When I first started my fitness journey, I wanted to maximise my workout. If I was going to be sore and sweaty, I figured I might as well make the most of it.
Building fitness requires pushing your body to do more activity than it is used to. A good barometer for how hard you are exerting yourself during exercise is therefore the number of calories you burn. So, what exercise uses the most calories? It depends.
Advertisement
Research has consistently shown that aerobic exercises such as running, swimming or cycling burn more calories per minute than resistance training. For instance, vigorously swimming burns an average of per minute for someone weighing 80 kilograms. The same person would expend roughly 4 calories a minute when doing moderate weight training.
Some studies show you can burn even more calories with high-intensity interval training (HIIT). These workouts involve performing cardiovascular and resistance exercises at near-maximum effort in repeated bursts of up to a minute with short breaks in between. A involving nine active men found that, on average, a HIIT workout with a hydraulic resistance machine burned 12.6 calories per minute. Lifting weights and running on a treadmill used about 8.8 and 9.5 calories per minute, respectively.
The key to burning the most calories is using as many muscles as possible at the highest intensity possible. This is why jumping rope or skipping is such a great exercise. Doing so at a fast pace can burn around 15.9 calories per minute, or 478 calories in half an hour, for someone weighing 80 kg.
The issue is that not many people can jump rope at that intensity for a full 30 minutes. It is therefore crucial to account for duration when determining which exercise burns the most calories.
Let’s say someone weighing 80 kg vigorously jumps rope for an impressive 10 minutes straight. They would burn about 159 calories. Compare that with a 35-minute walk at a brisk pace, which is not only more feasible but also expends roughly 176 calories. Opting for a less intense workout may actually end up burning more calories than choosing a more strenuous one if you are able to exercise for longer.
Another factor to consider is frequency. Swimming is a great exercise for burning calories, but not many people can access a pool every day. If someone who is 80 kg was able to vigorously swim for a half hour twice a week, they would expend 798 calories per week. If they walked briskly for 30 minutes daily, they would burn 1057 calories a week.
Ultimately, the exercise that burns the most calories is the one you can do consistently. For me, that means finding workouts I enjoy rather than dread, such as dance classes or yoga.
For other projects visit newscientist.com/maker
