Best Calorie Burning Workouts

If you’re looking to shed pounds than you’ll definitely want to increase your physical activity levels alongside a healthy eating plan.  By increasing your aerobic activity you will burn calories and thereby lose weight more quickly.  However, when it comes to exercise, just how much is enough?

If you’re looking to find out the best and most effective calorie burning exercises keep reading.  Though your exact numbers will vary depending on height, weight and other factors, below are the general calories burned for various types of activity.

1.Running:  Running obviously is a terrific, aerobic activity.  The intensity of the activity can vary greatly between a light jog and a fast pace, but in general a moderately paced run at about 8 mph for a 130 pound person will effectively burn about 795 calories.  This is a major calorie burn, especially considering that doing this four times a week will in itself lose you almost a pound each week.

2.Cross country skiing: Cross country skiing is another great way to shed pounds as well as being a fun activity.  Doing an hour of cross country skiing will, again given the parameters above, generate a caloric burn of about 670. 

3.Cycling:  Cycling is a great way to trim down as an hour of this exercise going at a pace of about 12-14 mph will generate a total caloric burn of about 515.  This is a pretty good caloric burn.  An hour of this type of cycling every day without any changes to the diet should lose you about a full pound each week.

4.High impact aerobics:  An hour of high impact aerobics actually only generates a caloric burn of about 410.  Though this isn’t anything to scoff at, compared to running for the same amount of time you’re looking at burning almost only half of the calories with an aerobics class.  Of course, variety is the spice of life so you will probably not want to do the same exercise all the time.

5.Hot Yoga:  Though many people have amazing results in terms of shedding pounds, toning and tightening with this amazing workout, hot yoga burns about the same about as the one hour of high impact aerobics (410).  This is a great workout and will get your fit in all the right places so certainly don’t let the lesser calorie burn value make you discount this.  Yoga will help strengthen the core and increase lean muscle mass, so don’t pass this one up.

Finding an exercise regime that you like and that you will stick with is obviously the most important aspect of any weight loss and fitness program.  But, if you’re looking to burn calories fast, chose high intensity cardiovascular activities for maximum effect.