Calories Burned Jumping rope at a moderate pace at 55 kg — 550 kcal per Hour

calories burned jumping rope at a moderate pace 55kg — the short answer is 550 kcal per hour. That figure is for a 55 kg (121 lb) person jumping rope at a moderate pace 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 rope at a moderate pace is the classic skipping workout: a steady rhythm of around 120 to 140 jumps a minute, the rope turning smoothly, the jumps low and springy. It is the pace most people settle into once the beginner's tangles stop, and it is where rope work becomes serious cardiovascular training rather than a warm-up.

At 10.0 METs, moderate rope jumping is firmly vigorous exercise — ten times your resting metabolic rate, and more demanding per minute than running at 6 mph. That is why it is almost always done in intervals: very few people can hold a moderate rope pace continuously for an hour, and the table's hourly figure is arithmetic, not a prescription. The useful numbers on this page are the 10-, 15- and 30-minute ones.

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 55 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 jumping rope at a moderate pace is 10.0, 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 50-60 kg band, 55 kg:

10.0 MET × 55 kg = 550 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.

Your numbers at 55 kg

Session length Calculation Calories burned
15 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 0.25 138 kcal
30 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 0.50 275 kcal
45 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 0.75 412 kcal
60 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 1.00 550 kcal
90 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 1.50 825 kcal
120 minutes 10.0 × 55 × 2.00 1,100 kcal

A useful way to read the table is backwards: to burn roughly 500 kcal from jumping rope at a moderate pace alone at 55 kg you would need about 55 minutes. Three one-hour sessions a week come to about 1,650 kcal a week from this activity, and five 45-minute sessions come to about 2,060 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 55 kg example, add roughly 100 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) 550 275
60-70 kg 65 kg (143 lb) 650 325
70-80 kg 75 kg (165 lb) 750 375
80-90 kg 85 kg (187 lb) 850 425

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 jumping rope at a moderate pace 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 10.0 METs, each 10 kg of body weight is worth about 100 kcal an hour, so a few kilograms either way changes the result by only a handful of calories.

How jumping rope at a moderate pace compares at 55 kg

Activity MET kcal per hour kcal per 30 minutes
Jumping rope at a moderate pace 10.0 550 275
Running at 6 mph 9.8 539 270
Jumping rope at a slow pace 8.8 484 242
Rowing, vigorous effort 8.5 468 234
Cycling, moderate effort 8.0 440 220

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

Train in intervals: three minutes of jumping and one minute of rest, repeated four to six times, is a solid session that most regular exercisers can build towards. Keep the jumps low and the elbows close, turn the rope with the wrists, and breathe steadily — holding your breath is the most common reason beginners tire in the first minute.

Build up gradually. Add a minute to one interval each week rather than jumping straight from five-minute sessions to twenty. Alternate rope days with lower-impact cardio so the calves and Achilles tendons recover, and stretch the calves afterwards: rope work shortens them noticeably, and tight calves are the usual cause of the next day's stiffness.

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 550-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 55 kcal for a 55 kg person at 1 MET), so the net cost of an hour of jumping rope at a moderate pace is about 495 kcal, not 550. 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 assumes continuous jumping at a moderate pace. Interval sessions with rests burn less per minute on average, and a session full of tangles burns less still — though the tangles are also a sign you are learning, and the rhythm improves quickly with practice. Experienced jumpers are more efficient and burn slightly less for the same rope speed than beginners. 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 jumping rope at a moderate pace for 30 minutes at 55 kg?

About 275 kcal if the jumping were continuous for half an hour. Most people train in intervals, so count only the minutes you are actually jumping: ten minutes of moderate rope work at 55 kg burns about 92 kcal, and fifteen minutes about 138 kcal.

What cadence counts as a moderate jumping rope pace?

Roughly 120 to 140 jumps a minute, with a smooth, relaxed rhythm and low jumps. Below that is a slow pace (8.8 METs); well above it, with a faster rope and higher cadence, you are moving towards the fast pace (12.3 METs). Cadence is a guide, not a rule — the effort you feel matters more than the exact count.

How does moderate jumping rope compare with running at 6 mph?

Moderate rope work at 10.0 METs burns slightly more per minute than running at 6 mph (9.8 METs). At 55 kg, an hour of moderate rope is 550 kcal against 539 kcal for running at 6 mph. The practical difference is that rope work is done in one spot and is much harder on the calves, while running is easier to sustain for a long session.

How many calories does 10 minutes of moderate jumping rope burn?

At 55 kg, about 92 kcal of continuous jumping. That is why rope work is so time-efficient — ten focused minutes is a real workout. Start with shorter intervals if you are new to it, and build the jumping time up over weeks rather than trying to do ten continuous minutes on day one.

Does jumping rope cause shin splints?

It can, particularly if you increase the volume too fast or jump on concrete with stiff landings. The usual advice is to build up gradually, jump on a forgiving surface, land softly on the balls of your feet, wear supportive shoes, and stretch the calves afterwards. If shin pain persists, stop, rest, and get advice from a clinician rather than pushing through it.

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.