How Many Calories are Burned by Dancing?

Welcome to the dancing section of DietandFitnessToday where the highest number of calories burned is 517 Calories, for high intensity Zumba class. This is for an average male weighting 190 pounds (86 Kg). Below is a list of 21 activities based on the general description of dancing, ranging from the highest calorie burn from 'high intensity Zumba class' which burns 517 calories in 30 minutes through to the activity 'ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha)' which has the lowest calorie burn of 129 calories in 30 minutes, for a typical adult weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg).

For ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort, which is a typical intensity activity under the general description of dancing activities, the average calories burned by a person weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg) in 30 minutes is 293 Calories. In one hour ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort will burn 586 Calories.

Summary of Dancing Information and Charts

To help you find the information you need, we first focus on ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort which is the most common dancing activity. This is followed by the activities with the highest burn rate which is high intensity Zumba class, and the lowest which is ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha), giving the average calories burned per minute and per hour, along with food calorie equivalents and our new proprietary calories burned score© and calories burned rank©The calorie score gives an indication of the relative burn rate of the dancing activities measured as a percentage score out of 100 for the different dancing activities, where 100% is the maximum calorie burn which we estimate from running at a pace of 4 minutes per mile which is a world class speed for running for 30 mins.

The calorie rank is the rank of the dancing activity compared with all other 800 activities in our database to give an indication of the percentage of activities which have a higher or lower calorie burn. A rank of 1 means it is the highest ranking activity in terms or calorie burn and a rank of 100 means it is the activity with the lowest carlorie burn compared with all other activities.

Effect of Intensity on the Calorie Calculator

Although the above is a typical example for dancing, the calculator we use to determine the calories burnt depends on the intensity, duration and your body weight. At the bottom of the article we have a variety of different intensities which can be personalized based on your weight and the duration of the activities, using our free calculator.

Calorie Score and Calorie Rank for Dancing

At dietandfitnesstoday we have a new proprietary concept of a Calories Burned Score© and Calories Burned Rank©.

Calories Burned in 30 Minutes for a Typical dancing Activity

As we have previously mentioned Ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort is a moderate and typical level of intensity for dancing and can be used as a general representative approximate measure for calories burnt by dancing. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) burns 293 Calories, while an average woman weighing 163 pounds (74 kg), in 30 minutes burns 251 Calories.

Calories Per Minute

The calories burned per minute for Ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort is 10 Calories per minute, for a typical man and for a typical female is 8 Calories per minute.

Calories Per Hour

The calories lost in one hour is 586 calories for a typical man, and 503 calories in one hour for a typical woman.

How to Burn 100 Calories

To burn 100 calories for a typical male would require 10 minutes of the activity ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort and to burn 100 calories with the same dancing activity for a typical female would take 13 minutes.

Score and Rank

Ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort has a Calorie Burned Score© of 27.30 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 27.30 % of the highest realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calorie Burned Rank© of 58.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 58.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 201.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort

Equivalent Activities

The following activities burn the same number of calories as Ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort -

• bicycling, 10-11.9 mph, leisure, slow, light effort
• bicycling, stationary, 90-100 watts, moderate to vigorous effort
• bicycling, to/from work, self selected pace
• cross country skiing with light effort at 2.5 mph
• fire fighter, rescue victim, automobile accident, using pike pole

Comparison with Inactivity

30 mins of inactivity for example just sitting and watching television burns 43 calories for a typical man and 37 calories for a typical woman. Which means Ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort burns 7.3 times more calories than the equivalent time of inactivity for an average man and 6.8 times more calories for an average female.

Food Calorie Equivalents

This level of 293 calories burnt by an average man ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort is equivalent to 0.5 Big Macs, 1.0 snickers bar, 2.4 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 1.0 cheeseburgers, 1.0 slices of pizza or 0.8 large blueberry muffins.

For an average female burning 251 calories is equivalent to 0.4 Big Macs, 0.9 snickers bar, 2.1 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 0.8 cheeseburgers, 0.9 slices of pizza or 0.7 large blueberry muffins.

