A question that always frustrated me is how many calories I burn by spending time on certain activities – walking, running, bicycling, swimming, weigth training and so on.

Today, my workout regime is to workout at least 45-minutes intensely 3-times each week.  That sort of workout regime is less focused on weight loss, more focused on cardiovascular health.  But, it has bugged me that I seem to simply be holding steady with significant effort on those 3 days making me wonder about how many calories I’m really burning and what else I need to add to improve the weight loss impact.

I can watch my calorie intake with food simply enough and know roughly if I am within my target zone for a given day or week, and I know that my weight loss depends on an exercise component, but how much exercise?  How long do I need to exercise and with what activities at what intensity?

Part of the reason why there are no magic numbers that apply for everyone is that there are many variables at work that can impact how many calories you will burn.  For example, your starting weight, intensity of workout, length of workout and mix of activities as well as your heart rate and other metabolism factors.

But surely, we can get a general idea of how many calories I will burn by activity, so here are some guidelines…

• Running for 30-minutes: Approx 500 calories, you can burn more the faster you run
• Stationary bicycle 30-minutes: 500 calories
• Fast walking for 30-minutes: 350 calories
• Regular walking for 30-minutes:  150 calories
• Low impact aerobics class:  220 calories
• Intense weight lifting 30-minutes: 260 calories
• Swimming, steady 30-minutes:  200-300 calories
• Sex (fairly intense) 20 minutes: 40 calories

As you can see, mixing 30-minutes of exercise each day will result in a significant burn of calories, not everything has to be in the gym – a good swim or walk can have a positive impact as well. 

Mixing more intense, longer workouts or runs will make a big impact as well.

What surprised me most about these numbers is how many calories you can burn by fast-walking.  I will be changing my routine.  Up until now I have exercised intensely 3-times each week which burns substantial calories, but leaves 4 days where I’m not burning enough and so I stay more or less steady at my current weight. 

Also interesting is the 40+ calories you can burn with 20-minutes of sex, now this is something I can take back to my wife and justify my constant excuse for increasing the frequency of sex!

By mixing a swim, moderate bicycle session or brisk walk on 3 out of the 4 other days I can put that directly toward weight loss without the pain associated with intense workouts.  I’ll pass along the results in the coming days. 

Jeff