How do I know how many calories I burn doing Pilates? Does it count as cardio or strength training?

Your Pilates workout is a great way to improve general fitness, core strength and flexibility. Like any activity, it burns some calories. But simply burning calories doesn't mean that an exercise is cardiovascular or should be treated as such.

Studies show that, on average, participants in a 50-minute Pilates mat workout burn between 175 calories (beginners) and 250 calories (advanced). That's considerably fewer calories than traditional aerobic exercises. And it won't provide the same cardiovascular conditioning benefits as aerobics, because it doesn't elevate the heart rate to the same level. Aerobic exercise has heart-healthy effects because of the unique way it forces the cardiovascular system to provide extra oxygen and blood flow to the muscles. So, we encourage people NOT to replace traditional aerobic exercise (running, walking, biking, etc.) with other things that serve different purposes. Better to do both, if possible.

Although we recommend that people just consider the calories burned by these kinds of activity as "extra" calories they are banking for those days when things don't quite go as planned, you are able to track Pilates in your fitness tracker (as a strength training exercise.) If you type "Pilates" into the search box, fill in the number of minutes and click "Add Exercise to Tracker", it will show up at the bottom of the fitness tracker page.

To learn more about the benefits of Pilates and how to incorporate it into your fitness program, read A Skeptic's Guide to Pilates.

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How do I know how many calories I burn doing Pilates? Does it count as cardio or strength training?

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