Weight Loss from Dancing

To answer the question how many pounds will I lose from the activity dancing? Taking this example of ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort in 30 minutes, the weight loss for a typical man is a minimum of 0.04 pounds, and a typical woman would lose 0.04 pounds.

Based on 4 sessions per week of ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, the approximate time taken to lose one pound is 6 weeks for a man and 6 weeks for a woman, assuming no other changes in lifestyle or eating habits.

The same 4 sessions per week of ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, would lose 1kg in 3 weeks for a man and 3 weeks for a woman.

Dancing Activity with the Highest Calorie Burn

The highest number of calories burned for an average person is achieved by high intensity Zumba class. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man burns 517 Calories, while an average woman in 30 minutes burns 444 Calories.

This activity of high intensity Zumba class has a Calories Burned Score© of 50.60 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 50.60 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 26.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 26.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 33.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than high intensity Zumba class

Dancing Activity with the Lowest Calorie Burn

The dancing activity with the lowest calories burnt is ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha), which for an average man in 30 minutes burns 129 Calories, and for an average woman burns 111 Calories.

This activity of ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha) has a Calories Burned Score© of 10.20 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 10.20 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 85.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 85.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 568.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha)

Average Calories Burned by Dancing

Based on the the list of 21 dancing activities, shown below, the average calories burned for an average male, weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) is 298 Calories for 30 minutes of dancing. The average burnt for an average female, weighing 163 pounds (74 kg) is 256 Calories for 30 minutes of dancing.

Dancing for 30 minutes - Calories Burned Calculator

Calories Burned in 30 minutes of dancing for Average Male (M) and Female (F) (click to personalise).

high intensity Zumba class - calories  Male=517 kcal, Female=444 kcal.

general competitive ballroom dancing - calories  Male=487 kcal, Female=418 kcal.

aerobic dance wearing 10-15 lb weights - calories  Male=431 kcal, Female=370 kcal.

aerobic, step, with 10 - 12 inch step - calories  Male=409 kcal, Female=351 kcal.

medium intensity Zumba class - calories  Male=388 kcal, Female=333 kcal.

bench step class, general - calories  Male=366 kcal, Female=314 kcal.

general dancing (e.g., disco, folk, Irish step dancing, line dancing, polka, contra, country) - calories  Male=336 kcal, Female=288 kcal.

aerobic, step, with 6 - 8 inch step - calories  Male=323 kcal, Female=277 kcal.

aerobic, general - calories  Male=315 kcal, Female=270 kcal.

aerobic, high impact - calories  Male=315 kcal, Female=270 kcal.

ballet, modern, or jazz, performance, vigorous effort - calories  Male=293 kcal, Female=251 kcal.

low intensity Zumba class - calories  Male=263 kcal, Female=226 kcal.

aerobic, step, with 4-inch step - calories  Male=237 kcal, Female=203 kcal.

Anishinaabe Jingle Dancing - calories  Male=237 kcal, Female=203 kcal.

ballroom, fast (Taylor Code 125) - calories  Male=237 kcal, Female=203 kcal.

aerobic, low impact - calories  Male=215 kcal, Female=185 kcal.

ballet, modern, or jazz, general, rehearsal or class - calories  Male=215 kcal, Female=185 kcal.

tap dancing - calories  Male=207 kcal, Female=177 kcal.

ethnic or cultural dancing (e.g., Greek, Middle Eastern, hula, salsa, merengue, bamba y plena, flamenco, belly, and swing) - calories  Male=194 kcal, Female=166 kcal.

Caribbean dance (Abakua, Beguine, Bellair, Bongo, Brukin's, Caribbean Quadrills, Dinki Mini, Gere, Gumbay, Ibo, Jonkonnu, Kumina, Oreisha, Jambu) - calories  Male=151 kcal, Female=129 kcal.

ballroom, slow (e.g., waltz, foxtrot, slow dancing, samba, tango, 19th century dance, mambo, cha cha) - calories  Male=129 kcal, Female=111 kcal.

You can browse other common activities from our database, from the links below or visit the compendium at https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/home.