Calories Burned Climbing Stairs?

  • Hi everyone!

    Just wondering if anyone has information or a link to a calculator that shows calories burned per FLIGHT of stairs climbed based on bodyweight.

    I've checked the usual sites, and I've found calories burned per MINUTE of stairclimbing, but they don't take speed into account. Any information regarding the number of flights per minute these sites assume would be equally helpful to me.

  • Hi! A flight of stairs varies from building to building and also depends on the height of each step. That may be why it's hard to fine that value.

    FitDay says walking up stairs burns 6.86 calories per minute, and running up stairs 12.86 calories per minute. Fitday also says that carrying moderate loads up stairs (15 to 40 pounds) also burns 6.86 cals/min. So I guess you'll have to time your stairclimbing.

    I just found a site that suggests that 8 flights of stairs burns 1% of your daily calories... Oh wait! Here's something from Dept. of Health, New Hampshire:

    http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/NR/rdonl...b/calories.pdf

    It's about flights of stairs.

    Jay
  • Thanks for the information, Jay!

    The NH site says about 5 cal per average/12-step flight for a 150 lb person. . . so adding roughly 50% for a 248 lb person would make it about 7.5 cal per average flight for me.

    Fitday tells me 10 cal per minute for a 248 lb person, so it seems Fitday is assuming 1.33 average flights per minute.

    This seems slow to me, at least for the first few flights

    I'm going to do some experimenting/timing, and I'll keep you posted!