How to Burn More Calories from Your Physical Activities

Managing weight effectively has a lot to do with balancing calorie burn and food intake. Ask credible health and fitness professionals to educate you more about fitness, metabolism, and weight management. It is also wise to invest in fitness trackers to be aware of your average calorie burn and heart rate per workout session so you can balance your workouts and burn the right amount of calories, so you can achieve your weight goals, avoid injuries, and exercise burnouts. 

Be aware of your calorie burn from formal exercise.
To lose a pound of fat from exercise, you need to burn approximately 3,500 active calories from your formal workouts. Your calorie burn depends on your body weight, metabolism, gender, and heart rate (more muscle mass, heavier body weight, higher average heart rate = more calorie burn). With the same average heart rate and exercise duration, a 90-pound female can only burn 200 calories for a 45-minute indoor cycling class as compared to a 150-pound male who can burn 300 calories. If your goal is to lose two pounds of fat (7,000 calories) a month from exercise (ideally, the other two pounds will come from your diet), this means that you need to aim for 1,750 calorie burn/week or six workout sessions (300 calories/session). 

Regularly engage in lifestyle activities.
Lifestyle activities like walking, doing household chores, and climbing up and down the stairs can help you burn extra calories during the day in case you cannot commit to a daily formal workout session. If your goal is to lose weight, during non-workout days, target at least 12,000- 15,000 steps a day (you can burn at least 300 calories). Increase your standing and walking hours by using stairs instead of elevators, walking more during the day inside and outside your office and/or home, and being proactive in doing errands and housework. 

Choose full-body exercises that can increase your heart rate.
If you only have three to four days a week for 45-60 minute formal workout sessions, then you have to engage in effective calorie-burning activities that can improve your endurance, full-body and core strength, and balance in one session. Circuit training, boxing, indoor cycling, indoor rowing, fitness yoga, dance class with weights, boot camp class, full-body suspension training, and Pilates class, can really bring your heart rate up to the desired level and at the same time strengthens and sculpts or tones your whole body. in addition, choose activities that can match your personality, preference, fitness level, and physical condition to ensure consistency. 

Choose a sport. 
Aside from formal fitness routines, play your favorite sports (badminton, tennis, swimming, running, cycling, etc.) during the week or even a few times a month so you can really feel the sweat and burn from doing what you most love. You will appreciate your regular workout more if you can apply your weekly training to playing a particular hobby.