How Many Calories Do I Burn While Singing

Brett Manning

February 21, 2025

Does singing burn calories?

The quick answer is… Yes.

Ok…. skip the gym. Go sing for an hour and get in shape! I mean….. wait! Hold on! Going to the gym has the potential to burn a ton more calories per hour than singing.

The Skinny on Weight Loss Strategy

The for years we’ve been told:

Eat margarine. We were wrong. Eat butter.
Eat vegan. Eat vegetarian. Go Keto, Go carnivore.
Take tons of supplements. No supplements. Get your nutrients from whole foods only.
Milk… good. Milk….. bad. Milk good again.
Weight gain good. Excessive weight gain bad.
Weight loss good. Lose too much weight (especially muscle) bad.
Eggs good. Eggs bad. Eggs good again.
Salt bad. Salt good.
Fat makes you fat. No….carbs make you fat.

All the above is just nutrition.

On the exercise front, we’ve been told:

How many calories burned determines how much weight you’ll lose.
Aerobics burns the most fat and calories.
Anaerobic activity (strength and weight training) burns the most fat and calories.
Combine aerobic and anaerobic activity to get the best results.
The more calories burned, plus the healthy lifestyle, equals normal weight gain and weight loss.
Burst training is the answer.
Treadmills get it done. Treadmills cause stress.

Blah, blah, blah.

Everybody is right and everybody is wrong. Depending on who you ask. Right?

Shifting Gears for a Minute

Happiness and health should always be taken together. Below are some random ‘made up’ statistics (aren’t they all….somewhat?) dealing with happy lifestyle principles.

Health:

80% Eating
20% Exercising

Wealth:

80% Habits
20% Math

Happiness:

80% Purpose
20% Fun

Achieving:

80% Listening
20% Speaking

Talking:

80% Listening
20% Speaking

Improving:

80% Persistence
20% Ideas

Learning:

80% Understanding
20% Reading

Relationships:

80% Giving
20% Recieving

Now…. these really couldn’t be measured accurately and are not meant to be. Rather, my attempt is to get you to think deeply about the connection of your happiness, your success, and your self improvement.

How Does Singing Burn Calories?

All activity, even eating and digesting your food, burns calories. The amount of calories singing burns, depends on a slew of other factors:

How much of your singing voice do you use?
Does the singer give a really energetic singing performance?
Are you doing any opera singing, and is there movement in this opera?
Are you sitting on a stool singing a ballad or rocking out to an uptempo song?
Are you a smaller person or quite large?
What kind of lung capacity do you possess?
Are you a stressed out nervous wreck on stage?

When answering this question, you have to realize the vast difference between singers. An opera singer will burn more calories than a jazz singer….doing the same amount of movement. Elvis Presley will burn far more calories from singing, than John Denver. The energy some singers use will leave them sweating like a pro athlete. So, the answer is…. it depends.

Will Singing Help Me Lose Weight?

Singing will immediately increase your oxygen capacity in your lungs. Strong lungs are necessary for the amount of air pressure needed for power singing. Also, a strong—yet disciplined and controlled— diaphragm is needed to sustain a note for half a minute. That length of time will exert a tremendous amount of energy and you should expect to possibly break a sweat.

Calorie burning is a small part of the health benefits of singing. The amount of reduced stress from singing (depending on your motive for singing) can lead to less inflammation. Losing weight is a side effect of low inflammation.

Also, most singers should at least get moderate exercise. When you improve general physical stamina through nutrition, zeal and physical exercise, you instantly have more energy. Excess fat is a symptom. Losing weight is a luxury.

Focus first on your singing voice rather than asking how many calories singing burns.

Sometimes singers instantly feel more healthy through becoming the embodiment of music, but often won’t lose weight. Good general physical health is first when losing weight.

Remember this: There are really too many factors behind weight control. This is why the weight loss, diet and exercise industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.

So…. yes, you burn calories from singing, but you don’t necessarily burn fat. Hitting the gym is much better. Cardiovascular exercise, vigorous exercise weekly, or in my case, VERY vigorous exercise weekly, full cardio exercises and combining singing with physical exercise, has given me a much better and more consistent singing voice.

How Many Calories Does Singing Burn?

Experts have said that the average singer burns the following calories according to weight:

A singer weighing 150 pounds will burn approximately 100 calories, singing for an hour while sitting down, and a 200-pound individual will burn about 140 calories. Standing while singing, the calories burned increase to 140 for somebody weighing 150 pounds and 180 for a 200 pound singer.

Vigorous working out can burn far more.

Even moderate walking burns between 200 and 350 calories per hour. In fact, I’ve done what I call “walking lessons” where singers walk, jog, walk and sing scales or songs while breathing heavily. This can lead to break throughs, because of the increased vocal agility, due to increased circulation and energy.

Increase the Intensity

If you take a ‘pedestrian’ or ‘non-heroic’ (safe and easy) approach to all your singing, don’t expect the full health benefits. Nor should you expect to be that exciting of a performer. Diversity increases interest. Just be sure to sing your high notes safely. To do this, you very well may need a course with effective exercises that will inform you, instruct you, and challenge you.

My VIP membership will challenge you as deeply as you feel you need. The singers in our VIP program have written moving testimonials to the effectivity of being held accountable by other singers who are going the program. Almost every great achievement occurs in the contest of community.

