One area of training that many paddlers do not focus on is nutrition. This is unfortunate, because stand up paddle training requires a significant number of calories and staying on top of your caloric intake is essential to keeping your glycogen stores topped off and avoiding overtraining syndrome. In order to get your daily caloric intake dialed in you are going to have to estimate how many calories you burn while you are paddling.

We are unaware of hard scientific data looking at calorie expenditures during paddling exercise. We have seen estimates online in the paddling forums and websites but these are often just wild guesses or estimates based on heart rate data which we feel are unreliable. For our program we use calorie estimates based on data used to estimate caloric expenditures during rowing exercise. Although it is likely that these numbers are not 100% accurate for paddling, they are likely a good place to start.

Estimating caloric expenditure is an inexact science as there is significant individual variation based on weight, age, and metabolism. We have found the following estimates, based on exercise intensity, as a good starting range for calories expended per hour for the average male paddler.

Paddle Level 1: 260 kcal/hr

Paddle Level 2: 600 kcal/hr

Paddle Level 3: 730 kcal/hr

Paddle Level 4: 1035 kcal/hr

*Note: intensity levels refer to heart rate training zones bases used in the Riding Bumps training program.