These 10 Exercises Burn the Most Calories for Weight Loss, According to Experts
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The amount of calories various workouts burn differs based on the person and intensity level. So if you’ve found yourself wondering, “What exercise burns the most calories?” the answer isn’t so cut and dry. Not only does the type of workout impact how many calories are burned, but so does the duration of exercise, your pace, intensity, and your age, height, and weight.
“There are so many nuances to burning calories throughout the day,” says Daniel Saltos, C.P.T., founder of Train with Danny. “On average, we burn 1500 to 2000 calories a day by just going through our daily lives.” But a 300-lb person who is taller is going to burn more calories than a 150-lb, shorter person burns because the more you weigh, the more energy it takes for your body to function.
What exercises burn the most calories?
Running
“Running is one of the best calorie burners out there,” Saltos says. An average person can burn anywhere from 500 to 1000 in one hour of running. “Speed, pace, and endurance are all factors that can impact this range. But running uses every muscle group in the body, allowing you to burn more calories.
Swimming
Swimming is a low-impact workout that also targets multiple muscle groups. “In just 30 minutes of swimming, an average person can burn 200 to 300 calories,” Saltos says. Swimming also improves cardiovascular health, builds endurance, and increases strength—all great reasons to want to hop in the water.
Cycling
There’s nothing like a nice evening bike ride when the weather’s nice, and it’s actually a great workout too. A long, steady bike ride can burn up to 500 to 700 calories in an hour, Saltos says. “If you want to up the intensity with intervals of sprinting on a stationary bike for 20 seconds, and resting or slowing down for 10 seconds, then you can burn 500 to 700 calories in about half of that time,” he notes.
High-Intensity interval training (HIIT)
If you want intensity, HIIT exercises provide exactly that. These workouts involve working hard in intervals, then resting. “There are so many versions of HIIT, but traditional Tabata involves pushing yourself for 20 seconds and resting for 10 seconds, for eight rounds or four minutes,” Saltos says. Because your heart rate will stay elevated, you’ll burn more calories in less time. “On average, a person will burn 400 to 600 calories in 30 minutes,” he says.
Jumping rope
This playground activity favorite can actually do wonders for your health. “Jumping rope is great for strengthening the lower and upper body while improving endurance and cardiovascular fitness,” Saltos says. It also improves your coordination, because your mind has to work while you jump. Jumping rope can burn 600 to 1000 calories in an hour.
Strength training
Strength training is one of the most efficient ways to burn more calories. “One hour of strength training can burn 300 to 400 calories on average, but you’ll continue to burn more calories throughout the day because of the EPOC effect,” Saltos says. The EPOC effect, also known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, represents an increase in metabolism that occurs after strength training linked to the consumption of oxygen that is required to help restore the muscles.
Luke Zocchi, C.P.T., celebrity trainer and trainer at Centr also mentions that compound movements in the legs, which include weight-lifting, will burn the most calories. “[Compound movements] are recruiting multiple muscles in one movement which in turn is going to burn more calories, and the biggest muscle in the body that burns the most calories are legs,” he says. “So anything that involves leg movement you will be on the right path. My top three are squats, deadlifts, and thrusters.” He recommends starting with bodyweight squats and movements, then level up by adding handheld weights and barbells as you progress.
Boxing
Not only is boxing a great way to release pent-up energy, but it also helps improve balance, boost endurance, and strengthen the upper body and core. “Boxing helps you get a good calorie burn, too, with the average person burning up 500 to 800 calories in an hour session,” Saltos says.
Rowing
The pushing and pulling motion of rowing targets multiple muscle groups including the arms, core, and back, helping to burn calories. “An hour of rowing will burn 400 to 600 calories on average,” Saltos says. If you do not live by a body of water, consider buying a rowing machine or heading to a gym that has one.
Calisthenics
Calisthenics includes compound exercises and strength-training movements performed rhythmically, using your body weight for resistance. Patricia Greaves, C.P.T., corrective exercise specialist, nutrition coach, and the founder of StrongHer Personal Training, says a 30-minute session of calisthenics can burn between 140 to 200 calories, depending on your weight and level of intensity.
“Compound exercises such as push-ups, bodyweight squats, planks, and mountain climbers challenge your upper and lower body and core muscles and get your heart rate up,” Greaves says. To do a calisthenics workout, perform each of the four movements recommended by Greaves for one minute and then rest for one minute. Repeat this three more times and you’ll break a sweat.
Sprint interval training (SIT)
“[Sprint Interval Training] is similar to HIIT in that it involves short bursts of intense activity (30 seconds),” Greaves says. “The difference is the level of intensity is even greater for a SIT workout allowing for a longer period for recovery between each exercise.”
