Calories Burned Doing jumping jacks at 75 kg — 600 kcal per Hour

calories burned doing jumping jacks 75kg — the short answer is 600 kcal per hour. That figure is for a 75 kg (165 lb) person doing jumping jacks at the intensity the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities assigns to it, and this page works the number out in full so you can check it, scale it to any session length, and see how it compares with other activities at the same body weight.

The headline number is an estimate, not a measurement of your body. Two people of the same weight doing the same activity for the same hour will burn different amounts, because fitness, technique, temperature, and how hard they actually push all move the real figure. What the formula gives you is a fair, standardised comparison — the same method researchers use when they rank activities by energy cost — and that is exactly what it is useful for: comparing options, planning a week, and setting a realistic expectation before you start.

Jumping jacks are the exercise everyone knows from school: feet out, arms up, feet together, arms down, repeated in rhythm. They need no equipment, no space to speak of, and no skill — which is why they are the default warm-up in gyms, schools and home workouts everywhere. They are also, at 8.0 METs, vigorous exercise, and ten minutes of them is a real workout, not a gentle stretch.

The figure on this page uses the closest published value — calisthenics at a vigorous effort — because the Compendium has no exact entry for jumping jacks specifically. That puts them alongside burpees and mountain climbers as vigorous bodyweight work. The hourly figure is an extrapolation: jumping jacks are usually done in sets or as a warm-up, and the 10- and 15-minute figures are the ones that matter in practice.

Work out your own number

Use the calorie calculator to get your own daily figure: it combines your basal metabolic rate with your activity level and your goal, so a single activity session slots into a full-day picture instead of floating on its own. If you want the activity alone at your exact weight rather than the 75 kg worked example on this page, the running calorie calculator takes any weight and duration and applies the same MET method. Both tools show their working, and both label their results as estimates.

The formula, shown and cited

The calculation comes from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011; 43(8):1575–1581), which assigns every activity a MET value — a multiple of your resting metabolic rate. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly. The formula is:

Calories per hour = MET × body weight (kg)

For this page the MET value for doing jumping jacks is 8.0, which makes it a vigorous-intensity activity by the usual classification (under 3 METs is light, 3 to 6 is moderate, above 6 is vigorous). The worked example uses the midpoint of the 70-80 kg band, 75 kg:

8.0 MET × 75 kg = 600 kcal per hour

For any other duration, multiply by the hours: calories = MET × weight (kg) × hours. A 30-minute session is half the hourly figure, a 90-minute session is one and a half times it, and the table below does that arithmetic for the common session lengths so you do not have to.

There is no exact Compendium entry for jumping jacks, so this page uses the closest published value: calisthenics at a vigorous effort (8.0 METs).

Your numbers at 75 kg

Session length Calculation Calories burned
15 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 0.25 150 kcal
30 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 0.50 300 kcal
45 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 0.75 450 kcal
60 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 1.00 600 kcal
90 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 1.50 900 kcal
120 minutes 8.0 × 75 × 2.00 1,200 kcal

A useful way to read the table is backwards: to burn roughly 500 kcal from doing jumping jacks alone at 75 kg you would need about 50 minutes. Three one-hour sessions a week come to about 1,800 kcal a week from this activity, and five 45-minute sessions come to about 2,250 kcal a week. Those weekly totals are the numbers that matter for weight management, because a single session is a small fraction of a week's energy balance — consistency across weeks is what moves body weight, not one heroic session.

Note also that the table scales linearly with weight. A heavier person burns more doing the same activity for the same time, because there is more body to move; a lighter person burns less. That is not a judgement about fitness — it is physics, and it is why every calories-burned figure on this site states the weight it was calculated at. If you weigh 10 kg more than the 75 kg example, add roughly 80 kcal per hour; 10 kg less, subtract the same.

How the number changes with body weight

Weight band Midpoint kcal per hour kcal per 30 minutes
50-60 kg 55 kg (121 lb) 440 220
60-70 kg 65 kg (143 lb) 520 260
70-80 kg 75 kg (165 lb) 600 300
80-90 kg 85 kg (187 lb) 680 340

The band table is the quickest way to find your own figure without doing the multiplication. Find the band your weight falls in, take its midpoint, and read across: that is the hourly burn the Compendium method gives for doing jumping jacks at your weight. If you sit on a boundary — exactly 60, 70 or 80 kg — either neighbouring band is a fair estimate, and the difference between them is small: at 8.0 METs, each 10 kg of body weight is worth about 80 kcal an hour, so a few kilograms either way changes the result by only a handful of calories.

