Jump rope calorie
calculator

Calories burned jumping rope, from your bodyweight, pace, and active-jumping time. Compendium MET values, imperial or metric — with the reason jumping faster barely raises the number and why clock time overstates a round-and-rest workout.

How the math works

Two steps. A pace band has a MET value — its energy cost as a multiple of resting metabolism — from the Compendium of Physical Activities. A MET is then turned into calories by the standard metabolic constant (ACSM Guidelines, 2021): 1 MET = 3.5 mL O₂/kg/min, and about 5 kcal per litre of oxygen. It's the same engine as the walking-, running-, and swimming-calorie math; only the table changes. The 2011 Compendium (Ainsworth et al. 2011) prices rope jumping in three cadence bands — slow (< 100 skips/min) 8.3 METs, moderate (100–120) 11.8, and fast (120–160) 12.3. Enter your own MET if you're doing double-unders, weighted-rope, or interval work above the plain-bounce bands.

The net line strips the resting metabolism a MET already includes, using (MET − 1)/MET. That resting share is 1 / MET, so at the moderate 11.8-MET pace it is only about 8.5% — much smaller than a low-MET machine like an elliptical (~20%), because rope-jumping METs are high. Notice too how little the bands differ once you're jumping: fast (12.3) is only 4% above moderate (11.8), while moderate is 42% above slow (8.3). Calories track your minutes and bodyweight, not your skip rate.

Worked example

A 155 lb (70.3 kg) person jumps rope at a moderate pace — about 100–120 skips/min, 11.8 METs — for 15 minutes of actual jumping.

• Per minute: 11.8 × 3.5 × 70.3 / 200 = 14.52 kcal/min
• Session (gross): 14.52 × 15 = 218 kcal; per hour 871 kcal/h
• Session (net): the workout's own contribution is 199 kcal; the other ~18 kcal (8.5%) is resting metabolism

Now change the pace. Slow (8.3 METs) drops the same 15 minutes to 153 kcal gross; fast (12.3 METs) raises it to only 227 kcal gross. Slow to moderate is a real step — 1.42× (11.8 / 8.3) — but moderate to fast is almost nothing, 1.04× (12.3 / 11.8): about 4% more for a cadence up to ~40% faster. A lighter jumper scales down: a 130 lb (59 kg) person at moderate pace for 15 minutes is 183 kcal gross, 167 net — 130/155 = 84% of the heavier figure. (Jump-rope calories are unit-system-agnostic — kcal is universal — so the only imperial/metric axis is the bodyweight input, lb ↔ kg.)

When this calculator is wrong

Jumping rope harder barely burns more once you're past a slow pace: the Compendium prices the whole 100–160 skips/min range within about 4%, so calories track your minutes and bodyweight, not your skip rate — and the MET assumes continuous jumping, so clock time overstates a round-and-rest workout. The 2011 Compendium's three bands are slow (8.3), moderate (11.8), and fast (12.3) METs. The real jump is from barely jumping to jumping: moderate is 1.42× slow. Above that it plateaus — fast is 1.04× moderate, roughly 9 kcal over 15 minutes for a 155 lb jumper. So spinning the rope faster is not the lever a "skips counter" implies, and calories-per-jump math overstates fast skipping. The bigger error, though, is time: a Compendium MET is for continuous activity, and nobody jumps continuously — you trip, reset, and rest between rounds. Feed in clock time (rounds + rest) and you overstate the burn more than any pace-band choice does. Enter the minutes you were actually jumping.

• Hard rope work lives above the bands. The 8.3–12.3 range is the plain two-foot bounce the Compendium measured. Double-unders, high-knee or cross-over footwork, and a weighted rope push the cost higher — a skips-per-minute number can't see any of it. If that's your session, log active minutes at the fast (12.3) anchor or enter a higher custom MET.
• Bodyweight is the other real lever, and it's linear. The burn scales straight with mass: a 200 lb jumper burns 200/155 = 1.29× a 155 lb jumper at the same pace and time. A "calories burned jumping rope" figure with no bodyweight is meaningless.
• A MET is a lab group mean. It's blind to your rope-jumping economy, your rope, and your technique, so two people at the "same" moderate cadence don't cost the same. The number is a planning estimate, not a measurement.

What to do with the result

Use the number to plan, then let the scale calibrate it. The net figure is the honest input when you're sizing what a rope session adds to a deficit — at roughly 199 net kcal for 15 moderate minutes (155 lb), four sessions a week is a little under 800 net kcal. At the classic (and optimistic) 3,500 kcal per pound, that's around a half-pound a month from the rope alone, before the body adapts.

Because pace barely moves the number, the way to burn more is more active minutes, not a faster spin — add rounds or shorten the rests, and count only the time the rope is actually turning. If you want more per minute, that comes from harder work (double-unders, weighted rope, intervals), not a higher cadence on the same bounce; log those at the fast anchor or a custom MET. Then track your weight over two weeks against your intake and adjust by 100–200 kcal if it isn't moving as expected; your scale is a better measurement than any MET table.

Common questions

How many calories does jumping rope burn in 15 minutes?

For a 155 lb (70.3 kg) person at a moderate pace (11.8 METs, 100–120 skips/min), about 218 kcal gross — 199 net once you strip the resting metabolism it includes. A slow pace (8.3 METs) is about 153 kcal; a fast pace (12.3 METs) only about 227. It scales with bodyweight: a 130 lb (59 kg) person at moderate pace is around 183 kcal for the same 15 minutes, a 200 lb person around 281.

Does jumping rope faster burn more calories?

Barely, once you're past a slow pace. The 2011 Compendium prices moderate (100–120 skips/min) at 11.8 METs and fast (120–160) at 12.3 — only about 4% more for a cadence up to ~40% higher. Calories track your minutes and bodyweight, not your skip rate. What genuinely raises the per-minute cost is harder work — double-unders, a weighted rope, intervals — not simply spinning a plain bounce faster.

Should I use my total workout time or just the jumping time?

Just the time you were actually jumping. A Compendium MET is measured on continuous activity, and rope work is done in rounds broken by trip-ups and rest. If you enter the full clock time — including the standing-around — you'll overstate the burn, usually by more than the difference between the pace bands. Add up the minutes the rope was turning.

Is the calorie number gross or net?

The headline is gross — the full MET-based figure, which includes the resting calories you'd have burned anyway. The "net" line strips that out using (MET − 1). Because jump-rope METs are high, the resting share (1 / MET) is small: about 8.5% at moderate (11.8), 12% at slow (8.3), 8.1% at fast (12.3). For fitting the session into your daily calorie budget the gross number is the right one; for sizing what the rope added, use net.

Does jumping rope burn more calories than running?

Per minute, a moderate rope (11.8 METs) is close to a solid run: a 6 mph run is about 9.8 METs and an 8 mph run about 11.8. So a moderate-to-fast rope is in the same per-minute range as a brisk run, which is why it's an efficient time-for-time option. The catch is duration — most people can't hold continuous rope jumping as long as they can run, so total session burn often favors the run despite the similar per-minute rate.

How long do I need to jump rope to burn 300 calories?

At the moderate 11.8-MET pace, a 155 lb (70.3 kg) person burns about 14.5 kcal/min gross, so roughly 21 minutes of active jumping — and that's gross, including the ~8.5% you'd have burned at rest. A heavier jumper gets there faster (a 200 lb person in about 16 minutes), a lighter one slower. Remember to count only the minutes the rope is actually turning.