Maybe. Most karate classes are split between teaching and training and it’s the training component that burns calories and jump starts your metabolism. What’s the difference?

Teaching is focused on introducing and explaining new skills and new details about existing skills. It’s a balance between verbal explanation, physical demonstration, and individual repetition and immediate correction. We try to give students as much new information as possible at each class so they can practice properly on their own.

Training is defined as group practice led by an instructor for the purpose of refining existing skills. Some amount of teaching happens at all training sessions, but classes focused on training tend to be far more physically demanding. If you’re repeating a familiar technique or drill over and over again with only brief comments and corrections from the instructor, you’re training.

Practice is the third component of learning karate. It’s what you do on your own, by yourself or with a partner but without an instructor present. This is where you challenge yourself to remember what you’ve been taught and push yourself to make the insights and correction from training permanent. Practice is when you make some of your most important discoveries about karate and when you come up with the kind of questions for your next class that enable you to make real progress. Without practice, karate is just an exercise program.

In clubs where most of the focus is on training, students may get a more sustained cardiovascular workout that can lead to weight loss. Likewise, students who practice karate on their own with long enough periods of sustained intensity can expect to realize some weight loss benefits.