Calculating Calories Burned by Exercise Type

Physical activity is a universal method many people interested in living a healthier lifestyle participate in to burn calories. Several factors determine how your body burns calories and differ between individuals. While age, sex, and body type contribute to this calculation, the type of exercise you do has the most significant effect on your daily calorie burning.

Using a calories burned calculator typically asks you to select the type of workout you participate in and how long you spend doing it. By determining which exercise type suits your lifestyle, you can create a plan to burn as many calories as possible.

Types of Exercise

Several forms of exercise exist to help you burn calories and lose or maintain weight. Some people prefer integrating a combination of these exercises for the best results. 

Aerobic

When you perform aerobic exercises, your breathing and heart rate increases gradually during your workout. Most aerobic workouts incorporate warm-ups and cool-downs to help your cardiovascular system increase blood flow to your muscles. These processes help with preventing muscle or joint pain. 

Aerobic intensity ranges from low to high, depending on your workout preferences. The American Heart Association recommends doing at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week. For example, you dedicated five days to 30-minute walks. 

Examples of aerobic exercise includes:

• Swimming
• Jogging
• Brisk walking
• Biking
• Skating
• Jumping rope

Anaerobic

Anaerobic exercise breaks down your body’s glucose without using oxygen. This type of exercise uses your muscles as an energy source by moving them at fast, short, and high-intensity movement. Most anaerobic workouts help you improve your endurance, maintain muscle mass, and increase bone strength. 

Examples of anaerobic exercise include:

• Sprinting
• Weight lifting
• Plyometrics
• Isometrics
• High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

The number of calories you burn depends on the type of activity you perform. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and lift heavy weights for an hour, you can burn at least 570 calories. 

Calisthenics

People who perform calisthenics use their body weight as resistance to build their large muscle groups at a moderate pace. While some people prefer using rings, dip bars, and resistance bands for their workouts, you can perform calisthenics without any equipment. 

Some studies state that calisthenics is an effective way to improve posture, strength, and body composition. Most movements associated with this type of exercise include pushing, pulling, and bending, similar to the flexibility showcased in gymnastic movements.

Many exercise enthusiasts enjoy incorporating different exercises in a calisthenics routine to keep their experience engaging. Some examples of calisthenics include:

• Push-ups
• Crunches
• Planks
• Pull-ups
• Squats
• Lunges
• Burpees

A 30-minute vigorous calisthenics session burns about 240 calories for a 125-pound person, 306 calories for a 155-pound person, and 336 calories for a 185-pound person. 

HIIT

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a type of exercise that incorporates alternating short bursts of high physical activity with short low-intensity recovery or rest periods. 

An example of this type of workout might include starting with a 20-second session of squatting reps, followed by 20 seconds of rest and 20 seconds of high knees. The maximum time most HIIT regimens last is 30 minutes. 

Although some of the HIIT exercises you perform might be present in traditional aerobic sessions, some of them, such as jumping jacks, also qualify as anaerobic due to their ability to burn calories in a short time.

LISS

When performing low-intensity steady-state exercises, or LISS, you maintain the same pace for a set amount of time. By doing this, you can conserve your energy for the entire workout session. An example of this aerobic activity might include walking briskly at four miles per hour for at least 30 minutes.

Although several types of aerobic activity are ideal for this exercise, using an elliptical or treadmill allows you to monitor your speed and pacing more efficiently.  

Why HIIT is the Best Type of Exercise for Burning Fat

Although the results of each exercise method might differ from person to person, many believe that HIIT is the best type of exercise suitable for burning fat. Several factors contribute to how HIIT exercises are more effective than low-intensity exercise routines. 

HIIT workouts typically last shorter than LISS workouts due to their intensity. Your heart rate reaches up to 80% to 95% of your maximum heart rate during intense work periods; during your brief resting periods, you perform at 40% to 50% of your maximum heart rate.

HIIT workouts tend to burn more calories than LISS workouts due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. After a workout, your body uses energy to restore itself. Due to the intensity of a HIIT workout, your body burns more calories per hour after your routine ends. The quicker you burn calories, the quicker you’ll burn fat. 

It might take longer for someone to achieve the same calorie and fat burning results when doing LISS exercises instead of HIIT exercises. 

Due to the fast nature of its exercise intervals, HIIT is an efficient option for people who have busy schedules and cannot exercise an hour a day.

Exercise’s Effect on Metabolism

Exercise plays a significant role in how metabolisms convert the calories a person consumes into energy they use throughout the day. While specific factors, such as genetics or age, determine your metabolic speed, cannot be altered, there are still methods to manipulate the process for more efficient calorie burning.

One way exercise affects people’s metabolism is through building muscle tissue. When a person does HIIT, they use the glucose found in muscles as energy while enduring their workout. As lean muscle increases, the body undergoes reactions that affect its resting metabolic rate and burns calories while relaxing after exercising. 

Increasing aerobic activity also reduces insulin resistance. Several studies state that this reduction can lower your chances of developing type-2 diabetes.

Conclusion

Several types of exercise are essential for burning calories to burn fat, build muscle, and maintain a healthy weight. 

Whether you prefer workouts with higher intensities that you can complete in a short time or prefer maintaining a steady pace, your dedication to physical activity can help you boost your metabolism.

Using a calories burned calculator can help you estimate how much you can burn and construct a workout plan that suits your lifestyle and reduces your chances of overexerting or hurting your joints and muscles.