- July 24, 2018
- Workouts in the gym
- Elena Spi
How many calories do you burn during a workout? This question interests not only the fair half of humanity. Burning calories means you can afford to eat more, which is especially helpful if you're trying to manage your weight. You may think that the more calories you burn during a workout, the better, but the quality of your workouts really depends on your fitness and health goals. Focusing on calorie burn as a measure of your workout's effectiveness is actually quite relative and can undermine your goals.
It all depends on the constitution of the body
What is the calorie consumption during fast walking, moderate or hard running? The truth is, it depends on how long and fast you run, and how much of an extra calorie you think you're burning. Surprised? You're not the only one who has worked on developing the perfect balance between what you eat and what you lose during exercise. Many studies show that women overestimate the number of calories they use daily, sometimes by almost 1000 times! Don't forget about the calorie calculator for weight loss - it helps balance the calculations to the optimal value.
The benefit of knowing how your body uses calories for fuel is that it can help you "fat up" and change your shape. Basics:
- What you don't use goes straight into reserves (stomach, thighs, buttocks).
- For every 3,500 calories you burn above your normal weekly intake, you'll lose about a pound. This is approximately the same amount of calories burned when squatting for 2 continuous hours.
- When you sit and read, you burn about one calorie per minute.
This number increases every time you stand, walk, or run to your phone because your body requires more energy to get the job done. If the calorie consumption when swimming in the pool is 500 kcal per session, do not forget to also take into account fees, transportation, changing clothes, etc.
How many calories do we really burn?
We spend calories on breathing, maintaining temperature, digestion, intellectual activity, physical activity, recovery from it, and on many invisible processes occurring in our body (calorie). No one can accurately determine their energy expenditure. Calorie consumption tables, exercise equipment, gadgets and mobile applications provide only approximate, and sometimes even inflated, numbers.
Why shouldn't you trust simulators?
Most people, when exercising on cardio equipment, rely on the indicators of the machine, which calculates the expected energy expenditure based on heart rate, weight, height, age and gender. Some people completely forget to set all these parameters, asking the simulator to guess for itself. But even if you entered all the data, you will get very average numbers. The simulator does not take into account the training level of the practitioner, the ratio of muscle mass to fat, body temperature and breathing rate, which have a much greater impact on calorie consumption than the above parameters. The simulator does not take into account the ratio of humidity and air temperature, which contribute to energy costs.
People with different parameters or in different climates will burn different amounts of calories. Even people with the same parameters, but with different levels of fitness, will burn different amounts of energy. The one who has it harder always spends more. The heavier you are, the higher your pulse and faster your breathing, the more energy you will expend.
Actual calorie consumption during exercise
During strength training, the cost is 7-9 kcal per minute. Here you need to take into account the type of exercises, the number of approaches, repetitions, and duration of classes. When doing biceps curls, much less energy is expended than when doing pull-ups, and leg swings are not equivalent to squats. The more intense the workout, the greater the energy consumption. Hence the obligatory nature of basic exercises in training programs.
According to research, during aerobics the average person burns 5-10 kcal per minute at a heart rate of 120-150 beats. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) helps burn about 10 kcal/min, which is twice as much as low-intensity cardio - 5 kcal/min. If the duration of HIIT is shorter, the caloric expenditure will equalize.
It is a mistake to view exercise as a means to burn more calories. Its goal is to improve your level of physical fitness and create optimal conditions for burning fat or growing muscle mass. Strength training, cardio, and HIIT have different benefits for the body.
Burning calories after exercise
Recovering from sports also takes energy. This process is called the metabolic response or EPOC effect. On the Internet you can read that during recovery, the metabolic rate increases by 25% or more, but real studies show that after strength training and HIIT, the EPOC effect is 14% of calories expended, and after low-intensity cardio - 7%.
The duration of recovery depends on the intensity of the workout. After cardio, you recover for several tens of minutes, while recovery after strength training lasts hours. These data are also averaged, but the principle remains - the more intense the workout, the more calories you will burn later.
Calorie consumption during digestion
Digesting food requires energy, and its expenditure is called the thermic effect of food (TEF). Our bodies metabolize proteins, fats, and carbohydrates differently. When digesting protein, we spend 20-30% of the calorie content of the consumed portion. Digestion of carbohydrates requires 5-10% of the calorie content of a serving, and the cost of digesting fats is 0-3%. But do not delude yourself, since each person’s body is individual, which is why the range between the expected costs of TEP is so wide.
