How many calories do you burn in a basketball game

Calories Burned Playing Basketball | Calculator & Formula – Captain Calculator

LAST UPDATE: September 24th, 2020

The average person burns 575-775 calories per hour in a game of basketball. If they are shooting baskets, they will burn 325-450 calories per hour.

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How many calories are burned while playing basketball?

Formula

Calories burned per minute = (MET x body weight in Kg x 3.5) ÷ 200

“MET” is a measurement of the energy cost of physical activity for a period of time. You can find an activity’s MET on the chart above.

A task with a MET of 1 is roughly equal to a person’s energy expenditure from sitting still at room temperature not actively digesting food.

A task with a MET of 2 uses twice as much energy as a task with a MET of 1. A task with a MET of 10 uses 10 times as much energy as a task with a MET of 1.

MET values “do not estimate the energy cost of physical activity in individuals in ways that account for differences in body mass, adiposity, age, sex, efficiency of movement, geographic and environmental conditions in which the activities are performed. Thus, individual differences in energy expenditure for the same activity can be large and the true energy cost for an individual may or may not be close to the stated mean MET level as presented in the Compendium.” (as quoted from the main page of the Compendium of Physical Activities).

Example

A person weighs 180 pounds (81.65kg) and plays shoots baskets (a task that has a MET value of 4.5) for 1 hour (60 minutes).

Calories Burned from Basketball (per minute) = (4.5 x 81.65 x 3.5) ÷ 200 = 6.43
Calories Burned from Basketball (for 60 minutes) = 6.43 x 60 = 386

How can I burn more calories playing basketball?

The higher the rate of activity, the more calories burned.

To increase the rate that calories are burned playing basketball, increasing the intensity of play as well as the total time on the basketball court will all increase the rate that calories burn.

Sources and External Resources

• Ainsworth BE, Haskell WL, Herrmann SD, Meckes N, Bassett Jr DR, Tudor-Locke C, Greer JL, Vezina J, Whitt-Glover MC, Leon AS. The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide. Healthy Lifestyles Research Center, College of Nursing & Health Innovation, Arizona State University. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from the World Wide Web.
• https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/
• Arizona State University Healthy Lifestyles Research Center – Compendium of Physical Activities – Sports – Provides MET values for sporting activities, including basketball.
• Learn about “MET” and the compendium of physical activities from Arizona State University, University or South Carolina, and Wikipedia. There is a summary of general physical activities defined by intensity from the CDC and the Harvard School of Public Health.
• Recommendations on physical activity for health from the Harvard School of Public Health and the WHO.

More Calorie Calculators

How Many Calories Do You Burn Playing Basketball?

Exercise can be boring, we all know that. The only problem is that exercise is necessary to burn calories and someone can only run on the treadmill, lift weights or swim laps in a swimming pool a certain amount of time before the natural human attention span begins to drift elsewhere. If only there was an alternative that not only burned calories but was fun, engaging and even exercises the competitive nature inside of is participants… there is — basketball. It sounds too good to be true and you may be asking “can I really burn calories playing basketball?” Yes, yes you can. 

The growing sport of basketball is not just reserved for the six-foot-six, super athletes of the world. It is a game that only requires a ball and something to shoot it in, and most likely, you can find that at your local gym. You don’t need to be a sharpshooter like Stephen Curry or a dominant force like LeBron James to enjoy the benefits of playing basketball. Basketball is a fantastic calorie-burning exercise that won’t have you asking yourself when it will be over — instead, you will be asking yourself when you can fit in a game of pickup next. 

Ah, Calories. The thing that every person in America hears about and knows to limit the consumption of, with most not knowing what it is. Calories are the fuel that our bodies burn to operate. Every time that we take a bite of that delicious maple bar donut or that savoring T-bone steak we are consuming our fuel for the day. Us humans need calories to operate, so while they have a negative connotation, they are not harmful in their own right.

Calories become harmful when you consume too many of them. Unlike the cars that we drive and fill up at the gas station (or charge at home for those that drive an electric car), our bodies will not stop the pump when capacity is reached. It is our responsibility to limit calorie intake. The human body can only burn so many calories in a day and when we consume too many calories, we begin to gain weight.

