Are you wondering how much energy you can burn during exercise? Before jumping into the complexity of counting every calorie that you decide to burn while sweating heavily, pay attention to the following information.
There are various calculations and tabular values of energy released during various activities – at any value, take into account that the total energy expenditure depends on many factors – such as physical condition (better condition means spending less energy on the same exercise), physical weight of an individual (the more someone weighs, the more energy he usually burns), gender (women have lower energy expenditure than men on the same activity) and even the speed of movements (obese people do all the movements more “economically”).
We measure the intake and expenditure in calories (or kilojoules – 1 kcal = 4.2 kJ).
We spend energy while in absolute rest (e.g. sleep) too – it’s called basal metabolism. The total energy expenditure is quite significantly increased by physical work – depending on the type of work and physical condition, we can use approximately one fifth of total energy released per day. But it really depends on the kind of physical activity – for example a clerk can burn 50 kcal, lumberjack over 350 kcal per hour).
While exercising or sporting, we spend a lot more energy than at work – the same rules apply here, ie. the total energy output depends on the type and intensity of sport activity. For example, a sixty minutes intense muscle training can burn up to 1000 kcal, while a lighter fitness aerobic exercise only about 500 kcal.
The following table shows you the total energy expenditures during some selected sports. Values are calculated for the average 155-160 lb person for 1 hour of sports.
| Activity | Energy expenditure – calories | Energy expenditure – kJ |
|---|---|---|
| Walk (5 km/h) | 200 | 840 |
| Running (10 km/h) | 700 | 2940 |
| Cycling (20 km/h) | 550 | 2310 |
| Walking up stairs | 400 | 1680 |
| Tennis | 550 | 2310 |
| Table tennis | 220 | 924 |
| Dance | 300 | 1260 |
| Swimming | 400 – 600 | 1680 – 2520 |
| Football | 500 – 600 | 2100 – 2520 |
| Downhill skiing | 500 | 2100 |
| Cross-country skiing | 700 | 2940 |
If you really want to regularly track every calorie burned (who would do it…), consider the first row in the table – walking. Instead of watching the TV for one hour, go for a walk – you can burn up to 850 – 1000 kJ. Per month, this corresponds to 25000 – 30000 kJ, which means you lose weight by about 2.2 pounds!