Many people do skateboarding because it is fun but it helps you stay active too. Find out how many calories skateboarding burns.
Some rough estimations are that the average person will burn around 118 to 203 calories per 20 minutes of vigorous skateboarding.
Even though there are more effective workouts than this, it is worth mentioning that the fun aspect can be a valuable benefit of skateboarding.
That aside, keep in mind that your actual results can vary from the numbers above. For example, your weight influences the number of calories you burn with skateboarding a lot.
This article also includes a table with more in-depth estimations, what important details influence how many calories you burn with skateboarding, and how to increase your results.
Biggest factors in calories burned with skateboarding
Exactly how many calories you burn with something like skateboarding is hard to predict (and measure) perfectly. This makes things like balancing your diet a more confusing process.
At the same time, you can still make your estimations somewhat more accurate. For example, by learning what details influence the number of calories you burn with skateboarding a lot.
Knowing what these details are can also help you make your skateboarding sessions more effective in this area. Some of them include:
- Body weight: You burn calories throughout the day to move and simply keep yourself alive. Generally, the more you weigh, the more energy these things require.
- Muscle mass vs body fat: The human body can consist of different ratios of muscle mass vs body fat. This is relevant because a certain amount of muscle mass tends to burn more calories while skateboarding than the same weight in body fat.
- Skateboarding session intensity: Skateboarding sessions can vary a lot in terms of intensity per minute. The more intense, the more calories you generally burn.
- Skill level: Skateboarding is a skill-heavy sport. If you are just starting out, you may only be able to go at relatively low speeds. On the other hand, more advanced individuals can really pick up the pace which burns more energy.
Chart of skateboarding calorie-burning estimations
A cheat sheet from the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention simplifies how many calories you burn while skateboarding into between 3.5-7 calories per minute (1).
Luckily, there are ways to get more useful estimations too. One of these ways is using MET values. These are numbers that indicate how physically intense certain sports and activities are.
You can then use the MET values in the formula below for different body weights and time intervals to understand what you can expect from skateboarding in terms of burning calories.
Formula: METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200 = calories burned per minute
The exact MET estimations for skateboarding can vary from source to source. As an example, one source mentions an MET of 5 for general, moderate-effort skateboarding and an MET of 6 for vigorous skateboarding (2).
You can find the MET for vigorous skateboarding applied to a variety of body weights and time intervals in the table below.
As you may notice, the MET formula does not include all the important details that influence your results. In reality, the number of calories you burn with skateboarding will be at least slightly different.
Additionally, to put the numbers below into perspective, a medium chocolate chip cookie contains about 148 calories (3).
| Time Weight Person | 1 Minute | 15 Minutes | 30 Minutes | 45 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 6 calories | 89 calories | 177 calories | 266 calories | 354 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 7 calories | 110 calories | 220 calories | 330 calories | 439 calories |
| 185 Pounds (84 kg) | 9 calories | 131 calories | 262 calories | 393 calories | 524 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 10 calories | 152 calories | 305 calories | 457 calories | 610 calories |
Ways to burn more calories with skateboarding
By now it is likely clear that the numbers above are not always exactly how many calories you actually burn while skateboarding. There are ways to get more results from this activity.
The most straightforward way to do this is by skateboarding more intensely. For example, instead of taking a break after every two drops, you can take a break every four drops.
Additionally, you can build some muscle mass with resistance training outside of your skateboarding sessions. Even lifting 3 days a week or less can offer nice results in this area.
The extra muscle mass will not only help you burn more calories while skateboarding but also throughout the rest of your day.
Lastly, you could make your skateboarding sessions longer and do them more often. This generally burns more calories.
How long does it take to see results from skateboarding?
If you are interested in burning calories with skateboarding you likely also want in what amounts of weight loss all these numbers can result in.
You do need to know that burning calories does not always mean losing fat. With suboptimal habits in areas like your diet, your results could be tiny.
That being said, if you assume you get in a situation where you hit a weight plateau and the only change you make is skateboarding more often, you can get a few interesting numbers.
A 185-pound (84 kg) person who implements four skateboarding sessions of 15 minutes in their weekly routine burns an extra 524 calories which are about 0.15 pounds (0.07 kg) of body fat.
After doing the same skateboarding routine for four weeks, this person has burned an extra 2096 calories or about 0.6 pounds (0.26 kg) of body fat.
Something to note is that after losing weight, this person (and you) will burn fewer calories with the same skateboarding routine.
Is skateboarding a good way to burn calories?
Skateboarding can be a decent exercise choice to burn calories. Especially if you like doing it.
Enjoying your workouts can help you stay consistent. As you can see from the numbers above, this can really benefit how many calories you burn over time.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that there are more effective alternatives too. If you like one of these just as much as skateboarding, they may be the smarter choice.
If burning a lot of calories is your main goal, it can be smart to do some exercises with the goal of building muscle on top of your skateboarding sessions.
The extra mass you build will increase your energy usage throughout the day. This includes your skateboarding sessions too.
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