person weighing 155-pound may burn 520 calories every hour
• A person weighing 185-pound may burn 622 calories every hour

Do the calorie counts vary from person to person for similar exercises? Yes, the calorie counts may vary from person to person for similar exercises depending on age, gender, weight, and body type. As a general rule, intense strenuous activities require more calories. Consider the following calorie counts of different activities performed for 60 minutes by a person [source]

Calories burned per hour

Factors That Influence Caloric Expenditure

We evaluate the effectiveness of an exercise or sport by the number of calories we burn during the activity. Accurate tracking of the caloric expenditure serves as a powerful tool to fuel your interest and long-term engagement in the activity. However, various personal factors may influence the actual amount of calories that your body burns during an exercise [source]. These factors include:

Your Age

Studies suggest that the calorie requirements of a person maximize at the age of 25 and then gradually decline by 2% every 10 years in succession. This implies that you may require around 2,200 calories for maintaining your weight at the age of 25 years, however, the requirement will be only 2,156 by the age of 35. The calorie requirement will be 2,113 by the time you reach 45 years of age and 2,071 at age 55. The graph will progress accordingly.

Your aging body usually replaces muscle with fat. This process burns fewer calories as you age. Therefore, you need to stay active and perform muscle-strengthening exercises to keep your muscle mass intact. A recent study on elders suggests that you can develop muscle mass at any age.

Your Gender

It is a scientific fact that an adult man has about 10-20% more muscles and less body fat in comparison to a woman of approximately the same size and age. Since muscles burn more calories than fat, a man usually requires 5-10% higher calories than a woman of the same age. However, the calorie requirement for women may vary under special circumstances such as pregnancy and breast-feeding.

Your Metabolism

It is a well-known fact that a living body requires a minimum number of calories for maintaining vital body functions, such as breathing or keeping the heart beating. The minimum number of calories required is scientifically termed the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

You can quickly calculate your BMR by multiplying your current weight by 11 if you are a man or 10 if you are a woman. On average, a woman weighing 150-pound may require around 1,500 calories per day while a man weighing 175-pound needs around 1,925 calories. The body may require additional calories for digestion and activity.

Your Genetic Blueprint

You may inherit the metabolic rate from your family, which determines the evaluation of calories your body will require to function naturally. You cannot change this inheritance. Any inherited metabolic diseases such as those affecting your thyroid may make your calories bun too fast or too slow. Further, a malfunctioning thyroid gland may vandalize your efforts to lose weight. A simple test may help your physician to identify the soundness of your thyroid function.

Your Fitness Level and Body Shape

Your fitness level and body shape influence the number of calories required by your body primarily because muscles burn more calories than fat. Solid body-stature implies more muscle than fat and a higher rate of metabolism. Likewise, more fat and less muscle signify a lower metabolic rate.

Your weight may directly define the number of calories you burn. The higher you weigh, the more calories your body burns during exercise. As per MayoClinic.com, a person weighing 160-pounds can burn around 423 calories while swimming for an hour. A person weighing 240-pounds, exercising for an hour can burn around 632 calories during a single session.

Similar reports are provided by the Harvard Health Publications, which suggests that a person weighing 125-pounds can burn 240 calories while running at a pace of 5mph. The same person burns 495 calories at a pace of 10 mph while running for 30-minutes. However, a person weighing 185-pounds will burn around 355 calories running at 5mph and 733 calories at a pace of 10 mph for about 30 minutes.

Your Activity Level

You burn calories while performing different activities. Burning more calories than you consume help you lose weight. Further, the type of exercise you pick as well as the duration and intensity of those exercises during a given training session determine the number of calories you burn. For example, a 30-minute jog may burn more calories than a 30-minute walk on an even surface.

Further, the duration of your exercise may significantly influence your caloric expenditure. A review published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in the year 2009 reports that an exercise session of over 250 minutes every week may lead to significant weight loss. Further, a report by the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, published in 2008, suggests that a person must include 150-300 minutes for moderate-intensity aerobic exercises in a weekly regimen irrespective of the weight-management goals.

Some activities help you burn calories even after you stop exercising. You can maximize the number of calories you burn during a workout session. For this, you do not need to work every muscle fiber in your body. Free weight exercises are highly advantageous over weight-machine exercises. Many people incorporate exercise balls into their training routines.

Also, cardio exercises are preferred over strength training to burn more calories. Strength training exercises aimed at maintaining and increasing muscular tissue. These exercises may promote the burning of calories over a longer duration, even at rest.

Your speed also influences the number of calories burnt [source]. For example, running at a fast pace may boost your caloric expenditure. According to a report by Harvard Health Publication, you can burn around 240-355 calories by running at a pace of 5mph for 30 minutes. You can increase the caloric expenditure to 495-733 calories if you run at a pace of 10mph for the same duration, suggesting a remarkable increase of almost 100-percent.

Your Rest Period

The amount of time you take between exercises may influence your caloric expenditure. You can observe a tradeoff between your rest period and the weight you can lift afterward. In general, the lesser the time you take off in between, the smaller the weight can more likely lift.

