Playing pickleball is a great way to burn calories, get exercise, boost your metabolism, and get in shape. It’s a fun sport, offers great exercise and can be played both indoors and outdoors.
Just like tennis you can play singles or doubles. Singles will get your hear rate moving and burn more calories, while doubles is a fun, lower impact alternative if running sprints doesn't sounds like fun :)
In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about calories burned while playing pickleball - from how many calories you'll burn to how pickleball compares to tennis and other sports.
How Many Calories Do You Burn Playing Pickleball?
The number of calories burned while playing pickleball depends on multiple factors like body composition, weight, intensity of play, duration, and the game type (singles or doubles). But in a study conducted by the American Council on Exercise, researchers observed 40- to 85-year-old males and females playing pickleball doubles and calculated their average caloric expenditure over 60 minutes was 350.
So if you are wondering if pickleball is a good sport for burning calories, the answer to this question is yes! Like tennis and other racket sports you can expect to burn a lot of calories playing pickleball.
Calories Burned Playing Pickleball Singles
While there are no official study-backed calculators available for pickleball, we can get a good approximation of total calories burned while playing this sport.
Pickleball is less intensive than tennis as it has a smaller court and requires the player to take fewer steps during the game.
Using tennis as a gauge, a 155-pound individual can expect to burn approximately 210 calories playing pickleball singles for 30 minutes. It’ll be about 420 calories for an hour (3-4 games to 11 points) and 820 calories for 2 hours of play.
And you can expect to burn a lot more if you play like these guys:
Calories Burned Playing Pickleball Doubles
You might already know that pickleball singles is more demanding than doubles, which means you’ll burn fewer calories while playing doubles.
According to our estimation, a 155-pound individual can expect to burn about 165 calories while playing pickleball for 30 minutes. It’ll be around 330 calories (2 or 3 games to 11 points) for an hour and 660 for 2 hours.
Which Burns More Calories: Pickleball Or Tennis?
Let’s look at the calorie burn rate of tennis, which is a close cousin to pickleball.
According to the calorie burn calculator of the American Council on Exercise, a 155-pound player will burn the following number of calories while playing tennis.
Tennis (singles) for 1 hour: 562 calories
Tennis (singles) for 2 hours: 1124 calories
Tennis (doubles) for 1 hour: 421 calories
Tennis (doubles) for 2 hours: 842 calories
Since pickleball doubles will burn around 350 calories per hour (versus 421 calories for tennis doubles), we can estimate that tennis burns around 20% more calories than pickleball per hour.
So when it comes to calories burned in pickleball vs. tennis, pickleball will burn fewer calories than tennis as it’s less intensive.
The most likely reason why pickleball will burn fewer calories than tennis is the court size - a pickleball court is less than half the size of a tennis court.
According to Washington University, players take 160 to 338 steps in 1 minute while playing tennis and 150 to 175 steps in 1 minute while playing pickleball, depending on the game type.
So pickleball players run less on the court and walk less between points than their tennis counterparts.
Pickleball Calories Burned Vs. Other Sports
The following table will help you understand the number of calories a 155-pound person will burn while playing different sports. Keep in mind that the higher the weight, the more calories you’ll burn.
|
Sports |
Calories Burned Per Hour |
|
Pickleball |
330 to 420 |
|
Tennis |
421 to 562 |
|
Racquetball |
492 to 703 |
|
Basketball |
421 to 562 |
|
Golf |
246 to 316 |
Calories Burned Playing Pickleball: Summary
Pickleball isn’t only a fun sport, but it also helps you get in shape by losing weight and getting fit. If you weigh around 155 pounds, you can expect to burn 330 to 420 calories every hour playing pickleball.
The higher the weight, the more calories you’ll be able to burn within the same amount of time.
Regardless of your weight or size, though, pickleball is a fantastic option for burning calories, getting fit, and connecting with friends and family!
For more info, check out our pickleball calories burned while playing infographic below.
Happy pickling!
