What Exercises Burn the Most Calories?

Exercising burns more calories than your body would on a normal day. High-intensity exercise, like biking, jogging, or running, typically burns more calories than other workouts. Compound exercises (where more than one muscle group is worked at a time) like planks burn calories while also strengthening your muscles. The more work you do while exercising, the more energy your body will need. As a result, you’ll burn more calories by doing compound exercises. Strength training also adds muscle, which burns more calories than fat.

Read on to learn about 14 exercises, including cardio and compound moves, that you can do to burn calories. You can try these exercises at home, at your own pace, and without fancy gym machines or expensive equipment.

Compound Exercises

Compound exercises require you to use more than one muscle group at a time. Consequently, they burn many calories because they take more work to complete than other exercises. Each compound exercise incorporates a strength exercise (e.g., planks) and movement to get your heart pumping and calories burning. Try the following exercises if you are looking for movements that burn many calories at once.

1. Planks

To get into a plank position, start by laying on your stomach on the ground. Place your hands right underneath your shoulders, engage your abs, and then lift your torso off the ground. Be sure to keep a flat back as you pull your toes toward your shins.

Here are a few plank variations to try:

• Drag planks: You'll want to do this exercise on a hardwood or linoleum floor, with a small towel under each foot. In a plank position, drag your body from one side of the room to another. Pull your body weight by using your arms to move around. One trip across the room, to one wall and back, is one round. 
• Hip raises: Start in a plank position, then push your hips upward to make an inverted V. Keeping your core engaged, lower back to your starting point.
• Knee to elbow: Move your left knee toward your right elbow in a plank position. Move your foot back to your starting point, then repeat on the opposite side. Continue alternating.
• Rainbow planks: Try this plank variation to work your oblique muscles. In a plank position, move your hips side-to-side. Try to get as close to the ground as you can.
• Side-plank lifts: Keep your right forearm and foot on the ground, stacking your left foot on top of your right foot. Position your left arm in the air for balance. Lower your right hip toward the ground, then lift back to your starting point. Continue for your desired number of reps, then repeat on the left side.
• Up down: Start in a plank position with elbows straight (think pushup position). Lower onto your right forearm, then your left forearm. Return to your right hand, then your left hand.

2. Squat to Press 

Holding a weight in each hand, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle and face your palms inward.

From this starting position, follow these steps to do a squat to press:

1. Slowly lower into a squat position with your weight over your heels and your chest up. Hold for two seconds. 
2. Push through your heels to stand up straight while raising your weights toward the ceiling. 
3. Repeat for your desired number of reps.

3. Renegade Row 

For this exercise, start in a plank position. You will need two weights—keep one weight in each hand to support you.

Follow these steps to do a renegade row:

1. Lift one arm against your body so your forearm aligns with your back, and your elbow is bent at a 90-degree angle. 
2. Hold for two counts. Engage your abs, and keep your hips as even as possible.
3. Lower back down to where you started. Repeat on the opposite arm. 

4. Stairs (With Weights)

You might improve your endurance and lipid profile (i.e., your cholesterol and triglyceride levels) by taking the stairs. Research has found that climbing stairs uses nearly eight to 10 times the calories you burn at rest. Try climbing stairs instead of an elevator or escalator whenever possible to add this calorie-burning exercise to your daily activities.  

You can climb stairs as a workout, and even try adding weights to strengthen your muscles. Carry a light weight in each hand, then climb five or more flights of stairs (this can mean going up and down the stairs in your home, using a stair stepper in a gym, or finding a location with many flights of stairs to climb). Rest for a few minutes, then repeat for your desired number of reps.

5. Jump Lunges

Starting with your feet together and elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, follow these steps to do jump lunges:

1. Lunge forward, keeping your chest up. Make sure that your weight is on the heel of your front foot. 
2. Jump straight up as you raise your hands to the ceiling, keeping your elbows bent.
3. Land in a lunge with your opposite foot forward. Repeat on the opposite foot, alternating sides for each rep.

Why Strength Training Burns Calories

Strength training builds muscle mass and helps protect against bone density loss as you age. Building muscle by strength training might help burn calories since muscle burns more calories than fat. A person with more muscle mass might even burn slightly more calories at rest than someone with less.

It's a common misconception that adding muscle helps boost your metabolism. Moderate strength training only slightly affects the calories you burn from your muscle mass. Still, mixing strength training into your cardio exercises will help burn calories.

What Cardio Burns the Most Calories?

Vigorous-intensity cardio typically burns more calories than light-to-moderate-intensity cardio. You can figure out how intense your exercise is by using the talk test. A moderate-intensity exercise will allow you to carry a conversation, even with an elevated heart rate. In contrast, high-intensity exercise will prevent you from saying more than a few words at a time.

Here's how many calories you might burn per cardio exercise in 30 minutes, based on an average 150-pound person:

Type of Activity	Calories Burned per 30 Minutes
Biking (10 miles per hour or faster)	287
High-intensity interval training (HIIT)	353
Jump roping	300
Kettlebell circuit with light weights	107
Rowing (moderate-intensity)	102–205
Running (5 miles per hour)	287
Skierg (moderate-intensity)	102–205
Sprinting (10 miles per hour)	640
Swimming (slow freestyle laps)	248

Factors That Impact Calorie Burn

The number of calories you burn depends on several factors, such as:

• Age: You lose muscle mass as you age, which slows the speed at which you burn calories while exercising.
• Body weight: People who weigh more than others need more energy for physical activity. As a result, the number of calories you burn while exercising increases with weight.
• Duration, intensity, and type of exercise: For example, slowly walking will burn fewer calories than walking at a moderate speed.
• Muscle mass: Muscle burns more calories than fat. People with more muscle mass burn more calories while at rest and exercising than others.
• Sex: Some evidence suggests that males burn more calories than females while doing the same exercises. Males typically have more muscle mass and weigh more than females. 

Tips To Burn More Calories

You'll need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. It may not be easy to meet your weight-loss goals, but adding physical activity to your daily activities can help you burn more calories.

Here are a few ways to add more work to daily activities and exercises to help boost how many calories you burn:

• Add weights: Building muscle mass might help increase how many calories you burn at rest and while exercising. 
• Climb stairs when you can: Taking the stairs burns more calories than using an elevator or escalator.
• Listen to music: Add upbeat music to your workouts to help you raise your intensity.
• Make plans with family and friends: Make exercise fun by bowling, swimming, or walking with your loved ones. 
• Move quickly: Walking, jogging, or running faster helps boost your intensity and burn more calories than usual.
• Sit less: Try pacing while you talk on the phone or taking walk breaks while you work. You can even try standing while you work.
• Take more steps: For example, park further away from a storefront to get extra steps in. 
• Use a tracking device: A smartwatch or wearable device keeps track of your steps. Some devices allow you to compete with loved ones and see who walks more steps.

A Quick Review

Compound exercises, like planks, renegade row, and jump squats, get your heart pumping while also strengthening your muscles. Compound exercises help burn calories since they require a lot of energy.

Listen to your body when you exercise, and talk to a healthcare provider if you have discomfort or pain. You might consider speaking to a healthcare provider to decide what exercises you can do and for how long if you have any chronic illnesses, a disability, or a desire to start intense training after being inactive for a long period.

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