Estimate calories and kilojoules burned in elite and competitive ice skating disciplines — competitive speed skating, ice dancing, and structured skating-treadmill training — based on your body weight and session duration. This calculator is deliberately kept separate from our general Ice Skating Calorie Calculator, which covers casual leisure, general and fast recreational rink skating at MET values from 5.5 to 9.0. The three disciplines here sit at meaningfully higher, competitive and training-level intensities — MET 9.0 to 14.0 — reflecting the sustained power output of elite speed skating and ice dancing rather than a casual lap around the local rink.
Speed skating and ice dancing calorie burn is estimated with calories = MET × body weight (kg) × duration (hours), using three tiers from the Winter Activities section of the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade (MET 9.0), competitive speed skating (MET 13.8), and ice dancing (MET 14.0). A 70 kg skater over a 30-minute session burns around 315 kcal (about 1,318 kJ) on the skating treadmill, around 483 kcal (about 2,021 kJ) in competitive speed skating, and around 490 kcal (about 2,050 kJ) ice dancing. All three MET values used on this page are literature-supported figures in the Compendium, not flagged as estimated.
| Discipline | MET | Calories | Kilojoules |
|---|
The calculation combines a MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) value for your chosen discipline, your body weight, and how long you trained or competed. This calculator uses three MET values taken directly from the Winter Activities section of the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, all under the skating code prefix 19: skating treadmill, 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade (code 19045, MET 9.0), skating, speed, competitive (code 19050, MET 13.8), and skating, ice dancing (code 19018, MET 14.0). Because training sessions are usually measured in minutes rather than hours, the calculator takes your minutes input and converts it to hours (hours = minutes ÷ 60) before applying the formula.
| Discipline | MET | Calories (70 kg, 30 min) | Kilojoules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skating treadmill, 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade | 9.0 | 315 kcal | 1,318 kJ |
| Speed skating, competitive | 13.8 | 483 kcal | 2,021 kJ |
| Ice dancing | 14.0 | 490 kcal | 2,050 kJ |
This page is deliberately kept separate from MegaCalcOnline's Ice Skating Calorie Calculator, which covers casual leisure/beginner skating (MET 5.5), general/moderate recreational skating (MET 7.0), and fast/vigorous recreational skating (MET 9.0) — the kind of session most people have at a suburban rink. The three disciplines on this page instead cover elite, competitive and structured training intensities: skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph on a 2% grade (MET 9.0) matches the top end of the recreational page's range, while competitive speed skating (MET 13.8) and ice dancing (MET 14.0) climb well beyond anything on the recreational page — these are sustained, high-power disciplines practised by trained and competitive athletes, not a casual lap around the rink with friends. If you're a recreational skater working out your rink session, use the general Ice Skating Calorie Calculator instead; if you're training or competing in speed skating or ice dancing, or doing structured treadmill speed-skating conditioning, this page gives you the appropriate MET values.
This table holds discipline constant at skating treadmill training (MET 9.0) for a 30-minute session, so you can see how much body weight alone changes the total.
| Body Weight | MET | Calories (30 min) | Kilojoules |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 kg | 9.0 | 248 kcal | 1,036 kJ |
| 65 kg | 9.0 | 293 kcal | 1,224 kJ |
| 75 kg | 9.0 | 338 kcal | 1,412 kJ |
| 85 kg | 9.0 | 383 kcal | 1,600 kJ |
| 95 kg | 9.0 | 428 kcal | 1,789 kJ |
Training sessions and competitive events run to different lengths. Here body weight is fixed at 70 kg while session length and discipline both change, so you can compare how much a longer session and a higher-intensity discipline each add to the total.
| Session Length | Treadmill (MET 9.0) | Speed Skating (MET 13.8) | Ice Dancing (MET 14.0) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 minutes | 158 kcal / 659 kJ | 242 kcal / 1,010 kJ | 245 kcal / 1,025 kJ |
| 30 minutes | 315 kcal / 1,318 kJ | 483 kcal / 2,021 kJ | 490 kcal / 2,050 kJ |
| 45 minutes | 473 kcal / 1,977 kJ | 725 kcal / 3,031 kJ | 735 kcal / 3,075 kJ |
| 60 minutes | 630 kcal / 2,636 kJ | 966 kcal / 4,042 kJ | 980 kcal / 4,100 kJ |
Australian nutrition panels list energy in kilojoules, not calories, so it's worth converting your session total into the same unit your food packaging uses. Multiply your calorie figure by 4.184 to get kilojoules. A 70 kg skater completing a 30-minute competitive speed skating session burns about 483 kcal, roughly 2,021 kJ — a useful figure to weigh up against the energy value of a recovery snack or sports drink after a hard training session or race.
