Riding an adult kick scooter is an inherently healthy activity, and this is one of the many reasons people choose add a scooter to their urban commute. Just how healthy is kick scooting? How many calories can you burn?

1. How Many Calories are Burned
Riding a Scooter?
By Karl Ulrich, Co-Founder

2. What is a calorie?
 A calorie is a unit of energy.
 One calorie is the amount of energy (heat)
required to raise the temperature of one cubic
centimeter of water by one degree Celsius.
 Calories can also refer to the energy required to
perform a certain amount of work. One calorie
corresponds to the work required to lift a 1
kilogram mass a height of about half a meter
(on planet earth).

3. Food calories
 Note that a “food” calorie is actually a
kilocalorie, a thousand calories.
 A piece of bread containing 100 “food” calories
actually contains 100,000 calories and therefore
has enough energy in it to raise the temperature
of 1000 cubic centimeters (1 liter) of water by
100 degrees Celsius. (Or to lift a 1 kilogram
mass to a very large height.)

4. Your body
 Your body is an amazing system!
 It has the ability to convert food (fuel) into work
(energy) through chemical and biological
mechanisms.
 Like any system for converting fuel to work,
your body is not 100 percent efficient. That is, it
requires more than one calorie of food to
provide enough fuel to your muscles to do one
calorie of work.

5. Your body
 In fact, when engaged in vigorous activities,
your body is around 20-33% efficient.
 Therefore, you must consume 3-5 calories of
food for every 1 calorie of actual work you do.
(This is good news if you are on a diet and bad
news if you are competing in the Tour de
France.)
 By the way, the rest of the energy value of the
food is exhausted from your body as heat.

6. Kick scooting
 To propel an adult on a Xootr kick scooter at
moderate speed requires about 100 watts of
continuous power.
 At this intensity level, a rider
would perform 86 kilocalories
of work during 60 minutes
of activity.

7. Kick scooting
 Assuming a fairly efficient kicking stride, the
rider could probably operate at around 20
percent efficiency, so
would burn
5 x 86 = 430
kilocalories of fuel for
each hour of riding.

8. Kick scooting
 Don’t be depressed by how little this is (about
half a Big Mac)
 Studies indicate that
exercise increases
your metabolic rate
generally resulting in
greater caloric
consumption
throughout the day.

9. Notes/Calculations
100 watts x 60 minutes x 60 sec/minute =
360,000 watt-seconds = 86 kilocalories
1 watt-second = 1 Joule 1 kilocalorie = 4182
Joules

10. Thank you!
Karl Ulrich
Co-Founder
www.xootr.com