Motorcycle ridingis a form of transportation that can be compared to physical exercise—riding a motorcycle requires upper and lower body strength to keep the motorcycle upright, steer it, push it backwards, and maneuver it through different types of terrains.
Riding Calories Per Hour
The number of calories you can burn riding depends on many things. Anything that makes you ride with more effort helps you burn more calories. For example, the heavier your motorcycle and the heavier your motorcycle gear, the more you burn. Motocross and off-road riding burn even more calories because of the challenges of maneuvering in rough terrain. In fact, motocross riding is equivalent to moderate swimming—a 230-pound dirt-bike rider can burn 400 calories in 1 hour.
Compare other forms of transportation with motorcycle riding (chart below) to see which is the biggest calorie burner.
| Activity (1 hour for 150-pound person) | Calories Burned |
| Riding a motorcycle | 179 |
| Driving an automobile or light truck | 143 |
| Driving a heavy truck, tractor or bus | 214 |
| Riding in a car, truck, or bus | 0 |
| Flying an airplane | 143 |
How to Lose Weight Riding a Motorcycle
Here are the basics of weight loss: Your body weight reflects a balance between the calories you eat and the calories you burn. So if you start consuming less calories than you burn, you’ll start losing weight. Generally, if you consume 500 fewer calories than you burn every day, you will lose weight at a rate of 1 pound a week.
Now let’s create our motorcycle weight loss program for a 230-pound person. If you weigh 230 lb, you will lose 1/2 lb per week ( burn 274 calories per day) provided that you ride a motorcycle one extra hour every day. (Extra hour because if you already ride 1 hour every day, your body weight is in balance.) Half a pound a week is not bad, but you can do better if you combine this with a slight reduction in calorie consumption.
If you are a motorcycle enthusiast and you want to lose weight also consider these activities:
- Riding a dirt-bike off road—burns more calories than riding street bikes or cruisers.
- Riding a pedal moped—burns more calories because of the extra energy you need to spend pedaling.
- Bicycling—it is one of the biggest calorie burners. A 230 lb bicyclist riding vigorously can burn 1750 calories in 1 hour.
Compare other activities to motorcycle riding when it comes to burning calories (see chart below):
| Moderate Physical Activities (1 hour for 154-pound person) | Calories Burned |
| Hiking | 370 |
| Light Gardening (Yard Work) | 330 |
| Dancing | 330 |
| Golf (walking and carring clubs) | 330 |
| Bicycling (less than 10 miles per hour) | 290 |
| Walking (3 miles per hour) | 280 |
| Weight training (light workout) | 220 |
| Stretching | 180 |
I concur, track days are the worst. Maybe not as much as dirt but definitely close.
GLAD TO KNOW THAT MUST RIDE MORE
Must ride more, much more
Is there no end to the benefits of motorcycling?
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I Agree, i lost 60 lbs in one summer riding both dirt and street. went from 265 to 205. still riding, still dropping!
dirt is definately more of a physical work out in my opinion, however the street will put not only your body to work, but mostly your mind in my opinion… takes a good amount of mental power not to panic in certain situations when pushing the limits of a streetbike on the track (or the street for that matter, but dont do that)
I appolagize about the caps, for some reason it only will write in caps even with cap lock off
It’s clear to see from this article, that the person who wrote this does not ride a sports bike. Light weight training 220, why bother. If you want to get the most from your bike you should be training to get fit, eat a controlled diet and be focused. Riding to get fit or weight lose does not work and should not be promoted. You should be training 3-6 times a day for 45-60 mins per work out. A prog designed to improve your strength, flexibility and stamina is the true way forward.
A good way to turn a daily commute into Part of a fitness program… And save gas.
Wow, Ed….you’re kind of a downer, aren’t you?
energized
[...] this nugget on the www Leatherup.com Official Company Blog – Motorcycle blog of Leatherup.com | Motorcycle blog of Leatheru… says 179 cal/hr to 400 cal/hr riding motocross. baseline…driving a car is 143 cal/hr. guess it [...]
[...] motorcycling burns calories – about 149/hour if this page is to be believed, so I ended up well under my total daily [...]
Doing a track day in a 100F+ weather works even better.
[...] http://blog.leatherup.com/2010/05/11/motorcycle-riding-burns-calories/ [...]
Good work. My passion is bicycling. I intend to conduct a study on nutrient intake of motorbike riders in my local county. What variables(independent and depedent)can i consider. Keep it up. Elizabeth
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