It is not that simple, though, as there are different types of calories that we consume, similar to the different types of gasoline that you can pump into your car. Different types of calories have different temperatures in which they burn inside the body. Some calories are considered empty calories, which provide the body little to no nutrients inside of the calories. 

Calories are misunderstood in their nature as well. One calorie is not simply one calorie but is 1,000 smaller calories. So when we see that a donut is 200 calories we are consuming 200,000 of these smaller calories. The term ‘calories’ is also interchangeable with kilocalories. 

It is not wise to simply cut a majority of our calorie intake to lose weight, as our bodies still need that fuel to operate and maintain things such as muscle mass during a dieting period. That is where burning more calories come into play.

The golden thing to remember when it comes to burning calories is an acronym called MET, which means metabolic equivalent. The baseline for MET is the most simple way someone can burn calories: sitting quietly and not using much effort or energy. This is considered one MET and is equal to one kilocalorie burned per a person’s body weight in kilograms per hour. For example, a 100-kilogram person performing a one MET exercise for one hour would burn 100 calories. A 50-kilogram person performing a two MET exercise for one hour would also burn 100 calories.

This is a pretty vague question as there are various levels of participation that one can have while playing basketball. There are half-court games, full-court games, shoot around and simply practicing the craft individually. How many calories you burn depends on the type of basketball activity, luckily, no matter the activity, basketball is a good source of burning calories.

So — how many calories does basketball burn?

According to the Compendium of Physical Activities, the basketball activity that burns the fewest calories is simply shooting around, which is graded as a 4. 5 MET activity. A non-game of basketball is graded as a 6.5 MET exercise, while a game is graded as an 8.0 MET activity. The most vigorous basketball-related exercise is running drills, which is graded as a 9.3 MET exercise. 

Half-court basketball is a much different game than full-court basketball. While the same muscles are being exercised, participants are not sprinting up and down the court, which makes a difference in how many calories are burned. Data from Dietbites.com indicates that a half-court game of basketball is roughly a 6.0 MET exercise. This means that, in an hour of half-court basketball, we burn:

• 296 calories for a 110-pound person
• 340 calories for a 130-pound person
• 408 calories for a 150-pound person
• 464 calories for a 170-pound person
• 516 calories for a 190-pound person
• 572 calories for a 210-pound person
• 624 calories for a 230-pound person
• 676 calories for a 250-pound person

Full-court basketball is more vigorous, as indicated by the exercise having an 8. 0 MET rating compared to the 6.0 MET rating for half-court basketball. This means that we naturally burn more calories in full-court than the number of calories burned playing half-court basketball. The breakdown is as follows: 

• 419 calories for a 110-pound person
• 495 calories for a 130-pound person
• 572 calories for a 150-pound person
• 648 calories for a 170-pound person
• 724 calories for a 190-pound person
• 800 calories for a 210-pound person
• 876 calories for a 230-pound person
• 953 calories for a 250-pound person

You will burn 33 percent more calories playing a full-court basketball game than a half-court basketball game.

How many calories burned playing basketball all comes back to the formula for a MET exercise. The longer you play perform the activity the more calories you will burn and the increase is pretty linear and easy to figure out. “How many calories do you burn playing basketball for 30 minutes,” you may ask. 

Thirty minutes of the exercises above will yield exactly half the number of calories burned while two hours will yield exactly twice as many calories burned. An hour and a half will yield 50 percent more calories burned. This is because the data above is all set to one hour of activity. 

All this math might seem tricky, but the one thing I would always keep in mind is that basketball calories burned are the exact same calories burned performing any other activity.

Not everything exercise-related is solely related to burning calories. Here are some other fitness-related questions to keep in mind about basketball as an activity.

Whether or not basketball is good cardio depends on how seriously you are taking the game. Simply shooting the ball around with no other physical exertion is not going to provide much of a cardio workout. However, even if you are not playing an organized game, the natural movements of basketball all qualify as cardio-related exercises and will improve your cardio.

The blend of sprints with jogging is a great rhythm-disrupter for the body and basketball provides no real breaks from that cardio exercise. Even a half-court game, which does not include the lengthy sprints that are included in a full-court game, presents plenty of moments where participants will be exploding and sprinting for short distances, whether it is to the basket or away from the basket. 

It is not just the running that is beneficial, however, as the constant jumping and change of direction help increase cardio as well. 

