Calories! Such a burden they feel like, right? Calories are something which has taken everyone’s mind who is trying to stay fit or lose fat. To do so, we perform a number of workouts ranging from low to high intensity, which ends up helping us in burning those extra calories. But everyone questions themselves about the ideal number of calories they should be burning in a single workout. This article is all about the amount of caloric burn during your sweating workouts.
Before getting into the logistics of caloric burn- You need to get your facts right about the factors which play a key role behind calorie burn.
On what factors does caloric burn depend?
You might think a number of times that you have been doing a lot of high-intensity workouts but are not burning enough calories. What could be the reason? The reason is that you are not considering all the factors that potentially contribute against the caloric burn during a workout regime.
- Body size and composition
- Amount of daily physical activity
- Muscle mass
- Age
- Gender
- Workout level
- Intensity of workout
So, How many calories should you burn in a workout?
According to a general fitness idea, laid by health professionals: an optimal count of calorie burn during a workout should lie between 400-500 calories, per day. But this is not a final number. The calorie count varies according to your workout routine and the factors we discussed above. If you are performing a low-intensity workout, you might only lose 180-250 calories per day. On the other hand, if you are doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), you’ll end up burning 800 or more calories.
According to the studies, the number of calories burned during a workout for a specific time could look like this:
- HIIT [400 calories, 30 minutes; 800 calories, 60 minutes]
- Running [300 calories, 30 minutes; 600 calories, 60 minutes]
- Weight training [ 220 calories, 30 minutes; 450 calories, 60 minutes]
As you increase the time and pace of your workouts, you’ll be able to burn more calories. Besides that, even if you have been doing small chores or moving around, you are burning calories. The number might not be big but can cause a significant impact on your overall fitness. Daily chores like cooking, cleaning, mowing, washing, shopping, and even sleeping can burn around 50-150 calories.
How to calculate caloric burn?
You’ve been working out intensely, but how will you know how many calories you burn? For this purpose, there are calorie calculators available online. Though these calculators can never calculate the exact amount of caloric burn in your body but can give you a rough estimate. You simply need to enter your age, weight, height, gender, and type of physical activity you’ve performed and for how long. Another way to keep a check on your calorie count is to wear a fitness band, which can also provide you with an estimate of calorie burn.
How can you increase your caloric burn?
Try following these tips to increase the number of calories burned during your workout routine.
- Use your warm-up wisely by doing exercises that’ll burn calories as well while stretching your muscles
- Focus more on strength training
- Try performing supersets
- Add high intensity exercises (HIIT) to your weekly workout
- Keep moving throughout the day-Do not sit for too long
- Follow a healthy diet routine
Conclusion
There is no fixed number of calories burned during a workout. It depends on the amount and quality of your workout and most importantly, how your body responds to that workout. If you perform a more intense workout and your body is having enough nutritional count; you’ll burn more calories. However, keeping the optimal number of calories burned during a workout is necessary to avoid excess calorie loss, which can result in serious health problems. We recommend you focus more on your overall physical fitness, rather than focusing on calorie count, which is too difficult to be accurately calculated.
I look up to fitness as a lifestyle and love to pen down about it. I have 2 years of experience in content writing and I am here to share my research and knowledge on health and fitness.
