How Many Calories Does Pilates Burn?

Pilates combines dance, yoga and body-weight strength exercises to help you create a strong core. The moves emphasize precision and control, so the workout doesn’t elicit the same calorie burn as more intense movement such as running or dance aerobics. As you become more proficient at the exercises and are able to perform more advanced variations, you burn more calories. Your calorie burn also depends on your weight, as larger people burn more calories.

The Numbers

A beginner who weighs 150 pounds burns 126 calories per 30 minutes. At the intermediate level, that 30-minute burn goes up by 50 calories to 176 and at the advanced level it increases to 216 calories. A 180-pound person burns between 150 and 259 calories in 30 minutes, depending on the level, notes the Health Status calorie burn calculator. A study published by the IDEA Health and Fitness Association noted similar findings, with the average beginner Pilates student burning 4 calories per minute, intermediate students burning 6 calories per minute and advanced students burning 7.5 calories per minute. A beginning class is thus comparable to dynamic stretching, while an advanced class burns calories on par with power yoga.

Weight Management

For Pilates to help you burn enough calories to make changes in your body composition, you’d have to progress to the advance levels and work for at least 45 to 60 minutes four times per week, not including the warmup and cooldown, says IDEA. You’d have to accompany this rigorous Pilates regimen with a reduced-calorie diet to see significant results. A fitness routine that includes regular cardio and weight training, with a session or two of Pilates weekly, may be more effective at helping you burn fat.

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