Most outdoor games are not just fun but also excellent for burning off calories. How many calories can you burn playing pickleball?

Being a great cardiovascular workout, pickleball is already a good option as a sport, but many people want to burn calories for the purpose of losing weight, rather than the health factor.

A regular pickleball game can burn between 8 to 11 calories every minute depending on the intensity. This is comparable to regular running, burning about 11 calories per minute. On average, a player of 160 lb weight can burn about 250 calories in half an hour of pickleball.

Of course, not every game will help you lose the same number of calories. Sometimes you may lose more, and other times you will lose less.

In our research we looked at what experienced pickleball players had to say about calorie burning in pickleball, along with all the other benefits it provides.

The Average Game of Pickleball

The USA Pickleball Association suggests that pickleball matches be played for best two out of three games, to 11 points. This means that each match, on average, will last about 50 minutes. A full set will last about an hour, with two sets giving you two hours.

Since you’re burning 8 to 11 calories per minute, you can convert that to minutes and get 120 minutes of gameplay! That’s a decent amount of time.

These calories will also depend greatly upon the type of pickleball you’re playing, though. For example, a casual game with a friend will probably not have the same intensity as a competitive, heated match. If your heart rate is higher, you can expect your body to burn more calories.

How Many Calories Can You Burn in Pickleball, Exactly?

Since pickleball is not a very common game, there aren’t as many stats around it as there are for other games. As such, to consider how a pickleball game will affect your body, you can use stats from very similar games, such as tennis.

Research suggests that a person of 150 lb weight burns about 414 calories in a mid-level singles tennis game (about an hour), with a person of 200 lb weight burning about 524 calories in the same period.

Because pickleball has a smaller court, you can compare the total amount of ground available to that in doubles tennis, and the calorie count goes down. The 150 lb person will burn about 280 calories, while the 200 lb person will burn approximately 350 calories.

For pickleball, on the other hand, a 160 lb person is expected to burn about 250 calories per half hour of casual game play, and 350 calories over 30 minutes of more aggressive game play. For the 200 lb person, these numbers are 350 and 470 calories respectively. Clearly, a pickleball game helps you burn more calories than a game of tennis!

It’s estimated that in a casual game of pickleball, you’d take about 4-5000 steps over one hour, but this can go up to about 7000 if you have a more competitive opponent.

Since one set of pickleball would take about an hour, you can burn about 500-700 calories over that time, depending on how aggressively you’re playing. At the lowest end, in a casual game, you’d still be burning about 8 calories per minute, and if you want to burn more, all you have to do is up the intensity.

Is That All?

Sure, pickleball is great for aiding your weight loss – burning more calories than you consume helps! – but it’s also good for other things. For one thing, pickleball is excellent for your cardiovascular health.

Remember what we said about heart rate? A higher heart rate during your game burns more calories, but high heart rate also means that your blood gets pumped around your body faster, delivering oxygen to different parts of your body and keeping them in shape.

Pickleball also makes your muscles stronger over time. Because you’d be using all your muscles in a number of ways, these muscles get challenged, and over time, they get stronger. This gives you strength and makes different kinds of movements a lot easier.

However, strength in your muscles only develops if you’re a regular player, rather than just a one-time thing. On the other hand, even one game of aggressive play will still help you burn all those calories – though it’ll probably be a lot more difficult to actually play it if you’re out of shape.

Pickleball can also be good for your mental health, if you enjoy it! Physical activity is already great for your mental health, since it releases dopamine and serotonin, which are responsible for your good mood and happiness. Regular games of pickleball can help you lose weight, make your heart better and make you happier.