Skiing calorie calculator: how many calories does skiing burn?

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Quick answer: A 75 kg skier burns about 400 calories an hour of actual downhill skiing at moderate effort, or roughly 1,250 over a seven-hour resort day, because only about three of those hours are spent skiing. Ski touring burns about 675 calories an hour and brisk cross-country nearly 940. The catch is those two words: actual skiing.

The exercise-science reference values behind most skiing calculators define downhill skiing for active time only, yet many calculators apply them to your whole day. A seven-hour lift-served day usually contains around three hours of actual skiing once lifts, queues and lunch are subtracted, so applying the rate to the whole day overstates a resort day by more than double. This one asks if you're entering skiing time or a full mountain day, and adjusts the figure to match. For touring and cross-country, where you're moving nearly the whole time, your hours count in full, which is why a touring day out-burns a resort day by such a margin.

How many calories does skiing burn per hour?

For a 75 kg skier, an hour of moderate downhill burns about 400 calories, steady skinning about 675 and skate skiing about 1,010. The table covers every option in the calculator. Figures are approximate calories per hour of actual skiing, rounded to the nearest 10.

How many calories does a full day of skiing burn?

On a lift-served day, the calculator counts about 45% of your time as skiing, the rest being lifts, queues and lunch. Over seven hours on the mountain, that comes to about 1,020 calories for a 75 kg skier cruising easy runs, about 1,250 at moderate effort and about 1,890 skiing hard all day. Touring is different. Six hours of steady skinning would come to about 4,050, though descents burn less, so a real touring day lands a little lower.

How does the calculator work out your burn?

It multiplies a MET value, a multiple of your resting metabolic rate, by your weight and your hours, since one MET is roughly 1 calorie per kg of body weight per hour. The values are based on the Compendium of Physical Activities, the reference list exercise scientists use: 4.3 METs for light downhill skiing and 5.3 for moderate, both defined for active time only, and 8 for racing. Cross-country uses 6.8, 9 and 12.5 METs for gentle, steady and brisk skiing and 13.5 for skate technique. Ski touring uses 9 for steady skinning and 12.5 for hard uphill, the same values as steady and brisk cross-country.

Worked example for a 75 kg skier on a seven-hour lift-served day at moderate effort: 7 × 0.45 = 3.15 hours of skiing, and 5.3 × 75 × 3.15 = about 1,250 calories.

Cold, altitude and why ski days make you so hungry

Skiing stacks three appetites on top of each other: the work itself, staying warm, and altitude. That's why the mid-station stop never quite touches the sides. Keep a snack in your jacket and eat a little on each lift ride rather than saving it all for lunch. I make Phoenix Bars, high-calorie bars with up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar that won't freeze, and a Phoenix Bar fits a jacket pocket. Customers have taken them on a South Pole expedition, so a chairlift is well within their comfort zone.

If you are heading uphill under your own power, our ski touring nutrition guide covers the full day's fuelling, and for the coldest end of the sport there's our polar expedition nutrition guide. Our ranking of the best energy bars for expeditions compares bars on calories per gram and how they cope with cold.

FAQs

How many calories does a day of downhill skiing burn?
For a 75 kg skier, a typical lift-served day with about three hours of real skiing at moderate effort burns roughly 1,200 kcal from the skiing itself, before cold and altitude add their share.

Does ski touring burn more than downhill?
Considerably. Steady skinning burns about 1.7 times the rate of moderate downhill, hard uphill well over double, and you're moving for most of the day rather than riding lifts.

Does snowboarding burn more calories than skiing?
Not by much. The 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities lists easy and moderate snowboarding at the same values as downhill skiing, 4.3 and 5.3 METs for active time only, so use the downhill options above for a day on a board.

Is cross-country skiing the biggest calorie burner?
Hour for hour, brisk cross-country and skate skiing sit near the top of all endurance sports, alongside hard rowing and running. Compare with our rowing calorie calculator.

Also see our rucking calorie calculator for winter load carrying, and our hiking calorie calculator, plus the swimming calorie calculator for a pool session on a rest day.

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Sources: Ainsworth and others, 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (2011); Phoenix Bar values from our own pack labels.