A reader recently reached out to me and wanted to know, how long should I jump rope to lose weight?
If you want to lose weight as quickly as possible, you should try to jump rope for 60 minutes per day.
An hour of exercise every day can have a profound effect on your body.
When I lost 40+ pounds in the span of a few months, most of my exercise sessions ran for about an hour.
For me, the goal was to be drenched in sweat, out of breath and physically exhausted to the point of needing a nap to recover.
This usually took me an hour of intense exercise with a jump rope.
But, if you are willing to be slightly more patient than I was then I’d suggest you jump rope for just 30 minutes per day.
What also counts is the amount of energy you exert. There are two major factors that determine energy expenditure, duration and intensity.
You could burn the same amount of calories doing a light workout for a long period of time as you would working out for a shorter period of time at maximum effort and vice versa.
It truly depends on you.
If you can exercise at maximum effort for a long period of time regularly, you’ll lose weight very quickly because the number of calories burned per session will be sky-high.
This is further perpetuated by the fact that skipping or jumping rope is considered one of the best exercises for burning calories.
Related post: Does skipping reduce arm fat?
How many calories will you burn in an hour with a jump rope?
The number of calories burnt by jumping rope will obviously vary depending on a number of factors such as age, weight, duration and intensity.
A young man who weighs 200 pounds will burn more calories jumping rope in an hour at maximum effort compared to an older man who weighs 150 pounds who jumps rope at a slow and steady pace.
Be that as it may, the average sized person can burn up to 900 calories from an hour of jumping rope.
The heavier you are, the more calories you may burn.
This is incredible!
Very few exercises can result in such a high amount of calories burned in an hour like jumping rope.
What’s of significant importance is this little piece of information – 3500 calories is the equivalent of one pound of fat. If you were to burn 900 calories in an hour from jump rope, you could lose a pound of fat in just 4 days.
That adds up to 7 pounds of fat loss in 30 days.
How often should you jump rope to lose weight?
Ordinarily, I choose to jump rope every single day but if you’re looking for a more sustainable pace, aim for a minimum of 3 times per week.
Ideally, you should be jumping rope at least 5 times per week to really benefit quickly and lose weight relatively fast.
I live a sedentary life which is why it’s not problematic for someone like me to work out daily for an hour.
Someone who sits on a chair in an office all day should have no issue exercising every single day. Whereas, someone who has a physically demanding job like construction work may not need to jump rope daily to reap the same benefits.
They say that it takes an average of 66 days to build a new habit that sticks for an indefinite period.
If you choose to jump rope daily, that’s just 2 months of your life before it becomes an irreplaceable part of your daily routine.
At that point, you’ll have lost so much of weight and leveled up your fitness level that jumping rope daily will be a walk in the park for you.
Consistency is the greatest and most proven key for success.
Related post: Does skipping reduce belly fat?
Eat clean and healthily
At the end of the day, you can’t outwork a bad diet. No matter how many calories you burn from skipping, none of that will matter if you consume more calories than you used.
The problem with junk food is that they are caloric dense. You could eat countless bowls of vegetables and that would amount to just one regular burger, chips and shake.
Heck, you could drink most of your calories without even consuming anything because most beverages are packed with sugar.
My advice to you would be this – work out the number of calories you need to eat per day to lose weight, replace your unhealthy sugar laden and deep fried foods with healthy alternatives and be consistent.
I promise you that there is no need to starve yourself to lose weight. If you make the right selection of foods, the process can be satiating and enjoyable.
Don’t burn yourself out with crash diets that are extremely low calories. That’s not a healthy nor sustainable way of losing weight.
All these sub 1000 calorie diets are dangerous in my eyes.
In conclusion
Jumping rope or skipping is one of the most cost-effective ways of losing weight and getting fit with low impact on your joints and easy accessibility.
It may take you some time to get the hang of it but once you do, it’s easy going from there.
If you’re a beginner, start with 15 minutes of skipping per day.
You won’t burn a lot of calories but it will help you to master the art of skipping and building a habit. By the time you become efficient at skipping, you’ll be working out for long periods of time and melting the fat off your body.
I hope you enjoyed this article on how long should I jump rope to lose weight. If you have any questions at all, feel free to leave a comment below.