It’s not just fun and games. Kiteboarding, as extreme as it is can definitely burn some serious calories. Swimming is the best cardio work out there is, combine with it the hardcore tricks and you got yourself a really good work out. But exactly how many calories do you burn on, let’s say, an hour’s worth of kiteboarding? Well, it’s hard to tell but we’ve combined a number of studies to give you a good estimate on how much. Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider like what kind of wind, the level of kiteboarding (intensity), your weight, height, gender and age, the tricks your perform and probably a few more external factors.
One way to measure it is by finding out how much oxygen you take up at rest and how much you consume while doing the activity. Metabolic Equivalents can be a good indicator on how much calories you burn by measuring how much oxygen to take in. One MET is approximately or assumed to be 3.5ml of oxygen per kg of body weight per minute. Extreme activities like Kiteboarding are estimated to be 10-11 METs. Which would mean that you took up 10 (or 11) times the amount of oxygen that you normally would when you are at rest.
The computation would be: average METs x 3.5 x (body weight in kg / 200) OR 10METs x 3.5ml of oxygen x (80.6kg / 200)
For example, the average weight of guys in Sweden is 80.6kg
10 x 3.5 = 35 (80.6/200 = 0.403)
35 x 0.403 = 14.105 calories burned per minute
On a good two hour run, you wouldn’t be consistently doing extreme kiteboarding (or would you?), so you can adjust that number accordingly.
Another factor that you’d have to consider would be the climate and how cold / warm the water is. Aside from the many health benefits you’ll get from swimming in cold water like it boosts the immune system, it invigorates and energizes, it also helps burn calories.
“A study performed at the University of Florida showed slightly more calories are burned in cold water exercise than in warm. In the study, men who exercised for 45 minutes in 68 degree water burned an average of 517 calories. The men who exercised in 91.4 degree water burned 505 calories, on average.” -from an article in LiveStrong (November 13, 2013 by Susan Presley)
There are lots of things to consider when you want a good estimate on how much you burn on each ride but don’t miss out on all the fun. Kiteboarding is one awesome way to help you achieve and maintain that awesome body!