Calorie expenditure on mental activity
There is a myth that the brain is the main consumer of calories, that sugar improves mental abilities, and that intellectual work is harder than physical work. Recent studies have shown that the cost of mental activity for the average person is 0.25 kcal per minute, and with intense intellectual activity it can increase to 1%. Thus, in five minutes of mental activity you can burn 1.25 kcal, and in an hour - only 15 kcal.
Energy consumption during non-training activity
It is almost impossible to calculate the actual energy consumption when performing everyday activities. They also depend on weight, gender, age, physical fitness, climate, heart rate and breathing. Only approximate simplified estimates can be used here. However, increasing the level of non-exercise activity requires attention, since during a diet the body seeks to reduce excessive mobility - rest more and spend fewer calories on routine activities, doing them more efficiently.
How to burn more calories?
We may not be able to accurately calculate calories burned, but we can increase their consumption. Obviously, you need to train hard. Strength training must be built on the basis of basic exercises, and the working weight and repetition range (calorizator) must be adequately selected. Combining low-intensity and high-intensity cardio will provide additional benefits. Remember that cardio training should increase your heart rate and breathing, otherwise energy expenditure during and after exercise will be insignificant.
In your diet, you should focus on protein, eating a portion with each meal. Yes, fats and carbohydrates taste better, but getting enough protein in your diet will help strengthen your muscles and increase your calorie burn.
Now you know that mental activity does not make a significant contribution to burning calories, so you can safely reduce the importance of sugar in your life and pay more attention to mobility in everyday life, which we are accustomed to underestimating. It is not necessary to count non-exercise activity, but moving is necessary.
Calorie consumption tables, apps and gadgets are a good guide to estimating daily activity, but they are not accurate, so you should not get attached to these numbers. Just demand more from yourself and strive to do more than you did yesterday.
Author: Ekaterina G., nutritionist, fitness blogger (especially for) Copying this article in whole or in part is prohibited.
Metabolism is the way to start your engine
Scientists measure exercise intensity in METs (metabolic equivalents):
- the more difficult the task is to complete, the higher your MET;
- For weight loss and health benefits, you should engage in at least three METs of activity per hour - this is enough to burn about 200 calories per hour;
- There should be at least a week of time to burn calories.
Below is a convenient table that you can use to guide you regarding the calories burned. If you don't know how many calories you burn doing push-ups or another activity, for example, just look at the list of exercises to create a fat loss plan.
Training and its form | Burning calories |
Mountain biking | 546 kcal per hour |
Skiing | 512 kcal per hour |
Free swimming | 479 kcal for 3 passes |
Dumbbell Raise | 386 kcal in 15 minutes |
Interval training | 677 kcal in 15 minutes |
Hiking | 312 kcal for 5 km |
Power training | 320 kcal in 5-7 minutes |
Social dancing | 349 kcal per hour |
Cardio training | 780 kcal for 20 minutes of continuous exercise |
Yoga | 140 kcal in 2 hours |
Pilates | 160 kcal in 2 hours |
We should also talk about common and well-known cardio workouts, which can be intense, variable and even strength. Nowadays, the technique of interval strength cardio exercises is beneficially used, when the movements alternate - first pushes from the floor are performed, then squats of various types to the floor. The maximum break between movements is 15 seconds, and the entire session lasts 15-20 minutes. Each exercise is done for 45 seconds, where you need to do as many approaches as possible. One approach can take up to 700 kcal, which is almost the same amount of calories spent when doing pull-ups on a horizontal bar for 7 hours.
How many calories are burned during exercise?
Below are averaged data on calorie consumption for various physical activities . Light running burns an average of about 490 calories per hour for an average weight of 70 kg.
✔ How many calories does a hoop burn? Spinning a hoop burns about 210 calories in 30 minutes or 400 - 600 calories per hour, depending on the intensity. You can increase your calorie burn by standing on one leg or doing light dance moves.
✔ How many calories does jumping rope burn? Jumping rope is an intense physical activity that burns 170 - 205 calories in 15 minutes. You can start with 1-2 minutes of jumping rope, taking breaks of 10-15 seconds, and gradually increase to 15 minutes a day.
✔ How many calories does walking burn ? Walking slowly at a speed of about 3.2 km per hour burns about 175 calories per hour, while walking quickly at a speed of 6.4 km per hour burns about 440 calories per hour.
✔ How many calories does swimming burn Swimming along the lanes in the pool burns an average of 476 calories per hour, while butterfly swimming burns the most calories - 576 calories per hour.
✔ How many calories does squats burn ? Squats are one of the intense physical exercises that help burn about 200-400 calories in half an hour. To determine exactly how many calories you'll burn doing squats, multiply your weight by 0.095, then multiply that number by the number of minutes you perform the exercise.
