🔥 What Are Calories?

A calorie is a unit of energy. It refers to the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1°C at standard atmospheric pressure.
However, this is a very small amount — so in nutrition and exercise, we usually refer to kilocalories (kcal), where:

1 kcal = 1,000 small calories

When you read “calories” on food labels or fitness trackers, it usually means kilocalories. For example, if you burn 250 calories biking, it means you’ve burned 250 kilocalories.

What Affects Calories Burned?

Several factors impact how many calories you burn during an activity like biking:

1. Your Body Weight

Heavier individuals burn more calories because it takes more energy to move a larger mass.

2. Exercise Duration & Intensity

• Longer sessions = more calories burned

• Higher intensity (faster speed, hills, resistance) = higher calorie burn per minute

3. Type of Exercise

Even within cycling, the calorie burn can vary a lot:

• 🚴 Leisure cycling (under 16 km/h) burns fewer calories

• 🚵‍♀️ Mountain biking or racing can burn double or triple the energy

• 🚲 Stationary biking varies depending on resistance and pace