Which burns more calories, a treadmill or an elliptical? Is an Aerobics class or jogging better for weight loss? How can you calculate the calories burned by different workouts?
If you’re starting a weight-loss program, want to add more variety to your workouts, or want to know if the workouts you’re doing burn as many calories as you think, you have access to several online resources to help you determine your calories burned by different workouts.
Use Calories Burned by Activity Charts
Some organizations, like the Mayo Clinic, publish calorie-burn charts, which show you the calories burned per hour doing a certain exercise. For example, walking at 2 mph burns 183 calories per hour in a 160-lb. person. Increase your speed to a brisk 3.5 mph and you’ll burn 277 calories per hour.
Online calories burned by activity calculators let you input your exact weight, then pick your activity and intensity level to determine your calorie burn.
Is it true you burn more calories playing tennis even though the ball is in play only 15 minutes of every hour?
Yes, you do – because tennis is anaerobic. Singles creates a higher calorie burn than aerobics—and, a much longer post-workout calorie burn. You also benefit from the many recovery periods that strengthen your heart, lungs and muscles. This is an important health benefit you don’t get with aerobic exercise.
Use our basic workout format to make sure you maximize your calorie burn by including a correct warmup and a helpful cooldown each workout session.
Calorie Burn by Workout Charts
Below are links to other calorie-burning charts provided by expert organizations. You can use these charts as a guide to compare activities to each other.
Remember, how many calories you burn doing different activities will depend on your heart rate, height, weight and intensity of your workout.
The Harvard Medical School page shows calorie burns for people at three different weights.
Harvard Medical School: Calories Burned in 30 Minutes
The Wisconsin Department of Health chart includes the calorie burn for hundreds of activities, helping you find the specific activity you want to compare.
Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services: Calories Burned Per Hour
Calories-Burned Calculators
Here are links to online calorie calculators. The results will again depend on your personal stats, but you can compare activities and workouts like jogging, cycling, tennis or using a cardio machine to each other to see which ones burn more calories.
HealthStatus.com: Calories Burned Estimator
BodyBuilding.com: Calorie Calculator for 600+ Activities
Diet & Fitness Today: Calories by Activity Calculator
