What Is The Most Calorie-burning Aerobic Exercise?

The most calorie-burning aerobic exercise is also the most calorie-burning exercise of any kind, because aerobic exercises usually burn more calories than nonaerobic exercises. Fast running is the most calorie-burning aerobic exercise, according to one study of 175 exercises, and tied with fast bicycling as the most calorie-burning aerobic exercise in a separate study of about 150 activities.

Burning Energy

Aerobic exercises usually burn more calories -- a measurement of energy -- than anaerobic exercises because they use oxygen, a crucial factor in burning calories. When you begin exercising, your body uses its anaerobic energy system until oxygen-rich blood reaches your muscles. This occurs after about one minute, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." Your aerobic system provides most of the energy you need for the rest of your exercise, but you need your anaerobic system's energy for short, very intense activities such as sprinting because they require more energy than your oxygen can provide. However, your anaerobic system's instant energy is so inefficient at burning calories that it generates a lot of lactic acid that causes muscle pain, writes Ornish.

Classifications

Exercise experts Ornish and Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Aerobics Center classify exercises that require continuous movement as aerobic exercises. Running, outdoor and indoor cycling, rowing, walking, swimming, cross-country skiing, jumping rope, aerobic dancing and skating are aerobic exercises. Exercise experts classify exercises that require spurts of activity and rest between the spurts as anaerobic exercises. Swinging a baseball bat and a golf club are anaerobic exercises. So are more intense activities such as lifting weights, running and cycling as fast as you can, and calisthenics programs with a series of exercises such as pullups and pushups and rest between each exercise.

Top Calorie Burners

Running 5.5-minute miles is the top calorie-burning aerobic and overall exercise studied by Wisconsin's Department of Health and Family Services. You burn 1,553 calories per hour running 10.9 mph if you weigh 190 lbs., 1,267 calories per hour if you're 155 lbs. and 1,062 calories if you're 130 lbs. A study published by the "Harvard Heart Letter" didn't analyze running 5.5-minute miles, but running 6-minute miles and bicycling more than 20 mph were the top calorie-burning exercises. Each burned 1,466 calories per hour in 185-lb. people, 1,228 calories per hour in 155-lb. people and 990 calories per hour in 125-lb. people.

Runner-Ups

The Wisconsin study lists nine exercises that burn more than 1,200 calories per hour, including running 5.5-minute miles. They're all aerobic. In 190-lb. people, cross-country skiing burns 1,423 calories per hour, while bicycling more than 20 mph and running 6-minute miles burns 1,380. Competitive speed skating, running up stairs and running 6.5-minute miles burn 1,294 calories per hour, while running 7-minute miles and cross-country skiing 8 mph burns 1,208. In comparison, soccer and basketball burn 863 and 690 calories per hour, respectively. Both sports require a lot of running, but they aren't aerobic exercises because they also include a lot of stopping.