✔ How many calories does the abs burn? By pumping up the abs, you can burn about 4 calories per minute and 8 calories per minute with intensive exercises to strengthen the abs.
✔ How many calories does jumping burn? Jumping on a trampoline burns about 42 calories in 10 minutes, while star jumping (jumping with your legs out to the sides and arms up) burns about 10 calories per minute.
✔ How many calories does dancing burn? Dancing, including striptease, Zumba dancing, and belly dancing, burns about 200-300 calories per hour.
✔ How many calories does a bike burn? Cycling burns an average of 290 -430 calories per hour depending on speed.
✔ How many calories does yoga burn? Yoga classes burn an average of 260 calories per hour, and more intense yoga classes burn up to 400 calories per hour.
To perform the same activity, untrained people expend more calories than trained people.
Thus, energy expenditure depends not only on the intensity of the training, but also on the level of training. Any physical work that the body is not used to requires more calories and sweat than usual activities. If physical activity is accompanied by positive emotions (for example: dancing, group aerobics classes, etc.), then the burning of reserve fats and glycogen increases. This is due to the fact that when a person experiences emotions, catecholamines are released, which accelerate fat burning. For intensive weight loss, some people prefer to use clothes made of breathable fabric for sports or simply dress warmly for workouts. We must keep in mind that sweat is not fat. Increased sweating is just a loss of water, which very quickly returns to the body. In addition, with such intense sweating, serious dehydration occurs and a heart attack may even occur due to the lack of water for normal thermoregulation. How many calories are burned per hour of exercise depends not only on the type of workout, but also on the body weight of the person exercising. Therefore, calorie expenditure will be strictly individual. Below you can see a table that shows data on calorie burning during different physical activity in 1 hour per 1 kg of body weight of a training person. Running at speed:[/td]
Kind of activity | Calorie consumption per 1 hour per 1 kg of body weight (kcal) | Calorie consumption per 1 hour for a person weighing 70 kg (kcal) |
200 m/min | 10,05 | 703,5 |
325 m/min | 37,5 | 2625 |
8 km/h | 8,13 | 569,1 |
Jumping rope | 7,2 | 504 |
Climbing the mountain | from 3.0 to 15.0 | 210-1050 |
Rowing speed: | ||
50 m/min | 2,58 | 180,6 |
80 m/min | 5,22 | 365,4 |
Riding in a car | 1,6 | 112 |
Riding a bike at speed: | ||
3.5 km/h | 2,54 | 177,8 |
10 km/h | 4,26 | 299,6 |
15 km/h | 6,05 | 423,5 |
20 km/h | 8,56 | 599,2 |
Skating | from 3.07 to 10.0 | 214,9-700 |
skiing | ||
cross-country travel | 12,5 | 875 |
walking at a speed of 8 km/h | 7,4 | 519 |
Throwing sports equipment | 11,0 | 770 |
Swimming speed: | ||
10 m/min | 3,0 | 210 |
50 m/min | 10,2 | 714 |
Ballroom dance lesson | ||
waltz | 3,57 | 270,9 |
foxtrot | 4,37 | 305,9 |
Classical ballet lesson | 5,79 | 405,3 |
Walking: | ||
around the room (90 steps/min) | 3,24 | 226,8 |
around the yard (100 steps/min) | 4,15 | 290,5 |
on a flat road at a speed of 4.2 km/h | 3,14 | 219,8 |
on a flat road at a speed of 6 km/h | 4,45 | 311,5 |
on a flat snowy road at a speed of 4 km/h | 4,08 | 285,6 |
on a flat snowy road at a speed of 6 km/h | 4,85 | 339,5 |
uphill with a slight rise | 6,42 | 449,4 |
Calories are burned even while you sleep
To maintain vitality, a person also needs to expend energy reserves. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is breathing, blinking and thinking, and it's what you do every day. All together make up 60 to 70 percent of your total daily calories. Although your metabolism is genetically determined, it has no limits.
Your weight needs to be divided by 2.2 and multiplied by 24 = BMR. This is how metabolism is considered, but this is a relative value - a calorie calculator for weight loss is also very important to keep in order to monitor the amount of food eaten. To speed up your metabolism, you need:
- Focus on the muscles. At rest, muscle burns more calories than fat tissue. Regular strength training can increase your metabolism by 7 to 10 percent—about 100 calories per day added to your basal amount.
- Consume more carbohydrates and proteins. Eating low-calorie foods can backfire because you're more likely to lose your metabolism—revitalizing muscle mass rather than fat. Nutritionists recommend cutting your daily intake to no more than 1,000 calories from what you need to maintain your weight—about 2,000 kcal for those over 25, 2,200 to 2,500 kcal for teenagers.