The great thing about basketball is that you can run distances similar to if you went outside for a jog and you may never realize it because of the constant action that is going on in the game. The length of a basketball court is 50 feet. If both teams have 25 possessions, assuming you are running up and down the court on each possession, you will have run 5,000 feet, 208 short of a mile.  

The most important thing to keep in mind when using basketball as a cardio exercise is that it is all dependent on how much effort you put in. Cherry-picking on defense or deciding to take certain possessions off is not going to be as beneficial as keeping the pace up. Even if you do not have the ball, try and keep your body moving in some capacity, taking breaks only when the game itself is paused. The more and more you do this, the longer and longer you will be able to play. 

So, is basketball good cardio? The answer depends on you. 

High-intensity interval training, otherwise known as HIIT, is a popular method of working out that relies on different intervals of varying intensity that is meant to bring the participant to exhaustion. The best part about HIIT workouts is that they do not have to be time-consuming, there are a plethora of guides online of different HIIT workouts that can be performed in 15-30 minutes.

A pick-up game of basketball is likely not going to serve as a HIIT workout. Unless you go out on the court and break out several full-out sprints down the court and to the basket, you likely will not be performing at a high enough intensity. But hey, that is a good thing, because nobody wants to play a game of pickup basketball for only 15 minutes.

However, there are basketball drills that can be utilized outside of a game setting that would serve as a HIIT exercise. Things such as sprints down the court can be followed by constant dribbling, shot taking and intense passing. 

Keep in mind, though, that if you want to develop a true HIIT workout routine that is inspired by basketball then you likely will need to mix in more traditional forms of exercise, such as squats or lunges, to mix in with the basketball drills. 

Is basketball a HIIT workout just by itself? No. Can basketball inspire and weave itself into a great HIIT workout? Absolutely. 

Absolutely. Just like any other form of exercise, though, you also need to do the work outside of the gym and eat healthily and limit certain things in your diet. Losing weight just playing basketball won’t be as intense as other forms of training, but if you are looking for something to shed a few pounds while also having fun, basketball would be the perfect workout regime for you. 

Again, it all depends on how serious you are taking it out there as well. If you are jogging slowly up and down the court and camping yourself in the post then you are not going to burn that many calories and thus will not lose much weight. But if you manage to keep the intensity-level high for an entire hour, then the results can follow.

So after reading this article, you are no longer asking how many calories does playing basketball burn and are ready to lace up your basketball shoes and drive to your closest gym to play some pick-up hoops, which is great. As we outlined, basketball is a viable form of exercise and is much more than a childhood game that we would all play during recess.

Should you cut everything else out of your routine to make room for basketball? Probably not. If the goal is to build muscle mass then basketball is not going to help much. It can still serve the same calorie-burning purpose, but it is not going to build enough muscle to make a difference. 

Even if your workout regime is entirely calorie-burning and cardio-based, you should not replace your entire method with basketball. The body benefits from change and switching it up the sprinting and resting of basketball to a long-distance, slower-paced running-style would be beneficial to the body. 

So instead of running on the treadmill for the fifth time this week and staring at that small treadmill screen, you absolutely can mix some basketball into the routine. As long as you take the basketball as serious as you would the treadmill then the results are still going to follow and you can turn working out into something fun that you look forward to every single day. Now, for us, it is time to lace up our basketball shoes and hit the court — first to 21 wins.

If you found this post helpful, you’ll probably find our post on the best activity tracker for basketball useful.

Did you find this helpful? You may also like our other basketball FAQ articles here.

> What to Eat Before a Basketball Game

> The Best Basketball Agility Drills

> Why Basketball is the Best Sport

> How Long Does a Basketball Game Last?

Calorie consumption in different sports

January 28, 2016

Choose running shoes

Whether you play sports for weight loss or sports performance: to create the right diet, rich in energy and essential nutrients, without knowing the calorie consumption per workout in different modes is indispensable.

