What Exercises Amount to Burning 1500 Calories a Day?

Exercising to burn calories can help you control or reduce your weight. Using 1,500 more calories per day than you take in will cause you to lose about three pounds per week. Many activities can burn these extra calories, but more strenuous ones take less time. The rate you burn calories depends not only on how vigorously you exercise but also your body size because moving more weight around uses more energy.

Walking

Walking is a good all-around exercise that almost anyone can do. It causes your body to use up 200 to 400 calories every hour, depending on your size and the speed you walk. Unfortunately, that means you would have to walk about four to eight hours a day to increase the number of calories you burn by 1,500. Hiking and backpacking raise the calorie rate to between 440 and 660 calories per hour, but that still means about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours of daily trekking.

Golf

Though golf is not a strenuous activity, the length of time it takes to play it makes it a candidate for burning calories if you enjoy the sport enough to play every day. Playing golf and carrying your clubs uses 330 to 500 calories per hour, which is 1,320 to 2,000 calories for a four-hour round.

Cycling

Leisure cycling uses 300 to 440 calories per hour, and for more strenuous riding the rate increases to between 450 and 675 calories every hour. At the higher rate it takes about 2 1/4 to three hours to achieve the 1,500 calorie goal.

Swimming

Swimming is a moderate exercise that uses many different muscle groups without placing stress on your weight-bearing joints. While swimming, your body burns between 510 and 760 calories each hour, which requires two to three hours of swimming laps for you to reach 1,500 calories.

Aerobics

Aerobics burn 360 to 760 calories each hour depending on your weight and whether they are the low or high-impact variety. That means two to four hours of exercising to reach the 1,500 calorie goal. Water aerobics use 300 to 440 calories every hour, which would require 3 1/2 to five hours in the pool to burn 1,500 calories.

Skating

An hour of ice skating uses about 500 to 750 calories while rollerblading burns 900 to 1,400 calories. By skating each day for about one to three hours you could therefore reach 1,500 calories.

Running

Running uses the maximum number of calories of any common exercise. A 160 pound person who runs at a brisk eight miles per hour consumes about 1,000 calories per hour, and the rate goes up to 1,472 calories every hour if you weigh 240 pounds. It takes only about one to 1 1/2 hours of running per day to reach 1,500 calories.

References

• Mayo Clinic: Exercise for weight loss: Calories burned in 1 hour
• "New York Times Magazine"; Summer Sports; Stephen Daly; Mar. 23, 1986.