Use Your Entire Body

Years ago, some of my witty musician friends—and I mean seriously funny dudes—would joke around and pretend to sloganize the catch statements most opera singing requires. One was “sing from your diaphragm”. And while this is definitive reality for singers learning to regulate air pressure, the more pleasing sound often occurs when a singer develops an easier path to high notes and more vocal stamina. Some have said that singing can burn face fat! (Jury’s still out.)

So, what was our mockery of singing from your diaphragm? We used to say, “Sing from your pancreas/colon/spleen. etc”.

As silly as this sounds, it really does help aid breathing when you realize the body as whole, isn’t merely isolating the lungs in order to sing. The result? A more pleasing sound while entertaining.

I once told a singer to wiggle her toes (she showed up in flip flops…Tennessee summers…ya know?!) while singing the high phrase. This relaxed her mind and completely diminished her…….

*Phonation threshold pressure- this fancy term simply means the amount of pressure or ‘pushing’—for lack of a better word—needed to vibrate the vocal cords and make sound.

Taking her mind off her vocal folds, abdominal muscles, and her face, allowed her to use less air pressure and less musculature to make the same note she was working too hard to hit.

Move Around

My good buddy and colleague, Tom Jackson, is THE world’s greatest live show producer and performance coach. His mastery is in helping people open up on stage with swagger and confidence, empowering every singer and is unmatched in the music industry.

Tom starts out by having the singer use the entire stage, no matter the size of platform. He starts with a strong stance, then a somber walk, a brisk walk with urgency, skipping (yup….like a little kid. Watch Bono, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Mick Jagger) and short energetic runs across the stage or down into the isles, or crowd.

Of course, this all depends upon how the song affects the singer and the audience. Nothing spells AWKWARD like over performing or using too much movement.

A well trained vocal coach should add performance to their vocal training regime. Body size will of course determine how much movement a singer can do and still sing effectively. of the hill.

Sing Uphill

As simple as this sounds, you learn how to control your breathing through exerting yourself without having to run. Side benefit is” the number of calories burned per hour goes up exponentially, depending on the steepness of the hill.

What Are The Best Ways To Sing To Burn Calories?

Now, we’ve already answered the question, “Does singing burn calories?”. Calories per hour are increased by simultaneously moving on stage or exercising while training your voice.

For me, this is about time efficiency. A two-for-one principle. Since we know that exercise AND singing burns calories, more calories can be spent by doing the two activities together.

But the best is a passionate performance, where you know you are giving your all!

For example, I’ve been on live TV in Italy, after giving a vocal masterclass. Now, standing for 5 to 6 hours (with an hour lunch at the halfway mark) and pouring into artists, can be both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. However….

This short, impromptu, one song performance on live TV, spiked my adrenaline through the roof. We did “Hallelujah” with my associate from Padova Italy, Giuseppe Lopizzo. My single song put heavy demands on me, which caused my entire mind, body and soul to open up, burning calories at a far greater rate per minute than arduous coaching.

Opera singers, who manage their diets well, can often be the most fit of all singers. Because most opera singers aren’t that concerned with losing weigh, I don’t suspect they are all that focused on burning calories. But one thing they have to do is this…. they make their singing count for something. It’s a full spectrum of resonance, range and resilience.

Now when you hear someone with an enormous voice and an intense performance, you’d think that gaining weight would be impossible. After all, big voiced rock singers, opera singers and old school, epic R&B singers often have the strongest vocal folds and abdominal muscles. The strength of their lungs should not surpass the strength of their vocal folds. Otherwise the voice enters into a straining quality.

There are a lot of great fat burners in the form of food choices. Junk food, fast food, sugary drinks, processed and/or inorganic foods are not it!

Find a Comfortable Place

Singing can be an embarrassing activity, if your singing exerts too much strain, is too difficult, or you struggle to stay on key. A great coach can immediately increase your confidence so you are not afraid to practice, knowing someone may be listening nearby.

If you’re a new singer, you may have to find a place where no one can hear you. If you’re lifting weights at the local YMCA and bellowing out a high note, they might take you away to a mental institution. 😉

Do Basic Stretches

On my ground breaking course “Range Builder” (included in our VIP Membership), I have a number of vocal stretches which can rapidly increase your range and make your singing more interesting and enjoyable. Lip trills and vocal fry exercies can be extremely beneficial without much effort or specific instruction.

However……..

*Remember this: Amateurs take tips. But pros train with a plan.

You can click on this link to have INSTANT ACCESS to several diverse vocal lessons, taken from a massive library (though you should just start with Technique lesson 1 of Singing Success 360 to get started…and not get overwhelmed), or book with one of my certified coaches to get a personalized, one-on-one diagnosis and a vocal map of exercises to steer your voice into it’s greatest potential!!

Pick Up The Tempo

Just as we’ve mentioned earlier, uptempo songs require more movement. But they also require more deep, consistent breathing. A crucial factor in demanding singing, is it that WILL burn many more calories than ballad singing.

Add More Emotion

When pouring yourself, mind, body and soul, into your song, you end up with a deeper emotional interpretation of your songs. Thus, you feel the de-stressing of your body. Not only that, but you feed off the energy of your audience. This ENERGY exchange must flow both ways for the entertainer and audience to feel the life-changing experience of great music! singing.