Jump Rope Calorie Calculator
A 155 lb person jumping rope at a moderate pace burns about 218 calories in 15 minutes. This jump rope calorie calculator estimates your burn from body weight, skipping time, and pace using MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities. Enter your weight, the time you spent actually skipping, and the pace closest to your session, and the tool returns calories burned, an hourly rate, and the MET value behind the estimate. Jump rope training sits among the highest calorie-burn-per-minute activities in the Compendium tables, on par with running near an eight-minute-mile pace. A rope is cheap, folds into a bag, and works indoors, which is why boxers, wrestlers, and CrossFit athletes build conditioning rounds around it. This calculator gives a general MET-based estimate for planning sessions and comparing paces. It is not a medical or nutrition tool, and it does not replace guidance from a healthcare professional or certified trainer.
Quick answer
Jump rope MET values run from 8.8 for a slow pace, through 11.8 for moderate, up to 12.3 for fast.
Calories burned
218 calories
Calories per hour
871
MET value
11.8
What this tells you
- •Jump rope MET values run from 8.8 for a slow pace, through 11.8 for moderate, up to 12.3 for fast.
- •The formula is calories per minute equals MET times 3.5 times weight in kilograms, divided by 200.
- •At a steady 120 skips per minute, 1,000 skips take about 8.3 minutes, roughly 121 calories for a 155 lb jumper, or 116 if you round down to 8 whole minutes in the field.
- •Only time actually skipping counts. Rest between sets burns at a much lower resting rate, not the MET value shown here.
- •Weight matters more than most people expect. A 200 lb jumper burns about 29 percent more per minute than a 155 lb jumper at the identical pace, since the formula scales directly with body weight.
- •The calculator accepts pounds or kilograms and converts internally using the standard factor of 1 lb equals 0.453592 kg.
- •Calories scale linearly with time at a fixed pace, so a 30-minute session burns roughly double a 15-minute session at the same weight and cadence.
How to Use
- 1Enter your body weight in pounds or kilograms, whichever your scale shows.
- 2Enter your total skipping time in minutes, counting only the minutes you were actually turning the rope, not rest breaks between sets.
- 3Select the pace that matches your typical cadence: slow for under 100 skips a minute, moderate for 100 to 120, or fast for 120 to 160.
- 4Read the total calories burned, the equivalent hourly rate, and the MET value used for the estimate.
- 5Run the numbers again with a different pace or time to compare interval structures, such as three 5-minute rounds against one continuous 15-minute set.
How It Works
Formula
calories per minute = MET x 3.5 x weight (kg) / 200MET stands for metabolic equivalent of task, a measure of how many times harder an activity works compared with sitting still. Moderate-pace skipping, 100 to 120 skips a minute, carries a MET of 11.8, meaning it burns nearly 12 times your resting energy rate. Multiply the MET value by 3.5 (milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight at rest), by your weight in kilograms, then divide by 200 to get calories burned per minute. For a 70.3 kg (155 lb) person at a moderate pace, that works out to 11.8 x 3.5 x 70.3 / 200 = 14.5 calories a minute, or about 218 calories over 15 minutes. The calculator converts pounds to kilograms automatically using the standard factor 1 lb = 0.453592 kg, multiplies the per-minute rate by your entered minutes, and rounds the total to the nearest calorie.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
15 minutes moderate, 155 lb
At 11.8 METs, a 155 lb (70.3 kg) person burns 14.5 calories a minute, which adds up to 218 calories over a 15-minute set.
10 minutes fast, 80 kg
Fast pace at 12.3 METs burns 17.2 calories a minute at 80 kg, totaling 172 calories over 10 minutes.
1,000 skips at 120 per minute, 155 lb
1,000 skips at a steady 120 per minute take about 8.3 minutes. Entering the nearest whole minute, 8, gives 116 calories, while the full 8.3 minutes works out closer to 121.
30-minute slow warm-up, 200 lb
A slow 8.8 MET pace burns about 14.0 calories a minute for a 200 lb (90.7 kg) person, adding up to 419 calories across a half-hour warm-up set.
20 minutes moderate, 60 kg
At 60 kg and a moderate 11.8 MET pace, the burn rate is 12.4 calories a minute, totaling 248 calories across a 20-minute session.
Calories per 15 Minutes by Pace (155 lb)
Estimated burn for a 155 lb (70.3 kg) person skipping for 15 straight minutes at each pace.
| Pace | MET | Calories in 15 min |
|---|---|---|
| Slow (under 100/min) | 8.8 | 162 |
| Moderate (100-120/min) | 11.8 | 218 |
| Fast (120-160/min) | 12.3 | 227 |
Common mistakes
- Counting the whole session including rests. Beginners skip in short bursts, and 20 minutes at the gym may hold only 8 minutes of actual rope time.
- Assuming faster always burns dramatically more. The jump from moderate to fast pace adds only about 4 percent, while slow to moderate adds roughly 34 percent.
- Comparing skip counts across people. Calories track time and intensity, not raw skip totals, so 1,000 slow skips take longer but burn a similar amount to 1,000 quick ones.
- Ignoring body weight differences between jumpers. The formula scales directly with weight, so a 200 lb jumper burns noticeably more per minute than a 155 lb jumper at the same pace.
- Treating a beginner's flailing style as sustainable. Uneconomical footwork raises effort for a few minutes but usually ends in rope catches and short bursts, not a steady 15-minute set.
- Assuming a weighted or beaded rope does not change the math. Added rope resistance pushes real effort above the standard MET table used here, so treat the estimate as a floor for those ropes, not a ceiling.
Limitations
MET values are population averages measured on trained subjects at a steady pace, and individual efficiency varies. Beginners often use inconsistent footwork, which raises effort and calorie burn per minute but cannot be sustained for a full set, while experienced jumpers move efficiently and burn closer to the table value. Double unders, crossovers, and other trick variations push effort above the standard MET entries used here. Weighted or beaded ropes add resistance that the Compendium's plain jump-rope categories do not fully capture. As with all MET-based math, this estimate excludes excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, the modest afterburn that follows a hard interval session. Fitness level, age, sex, altitude, and surface, concrete versus a padded mat, also shift real-world burn in ways a single MET table cannot capture.
Embed this calculator on your site
Drop this single line where you want the calculator to appear. It is responsive, mobile-friendly, resizes automatically, and is free to use with attribution.
<script src="https://calctide.com/embed.js" data-tool="jump-rope-calorie-calculator" async></script>Preview the embed at /embed/jump-rope-calorie-calculator/.