Jack

Well, we all know belly dance is a great workout, but just how great is it?
How many calories do we burn an hour? Does it differ in defferent styles?
I ask this because I've heard everything from 200 cals per hour, to 600 cals per hour.

__________________
Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you will land upon the stars.

Mosaic

It would depend entirely on how active the hour was. I find some of my classes are a constant sweat making hour and others not so full on, so i am sure in the heavy duty ( so to speak) classes the calories are turning to mush ... how many I have no idea.

One of my instructors did say she had been told a full on vigorous hour of BD can burn up to a 1000 cals. I think that is a bit much. But one never knows
~Mosaic

jenc

That would be a 3.5 hour workshop and lose a pound - if you survived!!

Mouse

I would imagine it all depends on what you were doing during the class

CandaceHolly

It would depend on the type of class, what you're going over and how intensive the class is that day. I am not sure how many calories per hour/15 minutes/30 minutes you can burn. I do know one thing...since I began belly dancing I have lost a lot of weight. Much of that is attributed to dancing.

I remember when I worked at a gym, the personal trainer told me that there are goals when working out to lose weight and tone. The goals are; heart rate up, work your entire body and, endurance or repitition . Belly dancing covers all three of those goals. Plus, you enjoy yourself while doing it!

Jack

Thanks for your information ladies.

I knew it mattered on how intense the boogie-ing goes down, I was just wondering if anyone could just give me an estimate on the calories.
Per say,
How many cals for a begginer class?
Intermediate class?
Advanced class?
Just to dance using all you know for an hour?
Slow moves mostly?
Fast moves mostly?

If I were to tell someone who is new to belly dance what would I tell them? Maybe I would say anywhere from 250 cals to *choke, 600 cals?

Those are some pretty acurate goals. It would do to keep people motivated very well.

__________________
Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you will land upon the stars.

Shanazel

Calorie burn depends on age, personal metabolism, and weight as well as how long and how energetically one moves. I would not even hazard a guess as to calorie burn in a dance class. Belly dance class does not usually consist of sustained aerobic activity like running. I can just see my students coming unglued because I spent time working on smooth transitions and graceful hands instead of a full hour of running shimmies with simultaneous snake arms and head slides to get in the maximum amount of calorie burn.

Aniseteph

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

And if you DO know how many calories you've burned, what do you do with it? Award yourelf the corresponding percentage of a doughnut or something? I really don't get this profit and loss calorie counting when it's taken to extremes. Eating a whole cheesecake = bad. Getting a bit puffed doing some sort of activity = good. Take it too far and it can get a bit obsessive IMHO - in many cases I don't think it's healthy.

Reiana

Agreed, but when you're trying to lose some excess weight, it often comes down to numbers. Some people keep track of their numbers, and some people don't. *shrug* It's still valuable to know how good of a workout belly dance usually is, just so you know if you should add additional aerobic exercise into your week or not.

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"There is a bit of insanity in dancing..." -Edwin Denby

sedoniaraqs

Its important, unfortunately, because one doesn't get to be fat by gorging on cheesecake everyday. Most people who are overweight eat almost what they burn every day. Almost.

If you eat on average a mere 100 cals more than you need (thats a cookie, or a piece of bread, or a banana extra), you'll put on a pound in a little over a month, 10 lbs in a year, and after 5 years of that you'd be 50 lbs overweight. That is how most people gain weight.

If you are trying to lose weight, you can't (or at least most people can't) "just try to be sensible". What feels like sensible to our bodies is the amount of cals that maintains us where we are. You have to create a calorie deficit within a fairly narrow range of parameters. Too little of a deficit won't negate the occasional "cheat" and the error in the system (error in measuring/estimating portions etc). Too big of a deficit will leave you feeling tired and prime to fall off the wagon within a very short period of time.

So for me any way, obtaining fairly accurate estimates of calories consumed and burned has been very important. Call me obsessed if you will, but obsessive calorie counting has gotten my cholesterol from 289 to 180 and it has gotten me into size 8 clothes and back looking good in bedlah at 42. It worked where other strategies failed.

Would you consider balancing your checkbook to the penny to be obsessive? What if someone told you to not worry about finding out how much your paycheck was, or how much your bills add to, just work hard, try to be frugal, and everything will work out peachy keen? Why treat your body so much more sloppily?