My wife surprised me on Christmas morning this year with a Mio Shape Elite watch. For those of you who don’t already know, Mio watches have heart rate monitors built in that allow you to, among other things, keep track of the calories you burn during physical activities.

Long before we sat down for Christmas dinner that day, I had already sat down to program my new Mio. I entered my gender, my height, my weight, my weight management goals and other essential data that allows my Mio to do its job and give me on-demand progress reports throughout the day.

Since then, I have been using it to track the number of calories that I am buring during each of my many physical activities throughout the week.

Have there been any surprises, you ask? Yes. You bet.

I have learned, for example, that I actually burn more calories per hour when I am practicing squash than I do when I am playing squash. The difference is not enormous. I burn approximately 1200 calories during an hour of practice compared to about 1100 calories per hour while playing. But I was very surprised to find out that I put more energy into practicing the game than I put into playing it.

I was also surprised to learn that I am burning more than 900 calories per hour while playing recreational doubles badminton. Granted, I play hard, maintaining an average heart rate of 150 beats per minute over a two hour period. But since most of the estimates I have seen suggest that badminton burns somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 to 600 calories per hour for a guy of my age and weight, I was surprised to lean that my Mio indicates a burn rate that is 50 per cent higher.

What was even more surprising than the badminton burn rate, though, was the burn rate I came up with while playing doubles pickleball this morning.

Those of you who read my blog two weeks ago (Singles Pickleball Burns Calories) may remember that I estimated, based on data from other sports, that an hour of advanced singles pickleball would burn 350 to 400 calories per hour. In fact, these numbers may be much too conservative.

Earlier today, I spent two hours playing DOUBLES pickleball with three other Calgary players at the Cedarbrae Community Centre. It’s important to understand that this was DOUBLES pickleball, not singles. My burn rate during that two hour period, according to my Mio, was an astonishing 1350 calories. That’s 675 calories per hour.

If that is accurate (and I have no reason to believe that it is not), then advanced singles pickleball will certainly burn more than I originally estimated. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it’s reasonably close to the burn rate for doubles badminton.

Brent Johner is a certified tennis, squash and badminton coach in Calgary, AB, Canada. Racquet Network is a worldwide community of racquet sports players and coaches.

Related posts:

1. Lose It! Use It!
2. Singles Pickleball Burns Calories
3. 60-Minute 1000+ Calorie Squash Workout
4. Entertain Yourself Thin
5. Double Your Tennis Fitness