There are many exercise options for people who want to get in shape. Find out whether jumping rope is good for weight loss.
The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to get in a situation where you use up more energy than is coming in from your diet to lose weight.
Jumping rope is good for weight loss in the sense that it can help with this.
The jumps will require more energy than most normal daily activities. This increases your chances of getting into the situation above and making the difference bigger for more weight loss results.
In fact, when it comes to burning calories (aka energy), jumping rope is one of the best options there is.
Two additional benefits of jumping rope are that you can do it at home and that you can do it in a few spare blocks of time throughout the day.
On the other hand, everything above also means that just jumping rope may not be enough to see weight loss results. You still need a plan in other areas like nutrition that is good enough.
Additionally, you want to keep in mind that jumping rope can be rough on your body. Especially if you have some weight to lose.
Can you lose weight by jumping rope?
It is worth noting that you can indeed lose weight by jumping rope. However, you need to understand that there are conditions for making this happen.
More specifically, to achieve weight loss you need to get to a point where your body requires more energy to function and move than is coming in from the things you eat.
In a situation like that, you start using energy stores like body fat to get the remaining energy needs.
Jumping rope is more intense than typical daily activities. In turn, this makes it so your body uses more energy than usual which tends to be beneficial when trying to lose weight.
On the flip side, the principles above should make it clear that this will not always be the result.
It is possible to jump rope every day without losing any weight if your habits in areas like your diet are not good enough.
So while jumping rope can be helpful for weight loss, you may need to do more than add this activity to your routine to see your desired results.
Calories burned jumping rope vs exercise alternatives
Another important thing to keep in mind is that just being able to help with weight loss is not enough. The time you spend on jumping rope can not be used for other weight loss workouts.
In simpler words, how effective jumping rope is compared to other exercise alternatives will influence what your workout program looks like too.
To do this, you can look at rough estimations of how many calories jumping rope burns and compare this to the same numbers for other activities.
Before showing these, you need to know that they are very rough estimations for comparison purposes. In reality, your results could look different.
With that in mind, a 185-pound (84 kg) person will burn more or less the following amounts of calories while doing the activities for 30 minutes (1):
- Jumping rope (slow): 335 calories
- Jumping rope (fast): 503 calories
- Water Aerobics: 168 calories
- Stretching (Hatha Yoga): 168 calories
- Stair Step Machine (general): 252 calories
- Swimming (general): 525 calories
- Rowing, Stationary (moderate): 294 calories
- Bicycling, Stationary (moderate): 294 calories
- Running 5 mph: 336 calories
- Elliptical Trainer (general): 378 calories
- Running 7 mph: 525 calories
Details like your body composition, your hormone levels, how fast you jump rope, etc. will influence the actual amounts of calories your burn.
That being said, it should become clear that jumping rope can be a great weight loss exercise in this area.
Can jumping rope burn belly fat?
Many people are interested in losing weight because they want to burn away some belly fat. You may wonder if something like jumping rope can help you with this.
Something important to know is that it is generally not possible to choose in what areas you lose fat in significant amounts.
At the same time, it is still possible to lose the fat from around your stomach. With and without jumping rope.
To do this, you have to lose enough weight in general. As you lose more and more body fat, your body will use more and more of the belly fat from around your stomach.
In short, jumping rope can help you burn belly fat but this will not always be the case.
You first need habits in other lifestyle areas that are good enough. Even then, it may take a while before you hit your belly fat loss goals.
How long should you jump rope to lose weight?
After learning everything above, you are likely wondering how long you should jump rope to achieve your desired weight loss transformation.
It is worth mentioning again that your habits in areas like your diet will influence your actual weight loss results from jumping rope a lot.
That being said, you can get some useful estimations by assuming all the extra calories you will burn come from body fat.
A 155-pound (70 kg) person will burn around 2947 extra calories or about 0.84 pounds (0.37 kg) of body fat by jumping rope at a fast pace for 30 minutes a day for 7 days.
If this same person jumps rope for 30 minutes a day for a month (30 days), they will burn an extra 12,630 calories or about 3.61 pounds (1.58 kg) of body fat.
You can also check out the article on how many jump ropes you should do to find out how many actual jumps these sessions involve.
That aside, it is important to know that as you lose weight, the same jump rope workouts will start to burn fewer calories. In turn, you will have to keep making positive lifestyle changes to get more weight loss results.
Should you jump rope for weight loss?
With the calorie-burning potential of this activity, you can definitely say that jumping rope can be a good exercise choice for losing weight.
Additionally, this activity is easy to do at home. You also only need a few small blocks of time to get in a few jump rope sessions.
On the other hand, it is also worth mentioning that there are potential downsides and side effects involved in skipping rope for weight loss.
More specifically, jumping rope can be hard on your ankles, knees, and back. Especially if you have a few extra pounds to lose.
Injuries can reduce how much time you can work out to zero.
So if you are injury sensitive, it may be smart to start with softer jump rope alternatives like swimming, the elliptical trainer, and cycling.
Lastly, keep in mind that jumping rope is no guarantee for (a lot of) weight loss. If you are not seeing the desired results, you may need to pay more attention to lifestyle areas like nutrition.
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FAQ
Can I lose weight in 2 weeks by jumping rope?
You can likely lose at least a bit of weight in 2 weeks by jumping rope. 15 minutes of fast rope jumping a day for 14 days would burn an extra 2947 calories which are about 0.84 pounds of body fat (0.37 kg) for a 155-pound (70 kg) person. That being said, your actual results can vary due to details like your diet.
How much weight can I lose in a month with jumping rope?
A 185-pound (84 kg) person can burn an extra 6315 calories with jumping rope at a fast pace for 15 minutes a day. If all these calories come from body fat, that would mean losing about 1.8 pounds (0.79 kg).