How doing jumping jacks compares at 75 kg

Activity MET kcal per hour kcal per 30 minutes
Doing jumping jacks 8.0 600 300
Doing burpees 8.0 600 300
Doing mountain climbers 8.0 600 300
Cycling, moderate effort 8.0 600 300
Running at 5 mph 8.3 622 311

The comparison is the honest way to choose between activities. A higher MET is not automatically better: an activity you enjoy and repeat three times a week beats a harder one you quit after a fortnight, and joint-friendly options matter more than raw burn for anyone with knees or a back that complain. Use the table to see the trade-offs — for example, swapping a lower-MET activity for a higher one for the same 30 minutes — and then choose on enjoyment and sustainability, not on the biggest number.

How to use the result

Use jumping jacks as a warm-up or as the cardio station in a circuit. Two minutes of jumping jacks raises heart rate, warms the shoulders and hips, and prepares the body for harder work — which is exactly what a warm-up should do. As a workout on their own, try intervals: one minute of jumping jacks, 30 seconds of rest, repeated 8 to 10 times.

Keep the movement controlled: land softly on the balls of your feet with knees slightly bent, keep the core braced, and do not let the arms flop. If the impact bothers your knees, use the low-impact version — step one foot out at a time instead of jumping, and raise the arms the same way. It is slightly easier, but it keeps the rhythm and the cardio benefit.

For weight loss, the activity calories sit on top of your daily food intake, and the safe frame is a deficit of roughly 300–500 kcal a day, aiming for 0.5–1% of body weight per week. Never let the activity numbers talk you into eating far less: the safety floors are 1,200 kcal a day for women and 1,500 kcal a day for men, and any intake below those needs medical supervision. A 600-kcal session does not "earn" an extra meal of the same size, either — the body compensates, appetite rises after hard sessions, and the deficit that matters is the weekly average, not a single day's maths.

What the number does NOT tell you

MET values are population averages, and the error on any single person is real. The Compendium value was measured on a sample of adults, not on you, and it assumes a standard intensity. If you push harder than the standard, you burn more; if you coast, you burn less. Heart-rate monitors and power meters estimate the same thing from different signals and disagree with each other by 10 to 20% on a good day, so treat every figure — including this page's — as accurate to roughly that band, not to the single calorie.

The figure also counts gross energy, which includes the calories you would have burned sitting still during that hour anyway. The extra burn above rest is the gross figure minus your resting rate for that hour (roughly 75 kcal for a 75 kg person at 1 MET), so the net cost of an hour of doing jumping jacks is about 525 kcal, not 600. That distinction matters when you add activity calories to a daily total that already includes your resting metabolism — counting gross calories on top of a full BMR double-counts the resting hour.

The MET value is the closest published value, not a measurement of jumping jacks specifically, and it assumes continuous effort at a vigorous pace. Real sessions are intervals with rests, and the average burn per minute is lower than the table's continuous rate. Pace matters too: a fast, springy jumping jack is harder than a slow, half-hearted one, and the low-impact stepping version is easier still. Treat the figures as accurate to roughly 10 to 20% either way.

Finally, the formula knows nothing about your body composition, fitness, or health. Muscle burns more than fat at rest, trained people are more efficient at a familiar activity (and therefore burn slightly less for the same work), and illness, heat, altitude, and medication all shift the real number. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or take medication that affects heart rate or metabolism, treat this page as background information and talk to a clinician before building a training or weight-loss plan around it.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories do I burn doing jumping jacks for 10 minutes at 75 kg?

About 100 kcal of continuous jumping jacks. In practice they are done in sets with rests, so count only the minutes you are actually moving: five minutes of jumping-jack time at 75 kg comes to roughly 50 kcal.

How many jumping jacks burn 100 kcal?

As a rough guide: at 75 kg, the burn is about 10.0 kcal a minute during continuous jumping jacks, and a steady pace is roughly 60 jumping jacks a minute. That puts 100 kcal at roughly 10 jumping jacks — but that is an estimate built on an estimate, and the honest answer is that jumping jacks are usually counted in sets and time, not in calories per repetition.

Are jumping jacks bad for your knees?

They can be, if done with stiff landings on a hard floor. Land softly on the balls of your feet with knees slightly bent, wear supportive shoes, and use a forgiving surface. If your knees complain, switch to the low-impact stepping version, which keeps the arm and leg pattern without the jump. People with existing knee problems should get advice from a clinician first.

How do jumping jacks compare with burpees?

They are rated the same: both use the closest published value of calisthenics at a vigorous effort, 8.0 METs, so at the same weight and duration they burn the same on paper. In practice burpees feel much harder, because they involve a push-up, a jump and a full change of level, while jumping jacks keep you upright and are far easier to sustain.

Are jumping jacks a good warm-up?

Yes — they are one of the best. Two minutes of jumping jacks raises heart rate, warms the shoulders, hips and calves, and gets blood moving to the muscles you are about to use. Keep the pace moderate for a warm-up rather than going all out, and follow with some light stretching or mobility work before the main session.

Related pages

Estimates only, not medical advice. Minimum safe intakes: 1,200 kcal/day women, 1,500 kcal/day men — consult a healthcare professional before a very-low-calorie diet.