Greaves recommends cycling, running, lifting, or jumping for 30 seconds using your max amount of effort. Then, rest for three minutes and repeat the same exercise five times. “The goal is to put forth an all-out effort into the activity to promote calorie burn during and post-workout,” Greaves says. “A 15-minute SIT workout can burn 100 to 200 calories.”
What factors impact the amount of caloric burn?
A calorie is a unit of energy that’s used to measure weight loss. In order to lose one pound, you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in for one pound of weight. Your ability to burn calories is impacted by your age, height, intensity, duration, and pace of your workout.
“If you’re 60 and less mobile, then you’re not as agile and able to reach as high of an intensity during a workout than if you were an 18-year-old,” Saltos says. And intensity matters. How quickly you move between sets impacts your level of heart rate, which determines how much energy (calories) your body burns.
Duration and pace can also determine how many calories you burn during exercise. For instance, “Walking can burn up to 300 to 500 calories in an hour, whereas running can burn that same amount in about half of the time,” Saltos explains. You’ll also burn more calories by walking for a longer period of time, versus say 10 minutes.
How to burn more calories while working out
Although the amount of calories each person will burn during any given day varies, there are still some ways you can increase the amount of energy you burn. Saltos recommends keeping an eye on your heart rate.
“An elevated heart rate is your body’s physical response to pumping more blood. This requires more oxygen and energy, resulting in more calories burned,” Saltos says. Increasing the intensity of your workout and reducing rest time in between reps can help keep your heart rate elevated. “If you usually do one minute in between sets, try 30 to 45 seconds of rest,” Saltos suggests.
You can also make your workouts work better with compound exercises. “Compound movements use multiple muscle groups at once,” Saltos says. “If you do a bicep curl, this will only target a single muscle—the biceps. A chin up, on the other hand, uses the biceps, back, and core muscles, so you’ll burn more calories.”
Zocchi says the best—and simplest—way to burn more calories is to minimize your rest periods and move more. “For example, if you’re lifting weights when you would normally have a 60-second rest in between sets you could have an active rest where you do jump rope. You will burn way more calories in a session,” Zocchi says. “This being said, if this is your goal (just to burn calories) this is great. But if your goal is to build strength you should be resting the 60 seconds so you are ready for your next set.”
Does diet matter when it comes to burning calories?
Diet does not play into calories burned. But, rather, it’s a part of the greater picture when trying to lose weight. A high-calorie diet will require more exercise to burn enough calories for weight loss. “How many calories you eat is without a doubt the most powerful factor in weight loss. It is easier to lose weight by curbing calorie intake alone than to lose weight through exercise alone,” says Janet Brill, P.h.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D., author of Cholesterol Down. “That’s because it takes a lot of exercise to make a dent in the calorie deficit equation.” But, this does not mean you should restrict calories and forego nutrients.
A diet filled with nutritious food will give you the energy you need to complete your workouts and grow stronger over time. Just remember to eat enough so that you are not burning too many calories as this can cause a long-term decrease in metabolic rate, fatigue, and weaker bones.
Don’t stress too much about calorie deficits and the number on the scale. Instead, trainers and professionals recommend focusing on improving your overall health, physically and mentally. “You should look at your training as a way to get stronger, become a faster runner, be more mobile, and live a better life as you get older!” Zocchi says.
Speak with your doctor before making any sudden changes to your diet.
How can I measure the number of calories I burn?
As if tracking the number of calories you eat isn’t difficult enough, measuring how many calories you burn can be even more confusing. While there are estimations for how many calories exercises burn, there are certain factors that influence how many calories each individual burns in a workout and throughout the day. “Two people doing identical activities will burn different amounts of calories due to the differences in their biometric data,” Greaves says.
Many fitness trackers and phone apps track calories burned. Zocchi recommends sticking to one device/tracker for the most accurate number. “If you are always measuring your calorie burn from a session with the same piece of equipment you can keep track of which sessions you burn more calories because your measure standard is the same,” Zocchi says. “If you change devices for different sessions you are going to get different readings and the data is unclear because it’s not apples for apples.”
Overall, any exercise is good exercise
The old saying goes, any exercise is better than none at all. If you only have time for 10 minutes of exercise a day, it is better than zero. “Everyone is fixated on calories burned during exercise, but the calories you burn during that one hour at the gym only account for 10% of the calories you burn in a day,” Saltos says.
Look for opportunities throughout the day to optimize calories burned, like parking further away from the grocery store, standing while you work, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. “This will make a huge difference in how many calories you burn,” he says.
While it may be tempting to focus on cardio, strength training (or any exercise that builds muscle), helps burn more calories over time, Zocchi reiterates. “Your body actually burns more calories just by having lean muscle!” Zocchi says. “For your muscles to survive your body will burn more calories without even doing a workout, so I would do a mixture of both in my training program.”
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