Activity calories · 2024 Compendium METs

Calories burned doing Zumba

Quick answer

A 70 kg (154 lb) person burns about 228 kcal in 30 minutes of doing Zumba (Group class), and about 455 kcal in an hour. That is 6.5 METs.

30 minutes: 228kcal; 70 kg (154 lb)
1 hour: 455kcal; 70 kg (154 lb)
1 hour: 390kcal; 60 kg (132 lb)
1 hour: 520kcal; 80 kg (176 lb)

Zumba is a Latin-inspired dance workout, and the Compendium lists a group class and a home video separately. The class is rated higher, which fits the extra energy of a live room, but your own effort still decides where you land.

Calculate calories burned doing Zumba

Starts at 70 kg (154 lb) for 30 minutes of doing Zumba at 6.5 METs; enter your own weight and time.

Calories burned doing Zumba by weight and time

Kilocalories for doing Zumba at 6.5 METs (Group class), by body weight and minutes. Read across from your weight; the pace table below shows the other rows.

Calories burned doing Zumba at 6.5 METs, by body weight and duration
Body weight	15 min	30 min	45 min	1 hour	1.5 hours	2 hours
50 kg (110 lb)	81	163	244	325	488	650
60 kg (132 lb)	98	195	293	390	585	780
70 kg (154 lb)	114	228	341	455	683	910
80 kg (176 lb)	130	260	390	520	780	1,040
90 kg (198 lb)	146	293	439	585	878	1,170
100 kg (220 lb)	163	325	488	650	975	1,300
110 kg (243 lb)	179	358	536	715	1,073	1,430

Doing Zumba: calories by pace or effort

The Compendium rates doing Zumba on 2 lines, from 5.5 METs (Home video) up to 6.5 METs (Group class). Each row below is one of those codes with the calories it works out to.

Calories burned doing Zumba by pace or effort
Pace or effort	Compendium code	METs	30 min, 60 kg (132 lb)	30 min, 70 kg (154 lb)	30 min, 80 kg (176 lb)	1 hour, 70 kg (154 lb)
Home video	02315	5.5	165	193	220	385
Group class	02310	6.5	195	228	260	455

The Compendium’s own wording for each code: 02315, “Zumba, home video”; 02310, “Zumba, group class”.

What changes the number for doing Zumba

Pace is the biggest lever. The hardest listed way of doing Zumba (Group class) is rated at 6.5 METs, 1.2 times the 5.5 METs of the gentlest (Home video). For a 70 kg (154 lb) person that is 455 kcal an hour against 385 kcal.

Body weight is the second: the same 6.5 METs of doing Zumba for 30 minutes comes to 163 kcal at 50 kg (110 lb) and 358 kcal at 110 kg (243 lb). To reach 100 kcal at 70 kg (154 lb) takes about 13 minutes at the starting pace.

Laid out in half-hour terms for 70 kg (154 lb): home video is 193 kcal; group class is 228 kcal.

How the calories are worked out

The formula is calories = MET × body weight in kg × hours. A MET compares an activity with sitting quietly, which is 1 MET and is taken as roughly 1 kcal per kilogram per hour. That equivalence is an approximation, which is why every figure is rounded and called about.

For doing Zumba at 6.5 METs, a 70 kg (154 lb) person for 30 minutes: 6.5 × 70 × 0.5 = 228 kcal. This is a gross figure: it includes the energy your body would spend at rest in the same time.

The MET values are those of the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (Herrmann SD, Willis EA, Ainsworth BE, et al., J Sport Health Sci 2024), read from its activity list on 2026-10-23 and copied with their codes. They are averages for adults; see how we calculate.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories does a 70 kg person burn doing Zumba in 30 minutes?

About 228 kcal at 6.5 METs (Group class). The whole range for doing Zumba on this page runs from 193 kcal (Home video) to 228 kcal (Group class) in the same half hour.

How many calories does doing Zumba burn in an hour?

At 6.5 METs, about 390 kcal for a 60 kg (132 lb) person, 455 kcal at 70 kg (154 lb) and 520 kcal at 80 kg (176 lb). Heavier people burn more because they move more mass.

How long does doing Zumba take to burn 100 calories?

For a 70 kg (154 lb) person, about 13 minutes at 6.5 METs (Group class). At the gentlest listed pace (Home video, 5.5 METs) it takes 16 minutes, and at the hardest (Group class, 6.5 METs) about 13.

Does the number for doing Zumba include the calories I would burn anyway?

Yes. Of the 6.5 METs, 1 is the resting cost, about 15% of the total here, so the activity itself adds about 193 of the 228 kcal in 30 minutes at 70 kg (154 lb).

Why would my watch show a different number for doing Zumba?

A watch uses its own model, often with heart rate, age and sex, while this page uses the Compendium’s average. For doing Zumba that average already spans 2 entries from 5.5 to 6.5 METs, a 1.2-fold range, so a gap between the two is normal.

Which line in the table should I choose for doing Zumba?

Pick the row that best describes how you did it: this page starts from “Group class”, about 100% of the way up the 5.5 to 6.5 MET range. The rows are separate Compendium entries (02315, 02310).

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These are estimates for healthy adults from average MET values. How much you actually burn varies with your fitness, body composition, technique, terrain and conditions, so use the figures as a guide, not a measurement. This is not medical advice.