The amount of calories you burn doing jumping jacks can vary based on how long or how fast do you them, as well as on personal factors that affect your metabolism.

Jumping jacks might seem like a basic exercise, but they offer serious benefits, including boosting your cardiovascular system and toning your muscles.

They’re a plyometric, total-body move that can be part of any regular fitness routine. Since jumping jacks only require body weight, they’re also a great cardiovascular exercise that you can do anywhere and anytime.

In addition to increasing your heart rate and improving muscular strength and endurance, jumping jacks are also a fantastic way to burn calories.

The exact number of calories you burn will vary from person to person. According to MyFitnessPal, jumping jacks can burn about 8 calories per minute for a person weighing 120 pounds (lb) and up to 16 calories per minute for someone weighing 250 lb.

Several factors determine the number of calories you burn when doing jumping jacks.

April Whitney, a nutrition coach and personal trainer with certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine explains that if it’s calorie burning you’re after, you’ll want to up the intensity.

You can do this in two ways:

  • Perform a high number of jumping jacks at a slow pace.
  • Perform a low number of jumping jacks at a fast pace.

Your metabolism also plays a role in how many calories you can burn doing jumping jacks. Several factors affect your metabolism, including:

  • Height and weight: The larger the person, the more calories they burn, even at rest.
  • Sex: In general, males burn more calories than females performing the same exercise at the same intensity because they usually have less body fat and more muscle.
  • Age: The aging process can change a lot of things about your body’s response to exercise, including the number of calories you burn. Factors that can affect this include an increase in body fat and a decrease in muscle mass.

To determine the number of calories you can burn during physical activity, exercise physiologists, trainers, and physical therapists often use metabolic equivalents (METs) for accuracy.

One MET is the energy it takes to sit quietly. While at rest, you can expect to burn approximately 1 calorie for every 2.2 lb of weight per hour.

Moderate activity usually comes in around 3 to 6 METs, while vigorous activities burn more than 6 METs. Jumping jacks can range between 8 and 14 METs, depending on intensity. You can find countless MET tables, like this one, online.

To determine how many calories you’ll burn per minute, you can follow these steps:

  1. Multiply the MTEs of an exercise by 3.5.
  2. Take that number and multiply it by your weight in kilograms.
  3. Divide that number by 200.

Your result will be the number of calories you’ll likely burn per minute. You can also plug this information into an online fitness calculator, like this one from MyFitnessPal.

Cardiovascular exercise is a crucial component of any weight loss program.

You can use METs as a general rule of thumb for the number of calories burned per lb for weight loss.

For example, if you weigh 150 lb and perform 5 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity jumping jacks, you can expect to burn around 47 calories.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to lose 1 lb per week, you’ll need to burn about 3,500 more calories than you take in each week. In general, you can do this by taking in 500 fewer calories every day and increasing your physical activity.

To burn an extra 500 calories doing jumping jacks alone, you would need to kick up the intensity. Even then, you would still need to do a good number of jumping jacks.

It may be better to consider making jumping jacks part of a larger fitness routine by:

In addition to burning calories, jumping jacks can also help increase your aerobic capacity (cardiovascular fitness).

The movement involved in jumping jacks is particularly good for strengthening muscles in your lower body, including your:

  • calves
  • quads
  • glutes
  • hip flexors
  • hamstrings

Your upper body, including your back, shoulders, and core, will also benefit.

The standard jumping jack is a great calorie burner, but if you want to add some variety, there are several ways you can change things up to make the move more challenging or target different areas of your body.

Higher intensity

To increase the intensity, Whitney recommends adding a resistance band just above the knees or at the ankles, which helps activate the glutes. You can also try doing a full-body burpee after every five jumping jacks.

Lower intensity

If you aren’t quite ready for a full jumping jack, try some low intensity modifications.

Eric Sampsell, PT, ATC, CMP, Cert. MDT, a physical therapist for The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, recommends going through the move slowly with a step instead of a jump.

“This can be beneficial in allowing the tendons and joints to acclimate to these new moves, preparing them for a higher level version later,” he explained.

Another alternative is to remove the arm movement from the exercise and focus on the legs, or vice versa, which should keep your heart rate lower than the full jumping jack would.

While jumping jacks are relatively safe for people with most fitness levels, there are some things to be aware of before you add them to your workout routine.

If you have any lower body injuries or you’re prone to chronic pain in your knees or ankles, check with your doctor or physical therapist about best practices.

Make sure to land softly and stick to a carpeted or padded surface. If you feel pain or discomfort while performing jumping jacks, stop the exercise and talk with an expert about alternatives.