How many calories does speed skating or ice dancing burn?
It depends on which discipline and pace you select. Using this calculator's three tiers for a 70 kg skater over a 30-minute session: skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph on a 2% grade (MET 9.0) burns about 315 kcal (1,318 kJ), competitive speed skating (MET 13.8) burns about 483 kcal (2,021 kJ), and ice dancing (MET 14.0) burns about 490 kcal (2,050 kJ). Enter your own weight and session length above for a personalised estimate.
How is calories burned speed skating and ice dancing calculated?
The calculator multiplies a MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) value for your chosen discipline by your body weight in kilograms and your session duration in hours: calories = MET × body weight (kg) × duration (hours). Because sessions are usually measured in minutes, the calculator converts your minutes input to hours (minutes ÷ 60) before running the formula. The three MET values used — 9.0 for skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade (code 19045), 13.8 for competitive speed skating (code 19050), and 14.0 for ice dancing (code 19018) — come directly from the Winter Activities section of the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. The kilocalorie result is then multiplied by 4.184 to give the equivalent figure in kilojoules, the unit used on Australian food labels.
What's the difference between this calculator and MegaCalcOnline's general ice skating calculator?
This calculator covers elite and competitive skating disciplines — competitive speed skating, ice dancing, and structured treadmill speed-skating training — at MET values from 9.0 to 14.0. Our separate Ice Skating Calorie Calculator covers general recreational rink skating instead, with MET values from 5.5 to 9.0 for leisure/beginner, general/moderate, and fast/vigorous pace. If you're training or competing in speed skating or ice dancing, use this page; if you're skating recreationally at a local rink, use the general ice skating calculator instead.
Why is the skating treadmill tier the default option?
The calculator defaults to skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade (MET 9.0) because it's a structured, measurable training method many speed skaters and ice dancers use for supplementary cardio work, and it sits at the lower end of this page's three tiers. Switch to competitive speed skating or ice dancing above if either better matches your session.
Does body weight affect the result?
Yes. Because calories equal MET multiplied by body weight in kilograms multiplied by duration in hours, body weight is a direct multiplier in the formula. At the ice dancing tier (MET 14.0) for a 30-minute session, a 95 kg skater burns roughly 665 kcal compared with about 385 kcal for a 55 kg skater completing the identical session at the identical intensity.
Are the MET values used on this page estimated or literature-supported?
All three MET values used on this page — skating treadmill training at 6–6.9 mph, 2% grade (MET 9.0, code 19045), competitive speed skating (MET 13.8, code 19050), and ice dancing (MET 14.0, code 19018) — are literature-supported figures in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, not flagged as estimated. That's a meaningful difference from some other activities in the Compendium, where certain MET values are flagged as estimates rather than figures confirmed by dedicated published research.
Is competitive speed skating a good workout?
Yes, and among the more intense entries in our calorie calculator library. All three MET values on this page — 9.0, 13.8 and 14.0 — sit at vigorous-intensity or higher, with competitive speed skating and ice dancing in particular demanding sustained power output, explosive leg drive and significant cardiovascular capacity. These are elite and competitive-level intensities rather than casual recreational skating, which is exactly why this page is kept separate from our general Ice Skating Calorie Calculator.
What are the limitations of this calorie estimate?
This calculator uses published MET values multiplied by your body weight and session duration, which gives a solid population-level estimate rather than a personalised measurement. It doesn't account for your skill level, ice conditions, technique efficiency, how much of a competitive session was spent in active racing versus recovery, or individual physiological differences between skaters. Treat the result as a reliable planning figure for time spent at a given discipline and intensity, not an exact physiological measurement.