Find out how many calories ice skating burns to know what results a fun afternoon offers and whether you should do this more often.
Some rough estimations are that the average person will burn around 207 to 356 calories while ice skating for 30 minutes at a general pace.
This is a nice amount. Even without considering that one of the benefits of ice skating is that many people just enjoy doing it.
At the same time, you want to keep in mind that the numbers above are not perfect.
Things like your exact speed, weight, and many more details will influence your actual results.
In the rest of the article, you can find a chart with calorie-burning estimations for different weights, time intervals, and ice skating intensities and how to burn more calories.
Biggest factors in calories burned with ice skating
While it makes things like balancing calorie intake harder, the fact is that how many calories you burn with ice skating is hard to predict/measure accurately.
There are just so many hard-to-measure details that can influence your results.
At the same time, it can still be useful to know what things will play a big role in the calories burned while ice skating.
These can make your estimations just a bit more useful and can help you adapt your sessions for more results.
A few examples of these things that influence how many calories ice skating burns are:
- Body weight: Your body needs energy aka calories to move around and keep itself alive. The higher your body weight, the more calories you will burn with ice skating and living in general.
- Muscle mass: Two people with the same body weight can still burn different amounts of calories with ice skating. One reason for this is that muscle mass burns slightly more calories than the same weight in body fat.
- Intensity: Your ice skating speed will influence the energy burn a lot. As you can expect, faster movements tend to burn more calories per minute.
Chart of ice skating calorie-burning estimations
There are cheat lists like the one from the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention that just mention ice skating burns either between 3.5-7 calories per minute or more than 7 calories per minute depending on the intensity (1).
Luckily, there are also ways you can get more precise estimations for specific body weights and longer durations.
Using MET values and the accompanying formula is one of the most useful methods for this.
MET values are basically estimations (or sometimes measurements) of how intense activities like ice skating are.
You can use these MET values in the following formula: METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200 = calories burned per minute
When it comes to ice skating, the MET estimations vary because of details like intensity.
One source mentions an MET of 5.5 for ice skating at less than 9 mph (14.5 kmh) and 14 for ice dancing (2).
In the first table below, you can find the calorie burning results of the MET for general ice skating for different weights and time intervals.
After that, you can also find the differences between the estimations for different intensities.
It is worth mentioning again that while these estimations can be useful are not perfect. There are plenty of other details that influence the actual results.
Additionally, it can be easier to see what these numbers mean by knowing that cooked rice contains around 129 calories per 100 grams (3).
Calories burned with ice skating per time interval
Just being able to get an idea of how many calories you burn while ice skating by taking a (two) look at the clock tends to be the most convenient.
| Time Weight Person | 1 Minute | 15 Minutes | 30 Minutes | 45 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 7 calories | 103 calories | 207 calories | 310 calories | 413 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 9 calories | 128 calories | 256 calories | 384 calories | 513 calories |
| 185 Pounds (83 kg) | 10 calories | 153 calories | 306 calories | 459 calories | 612 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 12 calories | 178 calories | 356 calories | 533 calories | 711 calories |
Calories burned with ice skating intensities
It can also be interesting to see just what a difference you can make by picking up the pace while ice skating.
The amounts of calories burned below are the estimations for a duration of 30 minutes.
| Intensity Weight Person | Ice Skating At 9 mph Or Less (14.5 kmh) | Ice Skating At More Than 9 mph (14.5 kmh) | Ice Dancing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 162 calories | 266 calories | 413 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 201 calories | 330 calories | 513 calories |
| 185 Pounds (83 kg) | 240 calories | 393 calories | 612 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 279 calories | 457 calories | 711 calories |
Ways to burn more calories with ice skating
As you can see from the intensity chart above, there are ways to burn more calories with ice skating.
This can be valuable since many people find it hard to find enough time to work on losing weight and getting in shape.
As mentioned, how fast you move on the ice will influence how much energy you burn.
While you do need some skill to do this safely, ice skating faster will tend to offer more results than going at a slow pace.
Secondly, building some healthy mass (weight) in the form of muscle outside of your ice skating sessions will help you burn more calories too.
These resistance training workouts will also burn a nice amount of calories (and offer many other valuable benefits).
In theory, you could consider ice skating with a light weighted vest to burn more calories.
In practice, you want to stick to the previous two methods for safely burning more calories while ice skating.
How long does it take to see results from ice skating?
Burning more calories may sound nice but ultimately you likely want to know about this detail because you hope to lose weight thanks to ice skating.
While I will go over some rough examples, you want to keep in mind that other lifestyle habits like your diet will influence your weight loss results a lot.
That aside, let’s assume a 155-pound person plans to implement more ice skating sessions while keeping the rest of their calorie-neutral lifestyle the same.
This person would burn around 1536 calories aka 0.44 pounds (0.19 kg) of body fat a month with one 45-minute ice skating session a week.
An important thing to keep in mind is that as you lose weight, you will gradually burn fewer calories with ice skating.
In turn, you will have to make more positive lifestyle changes to keep seeing results.
Should you do ice skating for calorie burning?
When it comes to calorie burning alone, ice skating sessions are already a relatively effective choice.
An additional benefit is that many people just enjoy doing this activity which helps with things like consistency.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that ice skating tends to require a decent amount of “set up” time.
You likely have to go to the ice skating rink, potentially wait in line, change your footwear, etc.
Additionally, there are workouts that are more effective when it comes to burning calories too.
If you do decide to implement more ice skating session, keep the calorie burning difference between a causal session vs really picking up the pace in mind.
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FAQ
Can you get fit by ice skating?
Yes, you can get fit in terms of cardiovascular health by ice skating.
How many calories do you burn ice skating for 2 hours?
A 185-pound person would burn around 1224 calories while ice skating for 2 hours at a general pace.
In reality, your actual results can vary depending on details like your weight, speed, and more.
Why does ice skating burn so many calories?
Ice skating burns so many calories because continuously pushing your body forward to glide over the ice requires a good amount of energy from your body.
Many people also skate on the ice for a few hours which makes it a relatively long workout.
Does ice skating build muscle?
No, ice skating is typically not challenging enough to build muscle size.
At the same time, someone who was not that active so far could potentially still improve muscle endurance with ice skating.
