This is a question often asked about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from a fitness perspective. If you’ve trained BJJ for a while, you will know that a hard session can be physically exhausting. In short, BJJ can be an intense cardio workout that gets your heart going. To test this out, I recently decided to wear a calorie counting smartwatch whilst training.
For those wondering, I am in good shape having trained almost daily for 4 years and I’m a 28 year old male weighing in at roughly 80KG. This information is relevant, as everyone’s situation is different. For example; a 50 year old who is overweight may lose more calories in a session due to naturally burning more fat.
It should also be acknowledged that I did this during a typical training session. This involves a 10 minute warm up, drilling for 40 minutes, 10 minutes of specific sparring and then 30 minutes of free sparring. Basically, this meant 1 hour and 30 minutes of BJJ.
Obviously, the free sparring at the end would have burnt the most calories whilst the drilling in the middle and watching the demonstration would have been the least intense part of the session. Again, some people only train for 60 minutes or don’t spar as much – so these factors will definitely have an impact on the number of calories you burn.
If you want a good, non-evasive way to track calories whilst training, then this particular chest-strap is ideal. Unlike most bracelets, it won’t get caught whilst sparring and cause any nasty injuries.
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Findings
Overall I found that after the 1 hour 30 minute session, I had lost 872 calories. Put another way, the calories in a Big Mac meal are 1100. This includes the burger, drink, and fries – as a medium portion size. In other words, if you were to do 2 hours of BJJ training, you could then eat a Big Mac meal to replenish the burned calories.
Because of this, it’s fair to say that BJJ is a very effective way to lose calories. Of course, I’m not encouraging eating McDonalds as it is unhealthy. However, you can see how those who train BJJ regularly get into good shape and grow into an athletic physique.
Another way of measuring the calories burned during BJJ is by comparing it with HIIT training. In a way, BJJ sparring is close to HIIT as it tests your gas tank and can be quite a challenge. According to Google, a 30 minute HIIT exercise would roughly burn 350 calories.
With this in mind, it’s hard for even an athlete to do HIIT for over 30 minutes due to the intense nature. As previously mentioned, HIIT is an unforgiving form of exercise. However, the great thing about BJJ is that it is fun and complex – meaning a 1 hour 30 minute session can fly by in terms of time.
Because of this, BJJ is possibly the best pound for pound way to burn calories as far as exercise goes. This is even better if you genuinely enjoy BJJ as it may be less boring than other available options. Of course, other grappling exercises will also see similar results, with the likelihood being that a similar class of Judo or Wrestling would burn a similar amount of calories.
As seen, however, this depends massively on sparring. In short, the less you spar the fewer calories you will burn. In BJJ, sparring is the key to burning calories as drilling and warmups are simply not as cardio intense. Having said this, if you cannot spar then a thorough warmup and drills are definitely better than nothing and will lose calories – it just won’t be as effective as training without sparring.
Training BJJ to lose weight
BJJ is no different to other sports in terms of training to lose weight. For example, if you need to make weight for a BJJ competition – you may need to create a calorie deficit. The average male needs 2500 calories per day to maintain weight. This means if you want to put on weight you need to go over this number, and if you need to lose weight you need to go below the 2500 number. Because of this, it’s important to combine your diet with your training if you need to lose weight.
The easy bit is that training BJJ will easily burn calories like nothing else. However, maintaining a sensible diet is easier said than done. However, by cutting out extra calories by eating less sugar and snacks, alongside BJJ sparring, you should be able to create a calorie deficit and lose weight. On a similar note, it may be a good idea to drink a protein shake before or after training if you want to maintain weight – due to the amount of calories you will burn doing BJJ.
Summary
In summary, if the average BJJ practitioner is a 28 year old at 80KG – they will roughly burn around 800-900 calories in a 1 hour 30 minute session of training. Of course, there are other factors that will affect this and it depends on the individual. Because of this, it’s fair to say that training BJJ is a great work out and will easily keep you fit and improve cardio health.
Similarly, if you want to get ripped by doing BJJ and losing calories – then we also have a good article here.
