Burn It Up, Burn It Off
We all know that Salsa is great for getting up and moving. It’s especially good for some of us who are otherwise susceptible to boredom eating.
I find whenever I decline cake or chocolate (using up every ounce of willpower), people tell me “don’t worry, you’ll dance it off!”
But some of these foods have such high caloric content, that sometimes I wonder how true that is.
Anyone else ever wonder how dancing Salsa compares to your calorie intake?
Phew, there’s a lot of science lingo. But essentially…
“A 70 kg person would expect to burn about 550 kcal of energy every hour salsa dancing.
“To figure this out for your own body weight, just multiply your weight in kg by 7.91”
– Pablo Alberto Domene @ SalsaPHD
Nifty trick! Take your weight, multiply by 7.91 and there’s your approximation of how many kCal you burn in an hour!
The results were based on dancing Afro-Cuban style to this songs tempo:
…And obviously varies by style, age, experience, metabolism and lifestyle factors.
As an indicator, here are some of our favourite foods:
Food |
Calories* | Minutes of Continuous Salsa** |
Mars Bar (regular size) | 241 | 26 |
Sushi (Bento Box from Sushi Sushi) | 634 | 69 |
Burrito (Original Beef Burrito from Salsa’s Fresh Mex) | 914 | 100 |
Burger (Almighty Beef Burger from Grill’d) | 805 | 88 |
Pizza (2 slices Supreme Classic Crust from Dominos) | 318 | 35 |
Chicken Caesar Salad (large, Sumo Salad) | 472 | 51 |
Caramel Latte (med, regular milk from Gloria Jeans) | 221 | 24 |
* Calories found at CalorieKing
** Minutes dancing based on a 70kg individual, burning 550kCal/hr
So at 60kg, I would burn approx 475 calories each hour if I danced continuously. At 476kCals, my favourite pre-salsa snack, the Little Guy Burrito from Guzman Y Gomez, would take just over an hour to burn.
Methinks it’s worth it 😉
– Jill













