Ask Mary

A “moderately vigorous” activity is accompanied by a noticeable increase in the heartbeat and breathing rate. Your heart should beat faster, but not pound, and your breathing should increase, although you can still talk.   Very little exercise testing has been done on the hula hoop.  Various experts estimate that hula hooping burns from 325 – 800 calories per hour, depending on intensity, whether the activity is sustained or stop-and-go, and on the weight of the hula hoop itself.  To change your base activity level from light to moderate, you'd have to hula hoop nearly everyday and burn at the high end of the range.  Either way, hula hooping is a great exercise.  Read about assessing physical activity level at the Calorie Count blogs.