Which Exercises Burn the Most Calories

Many people are interested in knowing which exercises burn the most calories. After all, life is busy! The more calories burned per time unit means a decreased amount of time spent working out in order to burn the target number of calories.

In order to lose weight, one must burn more calories in a day than one consumes. This math problem can result in a target number of calories that one wants to burn during exercise each week. Some people have a very small goal of burning 500 extra calories per week, while others are interested in burning 3500 calories per week (the amount needed to lose one pound).

Whatever your target number is, you can use the information of which exercises burn the most calories in order to choose which types of exercise you would like to do and how long you’ll have to do each one in order to meet your weekly calorie burn goal.

Estimating the number of calories that will be burned in one hour of a given activity is not an exact science. The numbers given here are estimates and vary on two important factors. The first factor is how much the exerciser weighs; the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn during any activity. The second factor is the intensity with which you do a certain activity. For example, a person weighing 115 pounds working out at the same intenstiy level of someone weighing 180 pounds will burn fewer calories. The heavier you are, the harder your body has to work to do the activity, which results in more calorie burn.

It is estimated that the body burns about 55 calories per hour while sleeping and about 85 calories per hour while sitting at rest and awake. Compare this to high intensity exercises, and the difference is shocking. Some speeds of running and biking, and some intensity levels of playing basketball (full-court only) can burn over 1000 calories per hour. Of course, all of these estimates are dependent on your weight and your intensity level.

As you can see from the above sample of activities and their respective calorie burn per hour, there is great variation. Not all exercise is created equal! You may get a general guideline from your doctor to "work out for a half hour, 3-5 times a week," but as you can see from these calorie burn estimates, there is great variation!

Doing yoga can burn as little as 200 calories per hour, while riding a race bike can burn almost 1200 per hour. So what is best? The answer to that question is different for everybody.

Activities resulting in the highest calorie burn per hour are the ones that make you sweat the most and leave you the most exhausted. Generally speaking, the more out of breath you are, the more calories are being burned. Of course, the actual number of calories burned will always be different for exercisers in the same spinning class. Likewise, one person will burn varying numbers of calories during different spinning classes. For this reason, always treat these estimates as estimates. If you calculated that you burned 3500 calories through exercise, but you haven’t lost a pound yet, there are a few reasons why this is probably the case.

Working out makes you more hungry. If you do a really intense workout, such as cardio spinning, you will drink and eat more afterwards than you would have drunk and eaten if you had sat home watching TV. For this reason, the estimated calories burned cannot be treated as the only factor in weight loss.

Additionally, muscle matter weighs more than fat. If you are doing a strength training routine workout, it could be that you aren’t losing weight, and in some cases, you might even gain weight because muscles are heavier than fat while taking up less space.

Treat the calorie burn estimates with caution, but do remember that there are different benefits associated with different types of exercise. If you want maximum efficiency in terms of burning calories per hour at the gym, sign up for a spinning class instead of a yoga class, but don’t forget that every exercise type has its own benefits. The exercises that burn lots of calories are not necessarily the ones that build muscle mass or help you relax.

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