How Many Calories Does Roller Skating Burn?

Find out how many calories roller skating more or less burns so you can estimate results and potentially consider alternatives.

First of all, keep in mind that the numbers below are very rough estimations. Your actual results will likely vary.

That aside, the average person will burn around 207 – 356+ calories per 30 minutes of roller skating.

While there are more effective alternatives too, this is a nice amount of calorie-burning. Especially considering many people enjoy roller skating.

You can also find a more detailed chart, estimations for in-line skating at different speeds, and how to burn more calories with roller skating below.

Chart of roller skating calorie-burning estimations

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention mentions that you burn either 3.5-7 calories per minute of roller skating or more than 7 calories per minute depending on intensely you move (1).

Luckily, there are also ways to get more detailed estimations for different body weights and time intervals.

More specifically, there are numbers called MET values which are estimations of how intense certain workouts and activities are.

You can use the MET value of roller skating in the formula below to get some rough estimations of how many calories you will burn.

Formula: METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200 = calories burned per minute

Roller skating MET estimations can vary but one source mentions 7 (2).

You can find a chart that gives the results of using this MET in combination with different weights and time intervals below.

Similarly, you can find a chart that with the estimations for the related in-line skating (3).

Calories burned with roller skating per time interval

Being able to get an idea of how many calories you burn per minute of roller skating is a convenient way to estimate results.

Calories burned with in-line skating

You may also wonder how in-line skating, which is slightly different from roller skating, does in terms of burning calories.

Biggest factors in calories burned with roller skating

The numbers above are helpful estimations but you need to know it is very hard to accurately predict how many calories you burn with roller skating and similar activities.

At the same time, knowing about the things that will influence your results the most can make your estimations somewhat more accurate.

These details can also just help make your roller skating workouts more effective in this area. A few examples are:

• Weight: Your body needs energy aka calories to move around. Generally, the more weight it has to move, the more calories roller skating burns.
• Body composition: Two people with the same weight can have different ratios of muscle vs fat and other tissues. This is relevant because muscle tends to burn slightly more calories than the same weight in body fat.
• Intensity: Moving more intensely tends to require more energy from your body. This applies to fast roller skating too.

Ways to burn more calories with roller skating

With the details above, you can start to think about how to make your roller skating workouts burn more calories per minute.

This is relevant because many people struggle with finding enough time to achieve their fitness goals.

First of all, if your skill level allows it, roller skating faster tends to burn more calories per minute.

Secondly, you can make it so your body has to move more weight in healthy ways.

Wearing a light weighted vest would be the easiest way but can negatively influence your balance.

Instead, building some muscle with workouts outside of your roller skating session tends to be a better idea (that also burns more calories throughout the rest of the day).

How long does it take to see results from roller skating?

The numbers in this article may look nice but you likely also want to know how good roller skating is for weight loss.

Something to note before giving a few numbers is that other lifestyle habits like your diet will actually influence things a lot.

That aside, let’s assume a 155-pound person currently has a routine that keeps them at the same weight.

In that case, this person could burn an extra 768 calories or about 0.22 pounds (0.1 kg) per seven days by roller skating for 30 minutes three times a week.

If this person follows the same routine for 30 days (4 weeks), they could burn around 3072 calories or about 0.88 kg.

Keep in mind that as you lose weight, your roller skating sessions will also start to burn fewer calories.

Should you do roller skating for calorie burning?

Roller skating can burn a nice amount of calories but it is still important to note that there are more effective workouts too.

Especially if you are more of a beginner who has to keep your speed low to avoid falling down.

On the flip side, one of the benefits of roller skating is that it is a fun way to get in some extra movement.

In turn, you could find it a lot easier to stick to a workout routine that implements roller skating in terms of more standard cardiovascular workouts like running.

Keep in mind that building some muscle mass can make your roller skating workouts more effective in terms of calorie-burning (on top of offering many other benefits).

Additionally, your other lifestyle habits in areas like your diet will influence your weight loss results a lot too.

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