How many calories does 1 hour of yoga burn?

For a 155 lb (70 kg) person: Hatha ~175 cal, Vinyasa ~280 cal, Ashtanga/Power ~350 cal, Bikram (hot) ~385 cal per hour. Heavier individuals burn proportionally more — a 200 lb person burns ~225 cal/hr in Hatha and ~500 cal/hr in Bikram.

Does hot yoga (Bikram) burn more calories than regular yoga?

Yes, but less than people assume. The heated 105°F room raises heart rate and induces heavy sweating, but the actual extra calorie burn from thermoregulation is modest — roughly 10–15% above non-heated Power yoga. Most of the perceived intensity comes from cardiovascular strain, not additional fat oxidation.

Is yoga enough exercise for weight loss?

Yoga alone can support weight loss when combined with a calorie deficit. A 60-minute Vinyasa class 4× per week burns ~1,120 calories — roughly 0.3 lb of fat per week before diet changes. For faster loss, pair yoga with walking or running and a 300–500 cal/day dietary deficit.

What yoga style burns the most calories?

Bikram (hot yoga) typically burns the most at ~5.5 MET, followed closely by Ashtanga and Power yoga at ~5.0 MET. Vinyasa flow falls in the middle at ~4.0 MET, and Hatha or restorative yoga burns the least at ~2.5 MET — about the same as a gentle walk.

Does yoga build muscle?

Yoga builds functional strength and muscular endurance, especially in the core, shoulders, and legs, but it adds limited muscle mass compared with resistance training. Power and Ashtanga styles produce the most hypertrophy because they require sustained isometric holds in challenging postures.

How accurate is this yoga calorie calculator?

It uses validated MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al.), accurate within ±15% for most people. Individual factors like fitness level, flexibility, and how aggressively you flow can push the actual number higher or lower. For weight management it is precise enough to track weekly trends.

Calories Burned Doing Yoga: 30 min = 90–200 cal

Calculate calories burned doing yoga by style, weight, and duration. Free MET-based calculator for Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Bikram (Hot) yoga.

Quick answer

Doing yoga burns about 236–372 calories per hour, or 118–186 calories in 30 minutes, for adults weighing 130–205 lb (59–93 kg). That estimate uses a MET value of 4 (vinyasa flow); see the table below for other intensities. These figures are estimates from population-average MET values, not measurements of your own energy expenditure — actual burn varies with intensity, fitness, body composition and technique.

Example calculation

A 155 lb (70 kg) adult — vinyasa flow — for 30 minutes:

4 MET × 70 kg × 0.5 h = 140 calories

That is 280 calories per hour, or about 4.7 calories per minute.

Calories burned doing yoga per hour, by body weight

Calories burned per hour by yoga style and body weight (MET method).
Yoga style	MET	130 lb (59 kg)	155 lb (70 kg)	180 lb (82 kg)	205 lb (93 kg)
Hatha / restorative	2.5	148 cal	175 cal	205 cal	233 cal
Vinyasa flow	4	236 cal	280 cal	328 cal	372 cal
Ashtanga / power	5	295 cal	350 cal	410 cal	465 cal
Bikram / hot yoga	5.5	325 cal	385 cal	451 cal	512 cal

Calories burned in 30 minutes

Calories burned in 30 minutes of doing yoga, by body weight.
Yoga style	130 lb (59 kg)	155 lb (70 kg)	180 lb (82 kg)	205 lb (93 kg)
Hatha / restorative	74 cal	88 cal	103 cal	116 cal
Vinyasa flow	118 cal	140 cal	164 cal	186 cal
Ashtanga / power	148 cal	175 cal	205 cal	233 cal
Bikram / hot yoga	162 cal	193 cal	226 cal	256 cal

Method and formula

Calories = MET × body weight in kilograms × duration in hours. MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) expresses the energy cost of an activity as a multiple of resting metabolism, where 1 MET ≈ 1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour. Pounds are converted with lb ÷ 2.20462 = kg. Totals are rounded to the nearest whole calorie and per-minute figures to one decimal; no rounding is applied before the final step.

MET values for doing yoga are taken from the 2011/2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities.

What changes the result

Body weight: Directly proportional — doubling body weight doubles the estimate at the same MET and duration.
Duration: Directly proportional — calories scale linearly with time at a constant intensity.
Intensity: Sets the MET value. Moving one intensity step up typically raises burn 20–40%.
Terrain and incline: Not in the base MET value; uphill or resistance work increases the true cost.
Fitness and efficiency: Trained people use less energy for the same output, so estimates skew high for them.
Age, sex and body composition: Change resting metabolism and therefore the baseline the MET multiplies.

Limitations

Heat (Bikram) raises heart rate more than it raises energy expenditure — sweat is not calories.
Class pacing varies widely between studios and teachers.
Every figure here is an estimate, not a measurement — treat it as a planning number rather than a result.
MET values are population averages from the Compendium of Physical Activities; individual results commonly differ by 10–20%.
Actual intensity and pace matter more than the label: two people at the same nominal intensity can differ substantially in real effort.
Body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness change the result — more lean mass raises the baseline, while trained people move more efficiently and often burn less than the table shows.
Terrain, incline, surface and movement technique are not captured by a flat-ground MET value.
These are gross calories — they include the resting energy you would have burned anyway during that time.
MET tables are standardised on a 70 kg adult, so estimates are least accurate at very low or very high body weights.
Heart-rate monitors, wearables and laboratory indirect calorimetry can all give different numbers; measured testing is more accurate for an individual than any MET-based estimate.

Last updated: August 6, 2026