Rock climbing can be very tough with some extra pounds, but it is also very useful to lose them. From my personal experience I can highly recommend rock climbing for weight loss. I lost about 22 lbs (10kg) in a few month from just climbing, altough losing weight wasn’t even my intention.
Rock climbing is good for weight loss, because it is an intense full body workout that burns about 500-800 calories per hours, if the rest between the routes is short. Because of the high intensity of the sport, rock climbing is especially useful to lose weight and build muscle at the same time.
When losing weight is your primary goal while rock climbing, there are certain things you want to focus on, that will help you lose weight faster. If you want to learn which things these are or how many calories rock climbing burns compared to other activities, read the subheadings below.
How Many Calories Do You Burn Rock Climbing?
How many calories you burn while rock climbing depends on mutiple factors. The most obvious being the intensity of the climbing session and how often you rest between the routes. But also your gender, age, body height and weight are important for the calorie burn. The more you weight, the more calories you burn for the same activity.
Because there are so many factors that influence the actual calorie burn, I made a table below that shows different kind of sports and how much calories they burn per hour. To make it comparable I used the same gender, age, body height and weight for every activity. So you have an overview how many calories rock climbing burns in caomparison.
| Activity | Calorie burn per hour |
| Rock climbing | 570 |
| Tennis | 555 |
| Jogging | 532 |
| Bicycling | 517 |
| Basketball | 494 |
| Badminton | 418 |
| Golf | 365 |
| Walking | 228 |
In the table I used as an example gender male, age 25, body weight 180 lbs (82kg) and body height 5′ 11″ (180 cm). Of course this probably doesn’t apply to you, but the goal of this table is to show you how many calories rock climbing burns in comparison, not how many calories you exactly burn.
As you can see rock climbing is pretty high in calorie burn compared to other activities. This is because cimbing is very intense and hard to do. If you want to know why rock climbing is so hard click here. However you shouldn’t just start rock climbing because of the high calorie burn, it has to be fun for you to be sustainable.
In the table below all factors are still the same and only the body weight is changed. As you can see the calorie burn is way higher when you weigh more. Because of this it is so benefitial to start doing sport for overweight people. They will lose weight very fast when doing activities that burn a lot of calories.
| Body weight | Calorie burn per hour while rock climbing |
| 270 lbs (122 kg) | 698 |
| 260 lbs (118 kg) | 684 |
| 250 lbs (113 kg) | 670 |
| 240 lbs (109 kg) | 656 |
| 230 lbs (104 kg) | 641 |
| 220 lbs (100 kg) | 627 |
| 210 lbs (95 kg) | 613 |
| 200 lbs (91 kg) | 599 |
| 190 lbs (86 kg) | 585 |
| 180 lbs (82 kg) | 570 |
How to Burn More Calories While Rock Climbing
There are some useful strategies that will inrease your calorie burn when you are rock climbing. The first one is to take short rests between every route or every new attempt. Instead of 5 minutes, try take a smaller rest time of 2 minutes and you will burn more calories climbing, as you spend more time actually on the wall than resting.
Of course this can’t be taken to far, as you will need a bit rest time between the routes. However most people take way too much time to talk to people in the climbing gym or thinking about a route. Instead try to use this time actively climbing and you will lose weight way faster.
Another approach to increase the calorie burn is to climb slower. Climbing routes slower than you would normally do increases the active time on the wall and because of that increases the calorie burn aswell. However you only can use this strategy on routes that are pretty easy for you, because you can’t holds yourself so long at harder routes.
If your main goal is losing weight, focus on easier routes, as you will be able to spend more time on the wall and burn more calories
In addition to climbing slower you could also use the hover technique, which is originally used to train the lock-off strength. The lock-off strength is the strength you need to hold yourself with only one arm, while you can use the other one freely in climbing.
You hover over every hold a few seconds (3-5 seconds) before actually grabbing it. Like this your time on the wall increases aswell and it is way harder to always hold yourself with only one arm than quickly climbing the route, so it also adds intensity.
When you lose weight with rock climbing it also benefits your future climbs, because weighting less is a huge advatage in the climbing world. Every time you grab a hold you have to pull your own body weight up. So every pound you lost quickly adds up and makes it a lot easier for you. If you want to know how you additionally improve your climbing strength as a beginner click here.
Differences of Bouldering, Top Rope And Lead Climbing
Bouldering, top rope and lead climbing are the 3 main indoor climbing sports and in terms of weight loss and calorie burn they are pretty different. Bouldering is climbing without a rope on a wall that is about 13 feet (4 meters) high. When top roping and lead climbing you are climbing with a rope and safety eqipment on a wall that is about 45 feet (14 meters) high.
While in top rope the rope is already at the top of the wall, in lead climbing you have to clip the rope into carabiners every few holds yourself. While in bouldering the intensity is pretty high, in top rope and lead the intensity is more medium, because the climb is way longer.
In terms of calorie burn bouldering probably burns the least amount, because you don’t spend that much time on the wall. In top rope you already spend more time climbing, because the route is longer. And in lead climbing you additionally have to stop every few holds to clip your rope into carabiners, which extends the climbing time.
However, because bouldering is so intense there isn’t such a huge difference in calorie burn between the three kinds of climbing. So I would recommend you to try very one out and find the one that fits you the best. In the end bouldering, lead and top rope are all very intense sports and will make you lose weight pretty fast.
The most important thing is that you stick with one kind of climbing that is fun for you, because even when you burn more calories with lead, if you don’t climb consistently there is no big calorie burn. So rather stay with the one that is more fun, than with the one that burns more calories.
Rock Climbing Is Good For Muscle Growth Aswell
Rock climbing is a very intense full body workout and allows you to lose weight, while you build muscle. Especially the arm and back area is targeted by climbing and will grow if you climb consistently. But also the legs and core is involved when you climb routes on steeper walls or overhangs.
So if you are beginner to climbing and don’t train your body otherwise you are very likely to also build muscle, even if you are in a calorie deficit. Being in a clorie deficit means that you burn more calories over the day than you eat.
If muscle growth is also a goal for you, rock climbing is the ideal mix of cardio and strength training. Just be aware, that for muscle growth you need to eat enough protein (it is recommended to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight a day) and get enough recovery (rest days and sleep). If you want to know how many days you should rest between climbing sessions click here.
Final Thoughts
Rock climbing is great for weight loss, but not the easiest eay. If you just want to start climbing for the sake of losing weight, you should probably do a different kind of sport. Jogging for example is way easier than rock climbing and also requires less equipment.
However, if you like rock climbing, it is very easy to forget time while climbing and losing weight will be pretty simple for you. Whatever kind of sport you do to lose weight, I wish you the best that you succeed.