How many do you think you burn for playing piano for a hour

[shostglass]

How many calories do you think you burn for playing the piano for a hour this question came up for one of my friend who plays piano and violin.

[perprocrastinate]

It depends on the type of piece you're practicing, but it's probably an insignificant amount.

[lostinidlewonder]

Use google. https://www.dietbites.com/Pyramid-Diet/calories-burned-playing-piano.html

I can't imagine someone playing insane music for one hour non stop, you'd hurt yourself and there are much easier ways to exercise if you are interested in burning the fat.

[perfect_pitch]

...and there are much easier ways to exercise if you are interested in burning the fat.

I may disagree with you there...

=1m45s

[ted]

I keep getting friend requests from athletes on the fitbit site because my fitbit registers tens of thousands of steps when I play the piano for an hour or two. It probably counts calories too but the total would be false. I explained it to the first couple of young athletes but eventually couldn't be bothered repeating myself, so I suppose most of my "friends" now think I am some sort of freakishly fit old man.

[siveron]

At most 100!

[Bob]

I'm finding around 150-170cal/hr.

[senanserat]

I'm finding around 150-170cal/hr.

Playing prestissimo are we?

[Bob]

Well it wouldn't be from brain power... Concentrating uses barely any additional calories from what I've read.

That's more calories than it takes to run a mile too, although the mile would take a fraction of that hour. 


I think I'd still buy 150-170 cal/hour of piano (or any instrument) playing.

To burn 150 calories you'll need to:

Just a google search on burning 150 calories...
1.Read for 1 hour and 43 minutes.
2.Watch television for 2 hours and 12 minutes.
3.Sleep for 2 hours and 27 minutes.


https://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness/basics/tips/15-ways-to-burn-150-calories.aspx
Yeah... Similar things here.  Running, etc. is for 15 min, roughly. 
But walking for 33-53 min is 150 cal.
Gardening for 30 min... 150 cal.
Home improvement of cleaning is 150 cal in 30 min.

And the list above is on this site... for doing nothing or next to nothing.


Maybe the question is... How many calories does piano practice burn compared to doing nothing?  (BMR)

If sleep is 150 calories in 2.5 hr.   That's pretty much nothing, except for whatever the brain starts doing when you're asleep.  Still low power though, and the brain doesn't drain extra calories regardless of how hard it works.  So dreaming hard wouldn't matter.
150cal/2.5hr
or 50 cal/hr for sleeping

vs. music practice at 150 cal/hr.

So music practice is burning an extra 100 cal/hr compared to doing nothing.

And the brain's not taking in extra, so these calories are be burned from physical activity.  Physical activity can use fat (brain cannot from what I've read), so you could burn fat by practicing, although I'm thinking that's a pretty inefficient way to burn fat/calories.

[aweshana21]

about 150 is my estimate

[lostinidlewonder]

I may disagree with you there...

=1m45s

Playing chopsticks for 1.5 hours would be mind numbing lol. I used to play squash and would get a real work out AND have fun, you don't realize you are working out lol. Still best way to cut the fat is to eat well, I survived on a 3,000kj diet for a few months and lost 20kgs with very little exercise and have kept it off with good eating habits

[ahinton]

about 150 is my estimate

I realise that we're talkiong piano here (as one does on this forum!) but I imagine that, on this basis, performing Sorabji's Organ Symphony No. 2 would reduce the organist's calorific tally to quite a large minus figure, which would make it quite difficult to complete the performance...

Anyway, much would depend upon what it being played during that hour, in that a single run-through of the Concerto and the Ouverture from Alkan's Op. 39 would likely burn rather more calories than 14 performances of 4'33"...

Best,

Alistair

[timothy42b]

Some people play without eating.

Others have a plate of snacks, and maybe some adult beverages.

In an hour, you could easily burn 100 calories, or eat 1000 calories.

[Bob]

According to this post, humans can't digest wood, so there's not many calories there.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110924155611AAOpUIg

Add paint, plastic... metal won't work of course.  Where are those 1,000 calories coming from if you're eating the piano?  Depends what the bench is made of I guess.

[opus10no2]

Humans burn around 100 calories per hour doing absolutely nothing.

100 x 24 = 2400 which is around the average daily calorie expenditure.

The best way to 'burn more calories' isn't to up activity - it's to consume less.

You could run 5 miles, or you could eat one less cookie...your choice 

[thalbergmad]

I cycle over 200 miles a week, so i can have lots of cookies and still lose weight.

Thal

[ahinton]

I cycle over 200 miles a week, so i can have lots of cookies and still lose weight.

That sounds as admirable on the one hand as it does painful on the other.

I have neither the motivation to cycle almost the distance from Bath to London and back within the space of a week than I have the cycle with which that could be done nor indeed the wish to consume cookies (although I wouldn't mind losing 3kg or so!).

I have no idea about the amount of calories that might be burned as a direct consquence of playing a musical instrument for any given period of tme (other than that, as I have stated, this would inevitably depend very much on what the player was playing at the time) but, if you have reliable statistics as to how your banjo practice affects your calorific statistics, I'd be as interested to know as anyone contributing to and/or reading this thread.

Best,

Alistair

[timothy42b]

My work has a health program where they will measure your body composition and your resting metabolism rate.

I was very surprised to find out how many calories I burn at rest (a lot) and at exercise (hardly any by comparison).  They told me exactly how many calories to eat to lose a pound a week.  It was more than I thought.  But after I lost a bit my resting metabolism slowed and I had to get retested, and ended up reducing. 

At any rate, I dropped the 22 pounds they said I was overweight, without having to starve myself. 

[briansaddleback]

How many calories do you think you burn for playing the piano for a hour this question came up for one of my friend who plays piano and violin.

The same amount of calories you burn for sitting on your ass all day.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Zero

[pencilart3]

Wilde jagd, a lot

[shostglass]

Lmao i found a website with a caculator for how many calories you lose per minute for playing piano, violin, organ, and trumpet. According to this website four hours of practice burns...680 calories

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/calories-burned/music-playing-piano-organ-violin-trumpet-103