Exercise burns more calories than your body would on a normal day. High-intensity exercises, such as cycling, typically burn more calories than other exercise routines. In our guide, we have compiled exercises that provide the highest calorie burn. Here are the details!
Compound exercises require the use of multiple muscle groups at the same time. As a result, they burn a lot of calories because they demand more effort compared to other exercises.
To get into the plank position, start by lying face down on the floor. Place your hands directly under your shoulders, engage your core, and then lift your torso off the ground. Make sure your back is straight while pulling your toes towards your shins.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a weight in each hand. Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle and turn your palms inward. From this starting position, follow these steps to perform a press squat:
1. Lower into a squat position.
2. As you squat, press the weights overhead.
3. Return to the starting position by straightening your legs and lowering the weights back to the starting position.
Slowly lower into a squat position, keeping your weight on your heels and your chest up. Hold for two seconds. Push through your heels to stand up straight while lifting the weights towards the ceiling. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Climbing stairs can improve your endurance and lipid profile (i.e., cholesterol and triglyceride levels). Research has found that stair climbing burns about eight to ten times more calories than resting. To incorporate this calorie-burning exercise into your daily activities, try taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator whenever possible.
You can use stair climbing as an exercise, and you can even try adding weights to strengthen your muscles. Take a lightweight in each hand, then climb five or more flights of stairs.
To perform jumping lunges, start with your feet together and your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle. Then follow these steps:
Keep your chest upright as you lunge forward. Ensure your weight is on the heel of your front foot. Jump straight up with your arms raised towards the ceiling while keeping your elbows bent. Switch sides for each repetition, alternating the forward foot. Repeat on the opposite foot for each repetition.
Strength training builds muscle mass and helps protect against bone density loss as you age. Developing muscles through strength training can aid in calorie burning due to muscles burning more calories than fat. A person with more muscle mass may burn slightly more calories at rest compared to someone with less muscle mass.
It’s a common misconception that adding muscle speeds up your metabolism. Moderate strength training minimally affects the calories you burn from your muscle mass. However, mixing strength training with cardio exercises can still aid in calorie burning.
High-intensity cardio typically burns more calories than low to moderate-intensity cardio. You can gauge how intense your exercise is using the talk test. Moderate-intensity exercise allows you to continue talking even with an elevated heart rate. Conversely, high-intensity exercise will prevent you from saying more than a few words at a time.
For an average person weighing 70 kilograms, here’s a breakdown of how many calories they can burn per 30 minutes of cardio exercise:
Cycling (at 16 km/h) – 287
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – 353
Jumping rope – 300
Running (at 8 km/h) – 287
Skierg (moderate intensity) – 205
Swimming (slow freestyle laps) – 248
The amount of calories you burn depends on various factors:
Age: As you age, you lose muscle mass, which slows down your calorie-burning rate during exercise.
Body weight: Individuals with more weight require more energy for physical activity compared to others. Consequently, the amount of calories burned during exercise increases with weight.
For example, walking slowly burns fewer calories than walking at a moderate pace.
Muscle mass: Muscle burns more calories than fat. People with more muscle mass burn more calories at rest and during exercise compared to others.
Gender: Some evidence suggests that men burn more calories than women while performing the same exercises. Men typically have more muscle mass and are heavier than women.
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