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Skiing is an excellent full-body exercise that can help you burn 300 to 500 calories per hour (or more) depending on your weight, the type of skiing you are doing, the intensity at which you are skiing, and the duration of your workout. Enter these details in our calories burned skiing calculator below to find out approximately how many calories you would be able to burn during your next skiing session.
Our calculator is based on a scientific formula instead of pure guesswork. I have discussed the formula below, so you can understand why and how it can provide the most accurate result when compared to the other calories burned skiing calculators that simply use basic calorie estimators.
Please note that our calories burned skiing calculator provides a rough estimate. The exact number of calories spent could vary slightly because it doesn’t consider your age.
As we know, younger people have a higher metabolism rate and burn more calories than people in their middle age or late middle age even if other factors remain the same. Unfortunately, there is no scientific formula available so far that can help us include the age factor and that's why we have left it out.
Let's understand how our calories burned skiing calculator works.
📖 Related Article: Skiing is an excellent cardio workout. It is great for all age groups and fitness levels. But, if your cardio is weak, you may not be able to ski for a decent amount of time. Here is a helpful guide on why your cardio is weak and what you can do to fix it.
Calories Burned Skiing Calculator
The scientific formula used in our calorie burned skiing calculator
The most accurate formula known so far is-
Total calories burned per minute= (3.5 X MET X body weight in kg)/ 200
As mentioned above, this formula doesn't consider your age but, don’t worry, the difference won’t be too much.
Wondering what is MET in the formula?
MET is an abbreviated form of the Metabolic Equivalent of a Task. It is basically the ratio between your active metabolic rate and your resting metabolic rate.
When you are resting, your MET is 1. If you are sitting or reclining, MET becomes 1.5. During light exercises, this ratio becomes 1.6-3. As the intensity increases, the MET value also increases and could become higher than 6 while running or shoveling snow.
The higher the MET value of an activity or exercise is, the more calories you will burn.
💡 Quick Tip: If you love skiing but don’t get a chance to ski very often due to weather conditions or locational disadvantages, you can do the same skiing movements indoors using the CONCEPT 2 SKIERG Skiing machine. It is great for people who want to keep practicing skiing movements so they don’t get out of practice before the next season. It is also great training equipment for racers.
CONCEPT 2 SKIERG Skiing machine
MET values used in our calories burned skiing calculator
The MET value of skiing is not fixed. It varies depending on the intensity at which you are skiing, the type of slope you are taking, and a few other factors. The below-mentioned chart will give you an idea of how much the MET value varies. While using our calories burned skiing calculator, make sure you choose the right option or the one that is nearest to the type of skiing you are doing. This will help you get the most accurate result.
| Type of skiing | Activity level | MET Value |
| Downhill snowboarding | Light | 4.3 |
| Downhill snowboarding | Moderate | 5.3 |
| Downhill snowboarding | Vigorous | 8 |
| Cross-country skiing | Light speed around 2.5 mph | 6.8 |
| Cross-country skiing | Moderate speed around 5.5 to 7 mph | 12.5 |
| Uphill Cross-country skiing | Light to moderate | 15.5 |
| Snow shoeing | light | 4.5 |
| Snow shoeing | Moderate | 5.3 |
| Snow shoeing | Vigorous | 10 |
| Skiing in general | Light to moderate | 7 |
| Ski jumping | – | 7 |
| Sledding | – | 7 |
| Skiing racing | Vigorous | 12.5 |
This is not a complete list. I have chosen the most popular skiing exercises but there are still many variations left and each variation has its own intensity level. So, as I said above, while using our calories burned skiing calculator, try to use the most relevant option. You may have to do some guesswork but make sure you use an option that closely matches the MET value (i.e. the intensity) of the type of skiing you do.
Another thing you need to keep in mind while using our calories burned skiing calculator is that you need to add only active time. Do not count the time that you spend on the lift or while waiting in line or resting, etc. This is obvious but many times people just tend to select the total time instead of active time.
📖 Related Article: If you have just started skiing and haven’t gained enough strength to do cross-country or uphill skiing, you should probably start doing squats, lunges, and deadlifts regularly. These exercises can help you build stronger legs and an extremely stable core; two major factors that help increase the skiing intensity while maintaining your balance. Here is a detailed guide on How To Drastically Improve The Strength Of Your Squat Over The Next 2 Months.
How to burn more calories while skiing
You would be surprised to know that there are more than 10 million skiers in the U.S. alone.
Skiing is not just fun but also an excellent cardio workout for those who want to lose weight or improve their strength and stamina. It is a full-body exercise targeting almost all major as well as minor muscle groups of our body.
However, most of us don’t really ski well enough when we are on the ground. That's because we get out of shape. So, if you want to burn more calories when you are on your skiing trip, the first thing you need to do is to keep training yourself so you don’t lose your balance or get exhausted within minutes.
💡 Quick Tip: Aeroski Power Pro Home Fitness is a fun cardio machine that can help you replicate skiing movements at home. This exercise machine can help you stay in shape and do better during your next skiing break.
Aeroski Power Pro Home Fitness Cardio Machine
While cardio and strength training are the most important ones, work on improving your balance too. If you start to lose your balance as soon as you pick up your speed, you won’t be able to burn enough calories while skiing. Balance trainers such as Rep Fitness Balance ball and Revbalance 101 v2 – Balance Board can help train and strengthen the balancing muscles of your legs whereas Stealth Abs + Plank Core Trainer is an excellent tool for working on core stability.
If you keep doing the exercises that resemble skiing movements throughout the year, you should be able to go for tougher ski movements with higher MET value. The higher the MET value of your skiing movement, the more calories you will burn.
Wrap up
As I said above, our skiing calories burned calculator can provide you with a rough estimate, in case you are trying to lose weight or simply weighing if you can have an extra piece of dessert on your trip without adding too many extra calories to your day. Remember that it is only a rough estimate. No calculator can provide you with an exact number because they do not consider many important factors; gender and age being the most prominent ones.
Don’t worry; even light to moderate skiing can help you burn enough calories so you can eat without guilt on your skiing vacation.
Have questions? Leave a comment or email me.
