How Many Calories Does Playing Basketball Burn?

Before we start with our discussion of how much calories are burned while playing basketball, we want to discuss what exactly is a calorie. A calorie is the most common unit of energy the body spends on maintaining the work of all organs and muscles in the body. Although there are other units of energy, like joules, a calorie is the most common unit that people use every day.

While the calorie expenditure of organs is always constant, we can’t say the same for muscles because the more we work or play basketball, the more muscles we burn, and the calories burned are higher.

We get calories from the body digesting the food that we eat. The main sources of calories are carbs, fats, and protein, which we eat every day.

If you eat the same number of calories as you burn, your body weight will stay the same. If you eat less, you’ll lose some weight. And if you eat more than you burn you’ll gain some weight. It’s that simple.

How Many Calories Does Playing Basketball Burn?

We all know that playing basketball requires enormous effort, but how does playing basketball burn?

This question doesn’t have a concrete answer actually. Since the calories burned depend on the individual and how much your exercise you did while playing basketball, everyone will burn a different amount.

Depending on what you do, the estimate can go anywhere from 200 calories to up to 900 calories per hour! We will teach you how to estimate that.

3 Factors that Affect How Many Calories You Burn While Playing Basketball

We can roughly give an estimate of how many calories you burned because it depends on these major three aspects:

What Activity (Half Cout, Full Court, Shooting Hoops, Dribbling, etc)
Player’s Weight (Body Mass)
Playing Time

1. Playing Time

The first one is obvious; the number of burned calories increases with every minute of playing time. The time that you play is directly proportional to calories burned.

Also, in basketball, players normally don’t just stand there unlike in other sports. In soccer and hockey, goalkeepers don’t necessarily burn more calories just because they play longer since the majority of playing time is inactive.

2. How You Play Basketball (Half Court, Full Cout, Shooting Hoops, etc)

As you know, one can play basketball in a variety of ways. Some of the ways that you can play basketball is 5 vs. 5, 3 vs. 3, full-court, half-court, just shooting hoops, practicing dunking. There are dozens of other ways to play basketball, and we’ve just listed the most common ways.

Although there is a multitude of ways, one thing is for sure. Each activity corresponds to an intensity level. For example, full-court 5 vs. 5 is one of the most intense ways that you can play basketball, and this activity spends a lot of calories. 3 vs. 3 half-court requires fewer calories than full-court basketball, and just shooting hoops requires even fewer.

Obviously, how you calculate how much you burned varies on which type of activity that you played. We will cover only the most common types in the later section.

3. How Much You Weigh

Your weight is a big factor in determining how many calories you burn while playing basketball. The heavier the player, the more energy (calories) he needs to make all muscles and joints to do what he imagined.

A similar analogy is a big truck, let’s say an F-150, uses more fuel than a small car, like a Toyota Camry, to travel the same distance. Just like the cars, the heavier a player is, the more calories he spends compared to a lighter player given the same circumstances such as type of activity and playing time.

How many calories do you burn playing basketball?

Here we have two different types of a ball game; the half-court game and the full-court game.

The first one implies pick-up basketball and games like 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3, while the second type means 4v4 and 5v5, and includes professional basketball.

1. Half-court Game calories (1v1, 2v2, 3v3)

The number of calories a basketball player burns in a half-court game per one hour is approximately 2.6 multiplied by your body weight in pounds.

For a player weighing 150 – 160 lbs, it would mean that he burns 390 – 415 calories in one hour.
For a player weighing 160 – 170 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 415 – 440.
For a player weighing 170 – 180 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 440 – 470.
For a player weighing 180 – 190 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 470 – 495.
For a player weighing 190 – 200 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 495 – 525.
For a player weighing 200 – 210 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 525 – 550.
For a player weighing 210 – 220 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 550 – 580.
For a player weighing 220 – 230 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 580 – 605.
For a player weighing 230 – 240 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 605 – 635.
For a player weighing 240 – 250 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 635 – 665.

These calories burned by playing half-court games are just estimates. The actual calories burned will be dependent on how intense you played.

2. Full-court Game Calories (4v4, 5v5)

The number of calories a basketball player burns in a full-court game per one hour equals approximately 3.8 multiplied by your body weight in pounds.

For a player weighing 150 – 160 lbs, it would mean that he burns 570 – 605 calories in one hour.
For a player weighing 160 – 170 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 605 – 640.
For a player weighing 170 – 180 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 640 – 675.
For a player weighing 180 – 190 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 675 – 710.
For a player weighing 190 – 200 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 710 – 745.
For a player weighing 200 – 210 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 745 – 780.
For a player weighing 210 – 220 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 780 – 815.
For a player weighing 220 – 230 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 815 – 850.
For a player weighing 230 – 240 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 850 – 885.
For a player weighing 240 – 250 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 885 – 920.

These calories burn by playing full-court games are just estimates. The actual calories burned will be dependent on how intense you played.

3. Calories Burned Shooting Hoops And/Or Dribbling Basketball

Since shooting hoops only includes walking, shooting, occasional running for the ball, and dunking if you’re lucky, we can characterize this as a low-intensity activity.

Every one of these moves by itself burns a small number of calories per hour, which means that all together also won’t burn much.

The number of calories burned per hour dribbling and/or shooting hoops equals approximately 1.8 times your body weight in pounds.

For a player weighing 150 – 160 lbs, it would mean that he burns 270 – 290 calories in one hour.
For a player weighing 160 – 170 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 290 – 305.
For a player weighing 170 – 180 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 305 – 325.
For a player weighing 180 – 190 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 325 – 345.
For a player weighing 190 – 200 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 345 – 360.
For a player weighing 200 – 210 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 360 – 380.
For a player weighing 210 – 220 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 380 – 395.
For a player weighing 220 – 230 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 395 – 415.
For a player weighing 230 – 240 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 415 – 430.
For a player weighing 240 – 250 lbs, the number of calories burned in one hour would be 430 – 450.

These calories burned while shooting and dribbling are just estimates. The actual calories burned will be dependent on how intense you shoot or dribbled

How many total calories does an NBA basketball player burn a day?

We already mentioned that the body uses energy for normal functioning of organs. That number of calories is usually constant for every individual (changes only a bit with age). The rest of the daily activities makes for the rest of the total calories.

The approximate number of calories that male basketball player with active lifestyle spends in one day is approximately 19.3 times their body weight.

For a player weighing 150 – 160 lbs, it would mean that he burns 2895 – 3088 calories in one day.
For a player weighing 160 – 170 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 3088 – 3281.
For a player weighing 170 – 180 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 3281 – 3474.
For a player weighing 180 – 190 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 3474 – 3667.
For a player weighing 190 – 200 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 3667 – 3860.
For a player weighing 200 – 210 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 3860 – 4053.
For a player weighing 210 – 220 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 4053 – 4246.
For a player weighing 220 – 230 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 4246 – 4439.
For a player weighing 230 – 240 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 4439 – 4632.
For a player weighing 240 – 250 lbs, the number of calories burned in one day would be 4632 – 4825.

I hope that this article on calories burned while playing basketball was helpful! If you are interested, visit the Basketball Tips Category!