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(Q) If my goal is to burn calories, should I take a one-hour step class or a one-hour Spinning class?

(A) "They can be equal, or either one can burn more than the other, depending on several factors," says Dixie Stanforth, M.S., faculty member in the kinesiology department at The University of Texas at Austin. With step aerobics, the higher the platform and the more you weigh, the more calories you'll burn. The choreography also matters, although less than step height and weight. You're going to burn more calories with propulsive types of movements than with basic stepping," Stanforth says.

According to Stanforth, who has conducted research at various step heights, a 145-pound person doing basic stepping at a music speed of 120 beats per minute burns about 7 calories per minute on a 6-inch step, 8.5 calories per minute on an 8-inch step and 9.8 calories per minute on a 10-inch step. Add tougher choreography, and the same person burns more calories per minute: 9.3 calories on a 6-inch step, 10.3 calories on an 8-inch step and 11.1 calories on a 10-inch step. For one hour, the calorie expenditure typically ranges between 400 and 660. Upper-body movements add little to the calorie burn, Stanforth says.

Only a handful of studies have looked at the energy cost of indoor cycling classes, she says, and they have found a calorie expenditure between 300 and 600 for classes lasting 40-60 minutes.

With indoor cycling, your weight does not affect your calorie burn because in the seated position, you're not bearing the weight of your body. Instead, the key factor is your power output, a combination of how fast you pedal and against how much resistance. Pedaling fast with little resistance burns minimal calories, Stanforth says, because "the bike is doing the work -- not you." Pedaling at a slow cadence is also not an efficient way to burn calories. You'll maximize your calorie burn if you pedal at a faster cadence against a challenging resistance -- a pace that is hard to define, varies greatly from person to person and depends in part on your fitness level.

Many people think that, because they sweat so much in Spinning classes, they're burning more calories than they are in other classes. But that's generally not true, Stanforth says. The sweating is largely due to the lack of air movement in the room. "You tend to heat up a bit more unless there are fans," she says.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:44 AM