Most of us could stand to burn a few more calories. If you’re among the 71.6 percent of Americans carrying around more weight than the CDC recommends, then you’re probably looking for ways to drop a few pounds.
The recent pandemic may lead to a secondary health crisis: an increase in sedentary lifestyles. You know the feeling.
You work from a desk. Your brain hurts, your lower back hurts, and your pants have shrunk.
If you want to learn how to burn more calories, keep reading.
How to Burn More Calories
To burn more calories, you need to start moving. You’ve heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder.” To burn calories efficiently, you need to work smarter and harder.
Look at every exercise and every machine differently. Ask yourself, what can I do to get the maximum benefit out of this machine or this exercise?
Start with this new mindset, and you’ll find yourself burning off fat more efficiently.
HIIT Workouts Hard
HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training. HIIT takes the idea of working hard for short periods of time or intervals.
HIIT workouts that burn will have you warm up first. Then you will quickly go into exercises where you complete repetition of the same exercise for a short amount of time, say 30 seconds.
You do a different exercise for the next 30 seconds. This continues until you’ve completed a short series of exercises. Then you rest for a minute.
So you’re working hard for two minutes and testing for one, for example.
The workout will raise your heart rate and get you sweating in a short amount of time. HIIT workouts are also time-efficient. You’re not spending hours at the gym but rather completing a 30 to 45-minute workout each day and burning calories while amping up your metabolism.
HIIT On Your Own
You can complete a HIIT workout on your own without an instructor or a class. You can complete the same type of workout on a cardio machine like an elliptical, treadmill, or even weight machine.
Just go with the same idea. Work 80 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate for 30 seconds. Then rest for 30 seconds.
Training at a steady pace will keep your heart rate at a moderate rate for a longer period of time. When you train hard for 30 seconds at a time, your heart rate will go higher because you’re working harder, and you will spike your calorie burn.
Rest Smart
When you rest between sets, do not rest too long. Set your watch with a timer so you do not rest any longer than 30 to 60 seconds. Find a HIIT timer that you can put on your phone.
This little alarm will tell you to get moving. You might be tired, but do some visualization as you rest. Picture Rocky, for example, and start playing some Eye of the Tiger in your head if you don’t already have it blasting on some speakers.
Be Smarter Than the Machine
Many machines have a pre-set weight-loss program. Do not use this. You know how hard you’re working.
Get a watch that measures your heart rate so you can see how hard you’re working. Learn what your maximum heart rate should be for fat burning, and then aim for that number.
What Burns the Most Calories?
Gyms have the most sophisticated machines and best workout equipment. They keep you accountable with friendly trainers and competitive workout buddies.
The best calorie-burning exercise may prove to be the simplest machine in the gym, though: the jump rope.
Jumping rope will tone your calves, force you to use your core, increase your lung capacity, and build up your endurance.
Intervals for Everything
As you look at an exercise, look at its difficulty, and then break it down into intervals.
For example, instead of just walking, increase your intensity by taking stairs or walking on the stair machine. This machine forces you to use your arms
Stairs and Sprints
There is a time for flat-land, slow running. If you’re attempting to burn some calories, you need to mix up your exercises and do some hard things, like stairs.
You can find a stair machine at the gym and get on it for 20 minutes a few times a week. Also, create your own interval training routine on the treadmill by upping the pace for short intervals and then returning to running at a moderate pace to recover.
These little exercises give you a bonus burn for a regular routine.
Cycling Intervals
If you enjoy cycling, then you kick it up a notch by adding in the interval. Like running or other exercises, you can burn more calories by keeping a two-to-one ratio of work to rest. Cycle hard for 60 seconds and then go easy for 30 seconds.
This type of workout will give you a sweet afterburn so that you’re burning calories even after you’ve stepped off the bike.
Fastest Way to Burn Calories
You can conduct your own high-calorie workout quickly by using common workout machines in unconventional ways.
If you’re lifting weights, add incline to work your muscles differently. For example, when you are doing a lunge, step up on a Bosu ball instead of just not the floor in front of you.
Or try standing on a Bosu ball as you do curls. Balance tools like this will force your core to work and will increase your burn even more.
How to Burn the Most Calories at the Gym
Gym memberships cost money and time, so you want to make the most of your time while you’re there. Focus on working multiple muscles in short amounts of time to burn the most calories at the gym.
Use supersets. This means that instead of exercising one muscle group and then testing, you exercise multiple muscle groups before you rest.
For example, you do three sets of pushups and then one set of deadlifts. Then go immediately back to the pushups and then the deadlifts again. Repeat this multiple times before you rest so you can make your workout efficient.
Make every minute count by not just relying on machines. Machines will exercise one muscle group at a time. Think about how you can incorporate multiple muscles with one exercise.
For example, you can turn a squat into an overhead shoulder press or you can combine lunge with a bicep curl.
Feel the Burn
Not that you understand how to burn more calories, go hit the gym. Put your
Try a workout for free at one of our locations. We’d love to help you move into a healthier lifestyle.