How many caloriesdo jumping jacks burn?
Jumping jacks burn roughly 8 to 14 calories per minute for most adults, or about 12 to 21 calories per 100 reps. The number depends mostly on your body weight and how fast you keep going.
Jumping jacks burn somewhere between about 8 and 14 calories per minute for most adults, which works out to roughly 12 to 21 calories per 100 reps. The biggest reason that range is wide is body weight, because a heavier body moves more mass with every jump.
Jumping jacks are a vigorous, full-body move, rated at about 8 METs on the standard intensity scale, so per minute they burn more than a brisk walk. The catch is that few people do them for long, so total burn per session stays modest unless you string several minutes together.
Below is the simple math, a table you can read your own weight off of, and the honest point that quick calisthenics like these are better at raising your heart rate and building work capacity than at torching large numbers of calories.
The quick math
Calorie burn is usually estimated with METs, or metabolic equivalents, a standard measure of exercise intensity. Vigorous jumping jacks are rated at roughly 8 METs. The per-minute formula is METs times 3.5 times your body weight in kilograms, divided by 200.
For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that comes out to about 10 calories a minute. A brisk set of 100 jumping jacks takes most people around 1.5 minutes, so that same person burns roughly 15 calories per 100 reps. Lighter people land a little lower, heavier people a little higher.
Why your number is different from someone else’s
Two people can do the exact same 100 jumping jacks and burn different amounts. Body weight is the main lever, because you are lifting and moving that mass on every rep. A 55 kg mover and a 100 kg mover doing identical sets can differ by more than half.
Pace and form matter next. Bigger, faster jumps with full arm swings keep the intensity near that 8 MET mark, while a tired, half-height shuffle drops it well below. Rest between sets also lowers the average, because the calorie rate only applies while you are actually jumping.
- Body weight: the largest single factor in calories burned per rep.
- Pace: faster, full-range reps keep intensity high; a slow shuffle lowers it.
- Rest: the per-minute rate only counts active time, not breaks between sets.
- Fitness: as you get fitter, the same set feels easier and burns slightly less.
Do jumping jacks actually burn a lot?
Per minute, jumping jacks burn more than most steady walking, which is why they feel hard. But almost nobody sustains them for 30 or 45 minutes, so the session total usually stays modest. Ten hard minutes for a 70 kg adult is roughly 100 calories, not the several hundred a long walk or run adds up to.
That does not make them pointless. As a warm-up, a cardio filler between strength sets, or part of a circuit, they raise your heart rate fast and improve conditioning. Just treat the calorie figure as a bonus rather than the main event.
Where jumping jacks fit for weight loss
Jumping jacks can support weight loss, but only through your overall energy balance. A few hundred reps might burn 30 to 60 calories, which is easy to offset with a single snack, so what you eat still decides whether an overall deficit happens.
Their real value is that they are free, need no equipment, and layer easily into short routines you will actually repeat. Pair a habit like that with tracking what you eat and the deficit becomes something you can see instead of guess at.
| Body weight | Per minute | Per 100 reps |
|---|---|---|
| 55 kg / 120 lb | ~8 cal | ~12 cal |
| 70 kg / 154 lb | ~10 cal | ~15 cal |
| 85 kg / 187 lb | ~12 cal | ~18 cal |
| 100 kg / 220 lb | ~14 cal | ~21 cal |
Estimate calories for walking and steps
Our calculator is built for walking and steps, so it estimates those. For jumping jacks, use the per-minute MET math above. Both use the same underlying formula.
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What this is based on.
- 01Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al.). MET value for vigorous calisthenics such as jumping jacks used in the per-minute formula.
- 02Harvard Health Publishing, calories burned in physical activities. Weight-banded estimates for calisthenics consistent with the table above.
- 03ACSM guidance on exercise intensity and energy expenditure. Supports the MET-based approach and the vigorous-intensity classification used here.
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