Fitness

• Aerobics - from 420 kcal at an average load to 600 - at an intensive
• Water aerobics - 240 kcal
• Bodyflex - 260 kcal
• Gymnastics, high / medium load - 480 kcal / 270 kcal
• Skipping rope, fast/slow pace – 750/600 kcal
• Yoga - 225 kcal
• Hoop twist - 375 kcal
• Pilates - 150 kcal
• Jumping rope - 540-750 kcal
• Callanetics - 310 kcal
• Gymnastic exercises - 150 in an easy rhythm, 240 and 455 kcal in an average and active

Dance

• Low intensity aerobic dance - 215-315
• High Intensity Aerobic Dance - 485
• Modern dances - 240-600 kcal
• Ballet lessons — 750
• Ballroom dancing - 275
• Dancing to the rhythm of disco - 400

Winter sports

• Figure skating - 250-350 kcal
• Skiing - 485
• Downhill skiing - 270
• Speed ​​skating - 770
• Skiing at a speed of 18 km/h - 600

Water sports

• Water polo - 600 kcal
• Swimming - 230
• Swimming 50 m/min (3 km/h) - 500
• Swimming (2. 4 km/h) - 460
• Swimming (0.4 km/h) - 210
• Fast crawl for time - 570
• Academic rowing (4 km/h) - 210
• Water skiing - 355

Strength training, wrestling

• Equipment, bodybuilding - 520-900 kcal
• Tai-bo - about 800
• Press - 300 kcal
• Moderate machine training - 520
• Bodyflex - about 3500 kcal per hour.
• Box burns 600 to 1100kcal

Walking, running, hiking - for those who love to walk

• Walking - 300 kcal
• Jogging at 12 km/h - 920
• Running at 18 km/h -1280
• Running (16 km/h) - 750
• Running (11 km/h) - 485
• Cross-country running - 600
• Running up stairs - 900-1200
• Running up and down stairs - 540-900
• Race walking - 416
• Hiking (3.2 km/h) - 150
• Hiking (4 km/h) - 235
• Walking (4 km/h) - 130
• Walking (6 km/h) - 215

Outdoor games, team sports

• Roller skates: 420 kcal
• Badminton - 405 kcal
• Bowling - 270
• Golf - 250
• Tennis (singles) - 400
• Badminton (at a moderate pace) - 255
• Badminton (at a strenuous pace) - 485
• Basketball - 380
• Cycling (9 km/h) - 185
• Cycling (15 km/h) - 320
• Cycling (20 km/h or more) - 410-570 kcal
• Canoeing (4 km/h) - 185
• Field hockey - 490
• Fencing - 210
• Football - 450
• Handball - 485
• Riding - 255
• Riding (gallop, jumping, dressage exercises) - 315 and above
• Alpinism - 453
• Table tennis (single) - 315
• Table tennis (doubles) - 205
• Volleyball - 255

Stubborn stay-at-home

• Lawn mowing - 250 kcal
• Gardening - 220
• Infrared sauna (most effective) - 1000 kcal/hour
• Sleep - 65
• Cooking - 80
• Dressing - 30
• Machine control - 50
• Dusting - 80
• Food - 30
• Gardening - 135
• Ironing (sitting) - 35
• Ironing (standing) - 45
• Bed making - 130
• Shopping - 80
• Sedentary work - 75
• Wood splitter - 300-500
• Sitting - 30
• Standing - 40
• Washing floors - 130

Pleasant with useful

• Sex (passive) - 75 kcal
• Sex (active) - 150

2016-01-28 15:04:29 +0300

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Back to the list of articles

What activities burn the most calories in 1 hour?

39. Hatha Yoga

183/228 calories.

Hatha yoga, which focuses on specific postures and mental exercises, is at the bottom of this list, as it burns an average of about 183 calories per hour in a 70 kg person.

38. Slow walk

Walking a little over 3 km will burn 204/255 calories in sixty minutes.

37. Bowling

219/273 calories.

Bowling can help you burn hundreds of calories in 60 minutes, but snacks in between can get in the way.

36. Ballroom dancing

Dancing will help burn 219/273 calories in an hour.

35. Tai Chi

219/273 calories.

The Chinese martial art of tai chi is usually practiced in slow movements.

34. Rowing

Rowing will help you burn 256/319 kcal in an hour.

33. Cycling

Slow driving up to 10 miles will help you burn 292/364 kcal in 60 minutes.

32. Volleyball

292/364 kcal.

Olympic volleyball is an intense exercise that burns a lot of calories. But beach volleyball can burn them twice as many.

31. Power Yoga

292/364 kcal.

Power yoga, or vinyasa, contains exercises that are more movement-oriented than hatha.

