Downhill skiing burns roughly 470 to 760 kcal per hour, and cross-country skiing burns roughly 400 to over 1,500 kcal per hour, depending on effort and body weight.
A sortable table of 16 skiing and winter activities with calories burned per hour at five weights, from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities.
By Mara Solletti · · 1 min read
Downhill skiing burns roughly 470 to 760 kcal per hour, while cross-country skiing ranges from about 400 to over 1,500 kcal per hour. The spread comes down to effort level and body weight: the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities lists MET values for 16 winter-activity codes, from light-effort downhill runs to elite cross-country racing. Every kcal/hour figure below is computed from those MET values, not measured directly, so each one carries a ~ marker.
Pick your weight.
All 16 winter-activity entries in the 2024 Compendium. Kcal/hr values are computed (MET × body weight in kg) and rounded to the nearest whole calorie — not directly measured. Click a column header to sort. Pick your body weight to highlight the matching column.
Calories Burned Per Hour At 150 Lb, Sorted By Activity
| Activity | Code | Edition | MET | 130 lb | 150 lb | 170 lb | 190 lb | 210 lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skiing, general | 19075 | 2024 | 7 | ~413 | ~476 | ~540 | ~603 | ~667 |
| Downhill (alpine) skiing, light effort, active time only | 19150 | 2024 | 4.3 | ~254 | ~293 | ~332 | ~371 | ~410 |
| Downhill (alpine) skiing, moderate effort, active time only | 19160 | 2024 | 6.3 | ~372 | ~429 | ~486 | ~543 | ~600 |
| Downhill (alpine) skiing, vigorous effort, active time only | 19170 | 2024 | 8 | ~472 | ~544 | ~617 | ~689 | ~762 |
| Skiing, slalom | 19146 | 2024 | 9.3 | ~548 | ~633 | ~717 | ~802 | ~886 |
| Cross-country skiing, 2.5 mph, ski walking, slow/light effort | 19080 | 2024 | 6.8 | ~401 | ~463 | ~524 | ~586 | ~648 |
| Cross-country skiing, 4.0-4.9 mph, moderate speed and effort | 19090 | 2024 | 8.5 | ~501 | ~578 | ~655 | ~733 | ~810 |
| Cross-country skiing, 5.0-7.9 mph, brisk speed, vigorous effort | 19100 | 2024 | 11.3 | ~666 | ~769 | ~871 | ~974 | ~1076 |
| Cross-country skiing, 8.0-11.9 mph, elite skier, racing | 19110 | 2024 | 14 | ~826 | ~953 | ~1080 | ~1207 | ~1334 |
| Cross-country skiing, 12-16 mph, elite skier, racing | 19112 | 2024 | 16 | ~944 | ~1089 | ~1234 | ~1379 | ~1524 |
| Cross-country skiing, skating technique | 19135 | 2024 | 13.3 | ~784 | ~905 | ~1026 | ~1146 | ~1267 |
| Ski jumping, climb up carrying skis | 19060 | 2024 | 7 | ~413 | ~476 | ~540 | ~603 | ~667 |
| Snowboarding, recreational, moderate pace, mountain | 19201 | 2024 | 7.5 | ~442 | ~510 | ~578 | ~646 | ~714 |
| Snowshoeing, moderate effort | 19190 | 2024 | 5.3 | ~313 | ~361 | ~409 | ~457 | ~505 |
| Snowshoeing, vigorous effort | 19192 | 2024 | 10 | ~590 | ~680 | ~771 | ~862 | ~953 |
| Sledding, tobogganing, bobsledding, luge | 19180 | 2024 | 7 | ~413 | ~476 | ~540 | ~603 | ~667 |
Sources
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Compendium of Physical Activities — Winter Activities (2024 Adult Compendium)
Rendered page listing every winter-activity code, MET value, and description in the 2024 Adult Compendium; checked line-by-line against the raw PDF below — identical values.
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2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (full activity table, PDF)
Read directly (28-page table, ~800 activities). Source of every 2024 MET value/code used in this dataset.
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2011 Compendium of Physical Activities (full activity table, PDF, LWW-hosted)
Read directly for the prior (2011) edition's winter-activity METs, used only to confirm the 2024 revisions cited in method/gaps below — not used for any number in the rows table.
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Compendium of Physical Activities — homepage
Confirms publisher (Ainsworth et al.), that the 2024 Adult Compendium is the current 3rd update, and edition history back to 1993.
Method
Codes, MET values, and descriptions were read directly from the 2024 Adult Compendium PDF and cross-checked against the separately rendered pacompendium.com winter-activities page — all matched exactly. Kcal/hr = MET × body weight in kg was then computed by hand for five body weights (130/150/170/190/210 lb); those products are marked ~ because they're computed, not sourced.
Gaps
The Compendium has no MET value for the airborne/descent phase of actual ski jumping — only “ski jumping, climb up carrying skis” (code 19060, MET 7.0) exists; the sport's defining moment has no listed energy cost.
Snowboarding has just one 2024 code (19201, recreational/moderate pace, MET 7.5) rather than the light/moderate/vigorous ladder downhill skiing gets; the 2011 edition had no standalone snowboarding code at all, lumping it into the alpine-skiing codes.
Several 2024 values shifted from 2011: downhill moderate effort rose from MET 5.3 to 6.3, cross-country moderate (4.0–4.9 mph) fell from 9.0 to 8.5, and cross-country elite racing (>8.0 mph) fell from 15.0 to 14.0. These are real revisions from new measured data, not errors — a page citing 2011-era figures (common on calculator sites) will disagree with this table by design.
