Cardio --- short for cardiovascular --- exercises help to keep your heart and blood vessels in shape. During cardio exercise, your body's heart rate increases to circulate more oxygenated blood to your hard-working muscles. This increase in activity means that your body is using more energy, which is measured in calories. Exercising will help you burn more calories, but not all cardio exercise is necessarily created equal.
Running
Running is a cardiovascular exercise effective for burning calories. According to MayoClinic.com, a runner who weighs 160lbs and runs 8 miles over the course of one hour will burn approximately 986 calories during that hour. You don't need to run far, however, to burn a significant number of calories. Running sprints is the fastest way to burn calories, according to Ab-core-and-stomach-exercises.com. Sprinting for just one minute at a rate of 100 meters per second -- average for professional sprinters -- burns 50 calories per minute.
Basketball
If you're looking to burn calories while playing a game with friends, start a game of basketball. Playing basketball, on average, burns about 584 calories per hour, assuming you weigh 160lbs, according to MayoClinic.com. NBC Fanhouse published the results of an experiment performed on pro basketball players to find out how many calories they expended while playing to help them with their weight. The experiment found that during one game, one forward took over 11,000 steps, ran 5.49 miles, and burned 686 calories while playing.
Swimming
Lower-impact than both running and basketball, the sport of swimming is another way to shed calories while engaged in a full-body activity. While swimming laps, average swimmers burn approximately 511 calories per hour when their weight is 160lbs. Olympian Swimmer Michael Phelps, for example, ate a 12,000 calorie per day diet while training to maintain his weight, according to The Wall Street Journal Health Blog. While your exercise regimen most likely will not be as intense as his, you will still burn a significant number of calories by swimming.
Other Factors
Everyone's body is slightly different, so no two bodies burn calories at exactly the same rate. The number of calories your body burns per hour depends on a large number of factors, including your age, height and weight. To ensure you burn a maximum number of calories no matter which type of exercise you chose to do, you can use an exercise technique explained on Intervaltraining.net. To practice interval training, you should push yourself harder for one full minute out of every 3 or 4 minutes you are working out to help your body burn as many calories as possible.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Exercise for Weight Loss-Calories Burned in One Hour
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Diet- Calories
- NBC Fanhouse: Timberwolves Turn to Technology for Efficient Workouts
- The Wall Street Journal Health Blog: The Michael Phelps Diet: Don't Try It at Home
- Interval Training.net: Interval Training
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