How Many Calories are Burned by Climbing?

Welcome to the climbing section of DietandFitnessToday where the highest number of calories burned is 388 Calories, for climbing hills with 42+ lb load. This is for an average male weighting 190 pounds (86 Kg). Below is a list of 14 activities based on the general description of climbing, ranging from the highest calorie burn from 'climbing hills with 42+ lb load' which burns 388 calories in 30 minutes through to the activity 'stair climbing, slow pace' which has the lowest calorie burn of 172 calories in 30 minutes, for a typical adult weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg).

For rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty, which is a typical intensity activity under the general description of climbing activities, the average calories burned by a person weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg) in 30 minutes is 323 Calories. In one hour rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty will burn 646 Calories.

Summary of Climbing Information and Charts

To help you find the information you need, we first focus on rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty which is the most common climbing activity. This is followed by the activities with the highest burn rate which is climbing hills with 42+ lb load, and the lowest which is stair climbing, slow pace, giving the average calories burned per minute and per hour, along with food calorie equivalents and our new proprietary calories burned score© and calories burned rank©The calorie score gives an indication of the relative burn rate of the climbing activities measured as a percentage score out of 100 for the different climbing activities, where 100% is the maximum calorie burn which we estimate from running at a pace of 4 minutes per mile which is a world class speed for running for 30 mins.

The calorie rank is the rank of the climbing activity compared with all other 800 activities in our database to give an indication of the percentage of activities which have a higher or lower calorie burn. A rank of 1 means it is the highest ranking activity in terms or calorie burn and a rank of 100 means it is the activity with the lowest carlorie burn compared with all other activities.

Effect of Intensity on the Calorie Calculator

Although the above is a typical example for climbing, the calculator we use to determine the calories burnt depends on the intensity, duration and your body weight. At the bottom of the article we have a variety of different intensities which can be personalized based on your weight and the duration of the activities, using our free calculator.

Calorie Score and Calorie Rank for Climbing

At dietandfitnesstoday we have a new proprietary concept of a Calories Burned Score© and Calories Burned Rank©.

Calories Burned in 30 Minutes for a Typical climbing Activity

As we have previously mentioned Rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty is a moderate and typical level of intensity for climbing and can be used as a general representative approximate measure for calories burnt by climbing. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) burns 323 Calories, while an average woman weighing 163 pounds (74 kg), in 30 minutes burns 277 Calories.

Calories Per Minute

The calories burned per minute for Rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty is 11 Calories per minute, for a typical man and for a typical female is 9 Calories per minute.

Calories Per Hour

The calories lost in one hour is 646 calories for a typical man, and 555 calories in one hour for a typical woman.

How to Burn 100 Calories

To burn 100 calories for a typical male would require 9 minutes of the activity rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty and to burn 100 calories with the same climbing activity for a typical female would take 11 minutes.

Score and Rank

Rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty has a Calorie Burned Score© of 30.40 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 30.40 % of the highest realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calorie Burned Rank© of 52.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 52.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 158.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty

Equivalent Activities

The following activities burn the same number of calories as Rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty -

• aerobic, step, with 6 - 8 inch step
• bicycling, general
• carrying groceries upstairs
• dog sledding, mushing
• moving, carrying or pushing heavy objects, 75 lbs or more, only active time (e.g., desks, moving van work)

Comparison with Inactivity

30 mins of inactivity for example just sitting and watching television burns 43 calories for a typical man and 37 calories for a typical woman. Which means Rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty burns 8.1 times more calories than the equivalent time of inactivity for an average man and 7.5 times more calories for an average female.

Food Calorie Equivalents

This level of 323 calories burnt by an average man rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty is equivalent to 0.6 Big Macs, 1.2 snickers bar, 2.7 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 1.1 cheeseburgers, 1.1 slices of pizza or 0.8 large blueberry muffins.

For an average female burning 277 calories is equivalent to 0.5 Big Macs, 1.0 snickers bar, 2.3 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 0.9 cheeseburgers, 1.0 slices of pizza or 0.7 large blueberry muffins.

Weight Loss from Climbing

To answer the question how many pounds will I lose from the activity climbing? Taking this example of rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty in 30 minutes, the weight loss for a typical man is a minimum of 0.05 pounds, and a typical woman would lose 0.04 pounds.

Based on 4 sessions per week of rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty for a duration of 30 minutes per session, the approximate time taken to lose one pound is 5 weeks for a man and 6 weeks for a woman, assuming no other changes in lifestyle or eating habits.

The same 4 sessions per week of rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty for a duration of 30 minutes per session, would lose 1kg in 2 weeks for a man and 3 weeks for a woman.

Climbing Activity with the Highest Calorie Burn

The highest number of calories burned for an average person is achieved by climbing hills with 42+ lb load. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man burns 388 Calories, while an average woman in 30 minutes burns 333 Calories.

This activity of climbing hills with 42+ lb load has a Calories Burned Score© of 37.10 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 37.10 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 43.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 43.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 85.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than climbing hills with 42+ lb load

Climbing Activity with the Lowest Calorie Burn

The climbing activity with the lowest calories burnt is stair climbing, slow pace, which for an average man in 30 minutes burns 172 Calories, and for an average woman burns 148 Calories.

This activity of stair climbing, slow pace has a Calories Burned Score© of 14.70 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 14.70 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 77.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 77.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 421.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than stair climbing, slow pace

Average Calories Burned by Climbing

Based on the the list of 14 climbing activities, shown below, the average calories burned for an average male, weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) is 299 Calories for 30 minutes of climbing. The average burnt for an average female, weighing 163 pounds (74 kg) is 256 Calories for 30 minutes of climbing.

Climbing for 30 minutes - Calories Burned Calculator

Calories Burned in 30 minutes of climbing for Average Male (M) and Female (F) (click to personalise).

climbing hills with 42+ lb load - calories  Male=388 kcal, Female=333 kcal.

stair climbing at a fast pace - calories  Male=379 kcal, Female=325 kcal.

climbing hills with 21 to 42 lb load - calories  Male=358 kcal, Female=307 kcal.

fire fighter, raising and climbing ladder with full gear, simulated fire supression - calories  Male=345 kcal, Female=296 kcal.

rock climbing or mountain climbing/mountaineering - calories  Male=345 kcal, Female=296 kcal.

stair climbing, using or climbing up ladder (Taylor Code 030) - calories  Male=345 kcal, Female=296 kcal.

rock climbing, ascending rock, high difficulty - calories  Male=323 kcal, Female=277 kcal.

climbing hills with 10 to 20 lb load - calories  Male=315 kcal, Female=270 kcal.

climbing hills with 0 to 9 lb load - calories  Male=280 kcal, Female=240 kcal.

climbing hills, no load - calories  Male=271 kcal, Female=233 kcal.

rock climbing, ascending or traversing rock, low-to-moderate difficulty - calories  Male=250 kcal, Female=214 kcal.

rock climbing, rappelling - calories  Male=215 kcal, Female=185 kcal.

picking fruit off trees, gleaning fruits, picking fruits/vegetables, climbing ladder to pick fruit, vigorous effort - calories  Male=194 kcal, Female=166 kcal.

stair climbing, slow pace - calories  Male=172 kcal, Female=148 kcal.

You can browse other common activities from our database, from the links below or visit the compendium at https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/home.