Regular exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Your cardiovascular and respiratory systems function more efficiently and lower your risk of coronary artery disease. Higher activity and fitness levels are associated with lower death rates. You also feel better and can control your body weight. With high-intensity exercise you can burn more calories and see significant results.
Intensity and Calories Burned
As soon as you begin to exercise your heart rate increases to meet the energy demands of your body. As you increase the resistance or pace of your exercise, your heart rate increases more. There is a positive correlation between intensity as measured by heart rate and calories burned during physical activity, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Calories are a form of energy needed by the body to function. The harder you exercise, the more calories your body burns.
Calories Burned During High-Intensity Exercise
The exact number of calories you burn during high-intensity exercises depends on the duration of the activity, your body weight and your fitness level. The longer you exercise, the less fit you are or the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn during a given activity. Running is considered a high-intensity form of exercise. In one hour a 160-lb. person running at 8.0 mph can burn 986 calories, according to the Mayo Clinic. A 200-lb. person at the same speed and duration can burn approximately 1,226 calories. Activities that are low-to-moderate intensity, such as walking, will burn less than half the amount of calories in one hour.
Increasing Caloric Burn During Cardio
You can adjust how many calories you burn during cardiovascular exercise by adding a little speed or resistance to your chosen activity. Performing a new activity that you are not used to will also increase your calorie burning during high-intensity exercise. If you always run, try a stair climber machine or swimming laps at a challenging pace. You can also incorporate high-intensity interval training, alternating moderate-intensity exercise with short bursts of high-intensity exercise.
Increasing Caloric Burn During Resistance Training
A 160-lb. person can burn about 219 calories in one hour of weight training with small rest periods. You can increase the amount of calories you burn by increasing the challenge of your workout. Perform your exercises in a circuit, resting little to no time between exercises. You can also superset your exercises--doing two different exercises back to back for multiple sets with no rest before moving on to the next two exercises. Increasing the weight that you use will also increase intensity and calorie-burning.
References
- "ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription"; American College of Sports Medicine; 2010
- University of Virginia: U.Va. Study: High-Intensity Exercise Best for Improving Body Composition
- "Essentials of Strength and Conditioning"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; 2008
- Mayo Clinic: Exercise for Weight Loss: Calories Burned in One Hour
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