Jump Rope Calorie Calculator

Estimate the calories you burn skipping rope from your body weight, workout time, and pace using the standard MET energy-expenditure formula.

Quick Facts

Method
MET formula: kcal = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200 × minutes
MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities: 8.8 slow, 11.8 moderate, 12.3 fast.

Your Results

Calculated
Calories burned
-
Total energy expenditure
Burn rate
-
Calories per minute
MET value
-
Metabolic equivalent used
Fat-equivalent
-
At ~7,700 kcal per kg fat

Ready

Enter your weight, duration, and pace, then press Calculate.

How the jump rope calorie estimate works

Skipping rope is one of the most calorie-dense activities you can do without equipment beyond the rope itself. This calculator estimates the energy you burn using the MET method — the same approach used in exercise physiology and the official Compendium of Physical Activities. A MET (metabolic equivalent of task) expresses how many times harder an activity is than sitting still: 1 MET is your resting metabolic rate, and jumping rope sits near 12 METs, making it roughly as intense as running a 6-to-7-minute mile.

The formula

Energy expenditure is calculated as:

Calories per minute = MET × 3.5 × body weight (kg) ÷ 200

Multiply by the number of minutes to get total calories. The 3.5 is the reference oxygen uptake of 1 MET in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute (3.5 mL O₂/kg/min), and dividing by 200 converts oxygen consumption into kilocalories (about 5 kcal of energy are released per litre of oxygen consumed). So the full expression is:

Total kcal = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200 × minutes.

Which MET value applies

The Compendium lists three skipping intensities, and this calculator uses those exact values:

  • 8.8 METs — slow pace, fewer than 100 skips per minute (a relaxed warm-up cadence).
  • 11.8 METs — moderate pace, 100 to 120 skips per minute (typical steady fitness skipping).
  • 12.3 METs — fast pace, 120 to 160 skips per minute (double-unders, boxing-style conditioning).

Reference points

Using the moderate 11.8 MET value, a 70 kg (154 lb) person burns about 14.5 kcal per minute, or roughly 145 kcal in a 10-minute session and 217 kcal in 15 minutes. A lighter 55 kg (121 lb) person burns about 11.4 kcal per minute at the same pace; a heavier 90 kg (198 lb) person burns about 18.6 kcal per minute. Because weight enters the formula linearly, doubling your body mass doubles the calories burned for the same workout.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many calories does 10 minutes of jump rope burn?
For a 70 kg (154 lb) person skipping at a moderate 100–120 skips per minute (11.8 METs), about 145 kcal. Lighter people burn proportionally less and heavier people more, because body weight enters the formula directly. At a fast pace (12.3 METs) the same person burns about 151 kcal in 10 minutes.
Is jumping rope better than running for burning calories?
Minute for minute they are close. Jumping rope at ~12 METs is comparable to running at about 6 mph (a 10-minute mile, ~9.8 METs) to 7 mph (8.6-minute mile, ~11.0 METs), and slightly higher than a moderate jog. Rope work packs that intensity into a small space and adds coordination and ankle stiffness demands, but most people cannot sustain it as long as a run, so total session burn often favours the longer activity.
Why does the calculator ask for pace instead of skips per minute?
The MET research groups skipping into slow, moderate, and fast bands rather than assigning a MET to every exact cadence. Choosing the band that matches your effort is more reliable than pretending calorie burn scales perfectly with each additional skip — rope speed and jump height both affect intensity, and the banded MET values already account for the typical range within each pace.

Related calculators