30.

Golfing

314/391 kcal.

If you play golf, that's great because you can burn a huge amount of calories. The calories that a 90-kilogram person can burn in an hour are approximately equal to the amount that can be eliminated by skiing (3 km per hour).

29. Snowboarding

Skiing or snowboarding can help you get rid of 314/391 calories in an hour. At moderate to higher intensity levels, these activities can save you double the amount of calories.

28. A brisk walk

An active walk up to 5.5 km can burn 314/391 calories in sixty minutes.

27. Aerobics

365/455 kcal.

Low-intensity aerobics kills almost as many calories as the following activities: medium-speed (elliptical) machine training, strength training, kayaking, softball, and baseball.

26. Jogging

Jogging burns up to 365/455 calories in sixty minutes.

25. Weightlifting

Resistance training or weightlifting burns up to 365/455 calories in sixty minutes.

24. Kayaking

This type of water tourism burns up to 365/455 calories in one hour.

23. Baseball and softball

Playing baseball, like playing softball, will help you get rid of 365/455 calories in one hour.

22. Water aerobics

Sixty minutes spent in the water doing aerobics will save you 402/501 calories.

21. Swimming in circles

423/528 kcal.

Swimming is a sport whose intensity can vary widely. Swimming in circles at a moderate pace will help you get rid of a huge amount of calories.

20. Hiking

438/546 kcal.

Hiking can burn almost the same amount of calories in 60 minutes as rowing and water skiing.

19. Rowing machine

A rowing session at moderate intensity will help you say goodbye to 438/546 calories in 60 minutes.

18. Water skiing

438/546 kcal for an hour.

Wakeboarding burns the same amount.

17. Slow cross-country skiing

A four-kilometer cross-country ski run will save you 496/619 calories in an hour. Cross-country skiing is one of the most intense sports.

16. Hiking

Hiking is so great, especially when you know it can save you 511/637 calories in 60 minutes.

15. Skating

511/637 kcal in 60 minutes.

Surely everyone likes to skate. And if you know how many calories it burns ... Doing tricks will surely help you burn even more.

14. Racquetball

This type of ball game will save you from 511/637 kcal in 60 minutes.

13. High performance aerobics

Do not be lazy if you are attracted by the prospect of getting rid of 533/664 kcal in 60 minutes.

12. Roller skates

548/683 kcal.

This calculation is for recreational inline skates, but top speed professionals burn even more.

11. Basketball game

584/728 kcal.

Basketball, rock climbing, and singles tennis are great exercises, burning approximately 728 calories per hour for 90 kg person.

10. Flag football

This version of American football will deprive you of 584/728 kcal in 60 minutes.

9. Climbing

Alpinism, or rock climbing, will require an expenditure of 584/728 kcal per hour.

8. Tennis

A single tennis game will take 584/728 kcal in 60 minutes.

7. Slow running

Running up to 8 kilometers will burn 606/755 kcal in an hour. At this pace, you will need to run 1.5 km in 12 minutes.

6. Climbing stairs (running)

657/819 kcal in 60 minutes.

An especially long flight of stairs can give you a great workout.

5. Vigorous swimming

Vigorous swimming in a circle - minus 715/892 calories for an hour.

4. Taekwondo

752/937 kcal per hour.

Taekwondo is a strenuous sport that burns a lot of calories. Other martial arts that burn an equal number of calories are Muay Thai (Thai boxing), jujitsu, and karate.

3. Football

If you kick the ball on the field, you can get rid of 752/937 kcal within an hour.

2. Jump rope

861/1074 calories in 60 minutes.

Rope jumping is at the top of this list along with fast running.

1. Fast run

Running for a distance of about 13 kilometers - minus 861/1074 kcal per hour.

At this pace, you should run 1.5 kilometers in eight and a half minutes.

All the activities listed above can be done at an intensity that is comfortable for you, therefore, it is impossible to know the exact numbers: they will fluctuate depending on your energy, body structure, gender, age and many other factors.

Also, exercise alone cannot make you lose weight. If you're looking to lose weight, it's best to check with your doctor about what's healthy for you, and it's also a good idea to cut down on sugar and portion sizes.

Here is another small list of exercises that people like to do to keep their bodies in good shape.

• Bicycle training.

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