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When you have spent an hour practising the piano but you just didn't feel good about the results, perhaps this chart will give you some sense of accomplishment: How Many Calories You Burn Playing the Piano

Looking at the chart, I need to practise another hour to burn the plate of spaghetti bolognese I ate for dinner. Back to the piano!

p/s: how much more calories do I burn playing Rachmaninov's G minor prelude compared to Bach's C# major prelude from Book 1?

Personally, I estimate how many calories I burn during my practise session (and therefore how many cream cakes I can reward myself with afterwards ) by how much I sweated during it.

I could spend a whole hour practising a long slow movement (like that of the Hammerklavier) trying to memorise it, without exuding a bead of sweat - which means that I'd probably burn the same amount of calories as sitting in front of the TV, playing with the remote control and zipping through channels - or I could play a short, fast, furious piece (like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp5GqUohxmo ) lasting 2:30 and panting & sweating like a pig afterwards, burning the same amount of calories in that time......

I mentioned this sometime ago. On a summer's day, I'll sweat profusely, not just through playing.
Attempting to speed up the mental acquisition of data (memorising the bloody thing faster than I am currently able to) sends waves of heat through me. I tend to ease up at that point.
I regularly do a Gymn Cycle class (Les Mills) which has the same effect. I am soaked after that . . .

Hard to say which I enjoy the most. But suffice to say I'm still skinny.

Wow, I wish that table were true for me! I find that embarking on "serious" piano practice (which for me means two or more hours a day) correlates with an upward trend in the numbers on the scale. I have to deliberately add in a few minutes here and there of physical movement, to counterbalance the effect that sitting seems to have on my metabolism.

On the other hand, "piano obsession" seasons make me forget about meals altogether!

You might burn even more if you hit the keys harder!

Okay I've reconsidered: There is no way that piano can *not* be good for physical fitness!

Some people find practice tedious, just getting on the same old treadmill day after day.

But that's not the only workout it provides!

It's great for upper body… Sit ups, push-ups, and chin-ups… My own routine is to sit up straight on the piano bench, push up my reading glasses on my nose, and keep my chin up no matter how I feel.

You can get a good weight workout, by *working out* how to use arm weight effectively in your playing.

For lower body, you can practice big jumps, cycle through pieces you've learned, or run through something easier.

Pieces that stretch you, leave you feeling more limber than a session of yoga.

Get the benefits of cross training, by adding some jazz or pop to your classical, or vice versa. Set your metronome to make sure the pulse stays in the aerobic range.

With all that, you should be fit as a fiddle in no time!

Are fiddles all that fit? depends who's playing it . . . .

Just thought i'd share a couple o' thoughts about practice.

I've gone for the long haul, with short intermissions. Main piece at the moment is "Novelette No1" in C major by Poulenc which is a real pain to get yer ole fingers round. But the melody is so harmonic, I just love practising and practising and practi . . . . . .yes, it really is that bad! But I still love doing it. And relearning Mozart's K331. properly! That, too is harder than i care to admit.
And for light relief, I have yet another home grown offering to pound the keys and your ears with when that time comes ha ha. .

It is just SO much fun!

When I studied some music history, I was surprised that in the early period of music, fiddles (violins) were not held in high esteem. They were the work horses of common music and the dance hall. I guess they were "fit" for a lot of things, like a jack of all trades.

Wrong person playing it might make the fiddle have a fit. Mine used to make the most awful faces of disgust, which came out in a kind of suppressed suffocated hrumph sound.

More to the topic. Not calories but .... when I catch good body use at the piano, I leave the bench on rare occasion feeling limber like somebody has given me a massage, and hope the usual postural habits might be transformed a bit by the exercise.