Q: I am a 36 years old man weighing 90 kg and have a height of 184 cm. It is said that calorie loss is the same whether we jog or walk. Is it true for cycling, too? If not, then how much does one need to cycle to lose the same calories?

A:While counting calories spent during any particular activity, you have to take some factors into consideration so that you can get a close enough number, because it is quite a complicated process: Your body weight, your age, your body composition (body mass index, BMI, fat and lean mass percentage), the duration of the activity, the effort involved in such an activity, the medium / terrain of the activity (e.g. water in the case of swimming, stationary biking or mountain climbing by bike, walking / jogging on a hard, medium or soft surface). Each of us therefore will show differing results, so no one rule applies for all. There are just some approximations we can go by. Thus, jogging and walking will not expend the same calories for the above reasons. Nor will swimming or cycling. So to answer your question, if the same weight person covered a distance of walking 6 km in one hour, he will spend less energy if he jogs the same distance because he will cover this distance much faster by jogging!