How Many Calories does Boxing Burn?

There are many different sports that are great for weight loss and for burning calories at a fast pace. Many studies suggest that the more high intensity a sport is, the more calories it is likely to burn every hour.

It just so happens that the sport that burns the most calories is boxing, with an astounding amount of between 350 and 500 calories for every hour of workout.

However, boxing can actually help you lose up to around 800 calories per hour if you do the more high-intensity exercises and workout routines! 

Although boxing might seem like it’s all about the punches, it’s actually a high-intensity sport that provides a whole body workout, with plenty of cardio and resistance to make you sweat and burn a high amount of calories within the hour.

Full-on boxing in a ring and getting hit might be something you most definitely do not want to do. The good news is that you can box without actually getting in the ring.

You could stick to boxing training in the gym, practicing your punches and moves with a heavy bag, and getting through all the cardio and resistance training exercises that allow boxers to keep up their fitness levels. 

How many calories does boxing burn?

As mentioned, boxing will usually burn between 350 and 500 calories per hour, but it can burn up to around 800 calories within an hour if you’re following the more high-intensity exercises and training routines. 

Boxing combines many different types of exercises, such as pad and bag work, skipping, groundwork, and overall aerobic exercises.

It is essentially a high-intensity full-body workout that strengthens all of your body muscles and helps tone them up. The cardio the movement involves helps develop your cardiovascular efficiency, as well as increasing muscular endurance.

This is achieved by the many different high-intensity workout exercises and by the repetitive motion of punching and dodging that enhances muscle and core strength.

Essentially, boxing can turn you into a badass and extremely fit person that is also able to kickass! (Although you probably shouldn’t go around doing so.) 

If you want to know exactly how many calories boxing burns for you specifically, here is a breakdown of the formula you should use to calculate it! 

       Calories burnt per minute= (MET x Body Weight in kg x 3.5) ÷ 200

If you haven’t used this formula before, you might need some clarifying so you know exactly what is what! 

The MET value stands for the Metabolic Equivalent Task, and it essentially measures the energy cost of a specific activity. There are different groups of MET value:

• MET 1 Task: the energy a person uses up while sitting or remaining still, at room temperature, and without digesting any food. (Basically, you’re doing absolutely nothing).
• MET 2 Task: this is for activities that use twice the amount of energy as MET 1
• MET 3 Task: this is for activities that use three times as much energy as MET 1

The progression goes on and on just like that, and different activities have a different MET value based on the number of calories that they can burn every hour. 

For boxing, the MET values are:

• Punching bag: 5.5
• Sparring: 7.8
• Boxing in a ring: 12.8

You should take into account that the MET values of a specific activity are not very accurate at estimating the actual individual energy cost, because each individual varies in body mass, age, sex, efficiency, conditions, etc.

Therefore, the MET values are only used as an average of the energy cost of an activity. (The estimate for the MET values is for a person of 200 pounds of weight) 

As for the rest of the formula, the only other variable value is the body weight, which should be your own. 

There are plenty of online calculators that you can use, or you could even download an app that keeps track of your exercises to automatically calculate the calories you’re burning. 

At the end of the day, what matters is that boxing does indeed burn many calories!

How does boxing burn calories?

The how of boxing burning calories is answered by looking at the rigorous and intense training exercises that boxing involves, be it practicing your punching and dodging with a heavy bag, be it sparring with a partner, or be it developing your cardio and endurance through skipping and groundwork. 

The trick is in doing high-intensity training while using as much of your body as possible. The repetitive movements of the bag training strengthen both your core and multiple different muscles.

Skipping, which is a well-known part of boxing training, highly develops your cardio and your muscle endurance. 

If you want to burn as many calories as those that practice boxing, but you don’t want to join a boxing gym or completely follow their workouts, then you could take bits and pieces.

For example, you could start by taking up skipping, which will instantly improve your cardio efficiency and your muscle endurance! 

Conclusion

Boxing is the sport that burns the most calories per hour, as it is extremely high-intensity and works the entire body, with both muscle strengthening and toning, and cardiovascular endurance. 

On average, an hour of normal boxing training can burn between 250 and 500 calories.

However, high-intensity routines and exercises will make you burn around 800 calories an hour, which is what places boxing right at the top of the most effective weight-loss sports and activities.

It can vary depending on the types of boxing training exercises that you practice, as there are different MET values for the different types of boxing: punching bag, sparring, and boxing ring.

You can use a formula to easily calculate exactly how many calories boxing will burn in an hour (as an estimate based on the average MET values for boxing).

You could also track your calorie burning through different apps, as that will be a far more accurate calculation for your individual training session.