What Exercise Burns The Most Calories?

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked “what exercise burns the most calories“, I’d have enough money to buy a fancy metabolic testing machine that would ironically tell them they’re asking the wrong question.

Of course it’s easier to simply respond with another answer nobody wants to hear: Burpees.

Here’s the thing: the fitness and diet industries have done a spectacular job of convincing people that exercise is primarily a calorie-burning activity. This is like thinking a car’s main purpose is to burn gasoline rather than get you where you need to go.

Yes…burning fuel is part of the process, but if that’s your main focus, you’re missing the entire point.

The Efficiency Problem Nobody Talks About

Our bodies are brilliantly lazy and they are evolutionary masterpieces of efficiency.

When you first start running (or doing any exercise), you might burn 100 calories per mile. Six months later, your body will have naturally improved it’s efficiency and that same mile at the same pace might only burn 85 calories.

Your body adapts to become more efficient at whatever you repeatedly ask it to do. This is often referred to as the SAID principle which stands for Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands.

It’s like your metabolism hired a consultant who streamlined the entire operation. This is fantastic for survival, but terrible if you’re counting on that spin class to burn the same 600 calories it did when you first started.

My father owned a landscaping company for 18 years and I was amazed at how this worked. Most people would lose weight rapidly working all day in the Florida heat. However, if they lasted more than a few months, their bodies would adapt and they would burn less calories from the same work which allowed them to regain weight.

The Metabolic Math That Actually Matters

Here’s what those “burn a thousand calories in 30 minutes” workout videos never tell you: the calories you burn during exercise are just a tiny component of your daily energy expenditure.

Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – the calories you burn by being alive – accounts for 60 – 75% of your total daily calorie burn.

In his book Burn, Herman Pontzer detailed his research proving we burn calories in a very narrow range…regardless of our physical activity.

Instead of focusing on what exercise burns the most calories, your focus should be on adding lean muscle tissue. This is your secret weapon for burning more calories.

Every pound of muscle burns between 8 and 16 calories per day while body fat burns around 3 calories. That might not sound impressive until you realize this happens 24/7/365 and not just the 45 minutes you’re sweating in the gym.

If you’re paying attention, you would also note that losing weight (hopefully body fat) will also reduce your BMR and the calories you burn each day. This is one of the primary reasons that body composition is important for sustaining weight loss.

Adding 3 pounds of muscle to your frame would increase your daily calorie burn somewhere in the range of 24 to 48 calories. That’s 168 to 336 additional calories burned every single week.

The Better Question To Ask

Instead of asking “what exercise burns the most calories“, try asking “what exercises help me build the most metabolically active tissue?”

The answer? Strength training or resistance training. Picking heavy things up and putting them down.

Progressive strength training will literally help you build a faster metabolism that works for you around the clock.

The science has shown that Aerobic Training burns more calories during the actual activity and Resistance Training is best for improving your calorie burning capacity. This is why we recommend Concurrent Training as the best of both worlds.

A well rounded training program that includes strength training, low intensity aerobic conditioning, and a little high intensity conditioning mixed, provides the best bang for your metabolic buck.

The Truth About Those Calorie-Burning Champions

For the record, if you absolutely MUST know: rowing, swimming, and running typically top the charts for calorie burn per hour.

Kettlebell snatches have been shown to burn up to 20 calories per minute which is on par with running a 6 minute mile.

As I mentioned earlier, burpees are pretty high on this list as well but most sane people aren’t willing to do 30 minutes of burpees on a daily basis.

The kicker is that the people who can burn the most calories with these activities are already incredibly fit which is what allows them to sustain these activities for longer periods of time.

This requires an investment of time to build the aerobic engine and muscle mass needed to maintain this level of activity.

The Bottom Line

Chasing the calorie burn is like trying to bail water out of a boat with a hole in the bottom. If you fix the underlying issue – your body composition – the rest will take care of itself.

Focus on building strength, adding lean muscle, and improving your aerobic base. The calorie burn will follow, but more importantly, you’ll build a body that’s metabolically primed to maintain a healthy weight without having to chase your hopes and dreams on a treadmill.

After all, wouldn’t you rather be strong and capable with a metabolism that works for you, instead of exhausted with a metabolism fighting against you?

We make our biggest mistakes when we get the right answers to the wrong questions.