- Drink coffee and caffeine-containing foods to jump-start your metabolism.
The more intensely you push yourself, the faster you can do the work required to burn calories that could previously have been burned in half a day or a day.
Some advice for those interested.
You just need to take a closer look at short, high-intensity interval training. Using specific training protocols such as Tabata interval training. It involves 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest—one way to stimulate calorie burning after an intense workout. There are also other types of high-intensity interval training. These are trainings from a set of exercises with high intensity, exercises according to the Little-Gabala method (interval training on an exercise bike), intensive training according to the 10-20-30 system. The key factor with all of these programs is that you have to exercise at an increased intensity. That is, intense training should be carried out at a rhythm of 70-85% of the maximum heart rate.
Also, you don't have to stick to aerobic exercise to achieve this effect. Several studies have also shown that strength training on various types of machines can also produce a post-workout calorie-burning effect and may even be more effective in some cases.
If you're new to the world of intense training, try starting with a 1:2 workout-to-rest ratio, says Matt Miller, trainer and expert at Greatist. For example, 60 minutes workout, 2 minutes rest. Miller suggested structuring workouts as follows: five-minute warm-up, 60 seconds of fast running, two minutes of recovery walking. Repeat all this 6-8 times. After this, five minutes of relaxing, restorative exercises. In total, this intense workout takes about 30 minutes.
Increasing metabolism - turbo mode for weight loss: how many calories are burned in 1 hour of exercise?
Typically, your MET intensity increases as you:
- You tense your muscles. Your muscle tissue is your engine. The more you use, the more fuel you burn.
- Tone for weight tension. How many calories does circuit training burn if it is not varied in any way with monotonous and lengthy exercises? Activities such as running burn more calories at a higher level than those that maintain your weight, such as cycling. Trade-off: You can usually perform sedentary activities for longer to make up the difference.
- Work harder. A fast swimmer burns more calories than a slow or lazy boxer with one punch. Walking uphill will require more energy than walking through parks. And accelerating is a surefire way to go into turbo mode to burn calories. For example, burning calories during physical activity at intervals will occur quickly only at the beginning of the exercise, and then the excess weight will gradually disappear.
By following simple rules, you can adjust your diet, day, and overall figure without much effort.
In fact, strength training burns few calories: sad numbers
Working out is highly overrated as a way to lose weight and a tool for burning calories!
And as a means to get rid of cellulite, they are completely useless!
“But everyone advises doing sports, or even better, strength training, to lose weight, how can that be?!” you ask.
In this article, we are happy to tell you what the problem is and how many calories your intense exercise in the gym and at home burns - don’t miss it, this is important for the result!
Well, firstly, in the actual counting of calories burned . Strength training is not monotonous cardio, in which the total training time is equal to the time under load; with this, things are simpler.
In strength training, we rest, drink water, walk around the gym, go to the toilet - but mentally we include all this time in training. So how do you calculate the number of calories burned? Alas, not at home.
“Cellulite does not go away when playing sports and losing weight: what to do?”
Even gadgets are not very helpful in this matter - the numbers they give you at the end of classes are an average approximate result, the reliability of which is questionable.
In principle, calculating the number of calories spent on any activity is very difficult, because it depends on many factors:
- the training itself, or rather its kind,
- individual characteristics of a person (gender, age, anthropometric data),
- training experience of the trainee,
- and personal basal metabolic rate.
Such a multicomponent process is difficult to calculate. The shady results from the Internet, to be honest, don’t particularly inspire confidence, what can you do about it.
Of course, there are special tables that give a general idea of the number of calories burned. It's better than nothing, but remember the above!
So, data for the main types of training:
- stretching - 1.8 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- slow swimming - 3 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- static yoga - 3.2 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- exercises with your own weight - 4.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- aerobics - 5.2 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- jumping rope - 5.6 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- breaststroke swimming - 6 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- active yoga - 6 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- lifting weights - 6 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- dancing - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- ellipse - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- climbing stairs / step - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- rowing machine - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- exercise bike (medium load) - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- light step aerobics - 7.4 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- Intensive step aerobics - 10.6 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight;
- exercise bike (intensive exercise) - 11.1 kcal per hour per 1 kg of weight.
As you can see, the results are mixed and not particularly inspiring. In addition, there are several other important issues on this topic.
It is generally accepted that, on average, a single weight lifting workout burns only 200 to 400 calories per hour . Well, you understand, this is equal to one cake or a plate of pasta