You need to find a happy medium for using your rest period so that you can still lift heavy weight without getting fatigued. You should aim to maintain a range for the weight level where you feel fatigued within 8-10 reps. You can afterward utilize a rest period of 45-60 seconds in between the workout. In this manner, you can maximize the calorie burn without compromising the strength accretions

Your Sleep Status

Your sleep status influences the number of calories you burn during your workout program. In a nutshell, the duration and quality of sleep indirectly affect the energy you may have during your workout sessions. This implies that you will work harder, push heavier weights, reduce the rest period and witness a greater calorie burn in the process if you are having an ample amount of good sleep.

Your Environment

Activities like running outside involve many factors of the environment at play, which may influence your caloric expenditure directly or indirectly. For example, shifting terrain with uneven surface forces your body to work out your muscles and maintain balance.

Other environmental factors include the density of air, which may decrease or increase your caloric expenditure depending on the elevation of the terrain. When you run at high altitudes where the air is thin, you require fewer calories in comparison to a lower elevation. Further, a steady wind blowing against you can impose an additional challenge. Likewise, cycling with the wind can save you about 26-38% energy.

A report by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) suggests that hot weather may increase the number of calories you burn during the workout. This is because your body requires additional energy to cool itself. Again, exercising in affordably cold weather may decrease the calories burnt. According to ACE, moderate to warm temperatures are best for long-duration exercise to burn more fat and improve overall caloric expenditure.

Factors That Do Not Influence Caloric Expenditure

Many fitness devices enable you to take an accurate estimate of your caloric expenditure during a workout session. All you need to do is to enter your correct weight and age to have a proper evaluation of your fitness level. There are certainly other factors, which are believed to influence caloric consumption, however, they do not have any impact on the number of calories you burn. These include:

Eating Before an Activity

Whether you eat before exercise or not, it will not change the number of calories you burn during your workout session. On the contrary, it may affect the duration of your workout, as you may not be able to exercise intensely with an empty stomach or by skipping your meal. Another misconception is that skipping a meal before a workout helps in losing fat fast, which is not true. They may metabolize body fat faster on an empty stomach, but it will not change their calorie balance, which determines their net calorie intake throughout the day.

Time of the Day

Some people believe that the time of day influences the number of calories burnt during a workout session. This misconception is again not true. The intensity of your workout directly determines the number of calories you burn. It is advisable to work out when you feel your best.

Can You Accurately Measure Caloric Expenditure?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advocates that a person must perform moderate cardiovascular exercises for at least 30 minutes five days a week. Also, the workout sessions must include strength training exercises for at least two days every week.

Most people stick to workout sessions for improving body composition or burning calories. However, you should also combine your exercise regimen with appropriate dietary changes for effective weight loss.

Your body burns a certain amount of calories even at rest to maintain usual body functions. Regular exercise may increase the calories burned each day because of your muscle cells require ATP to fuel additional contractions.

You can easily measure your caloric consumption through direct calorimetry in a lab setting. This technique works by measuring the amount of heat released by your body during exercise, which directly relates to the number of calories burnt.

Another method to measure the number of calories is indirect calorimetry, which measures the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide released during a workout session. This measurement serves as an indirect marker for caloric expenditure.

You can use indirect calorimetry to measure energy expenditure at rest, referred to as resting metabolic rate; and oxygen consumption post-exercise, which gives the number of calories burnt during the phase of recovery called the afterburn. The technique requires special equipment. You need to wear a mask to collect oxygen as well as carbon dioxide. The technique provides accurate evaluation for steady-state exercise.

Tracking your heart rate may provide an assumption of your caloric expenditure during exercise. However, the evaluation may not be accurate because of other influencing factors, such as body temperature, room temperature, type of exercise, the position of your body, hydration levels, and whether you have eaten anything before exercise.

Related Questions

Do static exercises provide an accurate assumption of caloric expenditure? Static upper body exercises, such as isometrics make your heart rate rise more in comparison to dynamic lower body workouts. If you measure heart rate to calculate calorie expenditure during static exercises, you may get a false reading due to a higher heart rate, which may not reflect accurate oxygen consumption. Hence, you will not get an accurate assumption about the number of calories burnt.

How can I calculate my daily calorie burn? You can calculate your daily calorie burn by using the Harris-Benedict Formula, by multiplying your basal metabolic rate or BMR with your average daily activity levels. BMR reflects the average number of calories burnt by a person each day. It may vary depending on age, gender, genetics, and size of a person. You can calculate BMR as follows:

• Measure the height in inches.
• Measure weight in pounds
• Calculate BMR using the following formula
  • For women – 655.1 + (4.7 x height) + (4.35 x weight) – (4.7 x age)
  • For men – 66 + (12.7 x height) + (6.2 x weight) – (6.67 x age)

You can multiply the resulting BMR value with the daily activity of a person to determine the average caloric expenditure. The following points are awarded to a person according to the degree of activity:

• 1.2 points for no exercise
• 1.37 points for a slight activity or light exercise 1-3 days every week
• 1.55 points for moderate activity or exercise for 3-5 days every week
• 1.725 points for high activity or exercise for 6-7 days every week
• 1.9 points for additional physical activity or challenging exercise routine

Once you know the BMR and activity points, you can get an average daily caloric expenditure by multiplying the two scores. For example, you can calculate the daily caloric expenditure of a 6-foot-tall, 37-years old man weighing 170-pounds who perform the moderate activity as follows:

(66 + (12.7 x 72) + (6.2 x 170) – (6.67 x 37)) x 1.55 = 2.663 calories each day