This article has been reviewed by certified personal trainer Brenlee Rempel scientifically and practically.
Keeping track of your calorie intake and calorie burn is always essential, whether you’re trying to lose weight, keep the weight you’ve lost off, or maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s not easy to always control one’s caloric intake, but luckily, there are ways to burn those calories with exercise. If you want to burn the calories from that burger you had late at night or the beer at the happy hour, there are ways to make up for it by exercising. You can burn calories with all types of physical activities. However, the amount of burnt calories depends on exercise duration, the intensity of exercise, body size and weight, body composition, age, sex, etc. People with more weight burn more calories than people with less weight doing the same exercises. The same goes for people with more muscle mass than people with more fat mass.
How to measure exercise intensity
To know the intensity of your exercise, you need to have an estimation of your RPE, short for Rating of Perceived Exertion. You can rate your perceived exertion by monitoring your breathing pattern, heart rate, amount of sweat, ability to talk, and level of fatigue. Swedish researcher Gunnar Borg invented the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion. It starts with the number 6, representing no exertion, like sitting calmly, and ends with the number 20, representing maximal exertion, like running at your maximum speed. This scale was later simplified to a 0-10 numbering. A medium-intensity workout would be a 5 or 6 rate when your heart rate is 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate. Vigorous-intensity activity is 8 or 9, which is 80% to 99% of your maximum heart rate. To measure your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220.
Do not forget that the numbers suggested in this article are all estimations based on an average healthy young person. Many factors can affect these numbers.
Burning 300 calories with different forms of exercise
According to My Fitness Pall, here is how long a 150-lbs person needs to do different types of exercise to burn 300 calories.
| Form of exercise | Time spent |
|---|---|
| Running at 6 mph | 27 minutes |
| Jumping rope | 22 minutes |
| Spinning | 38 minutes |
| Rock climbing | 24 minutes |
| Swimming freestyle | 27 minutes |
| Playing tennis | 32 minutes |
| Rollerblading | 38 minutes |
| Running the stairs | 18 minutes |
| Doing Bikram yoga | 33 minutes |
| Walking on the treadmill at 3 mph with an incline | 60 minutes |
Burn 300 calories by Cardio Interval training
Interval training is a type of exercise routine that alternates between short periods of higher-intensity exercise and longer periods of low- to medium-intensity exercise. You can do interval training using cardio machines such as a treadmill, an elliptical trainer, a stationary bike, or a rowing machine. Even a simple aerobic exercise such as walking can be done in intervals of higher and lower intensity. These routines will take a 140-lb person about 30 minutes to burn around 300 calories.
Always start with a medium pace that is just a little out of your comfort zone.
Treadmill interval training routine
- Start with a medium-intensity walk for 3 minutes to warm up.
- Raise the incline by 2% every 15 seconds for 1 minute.
- Reduce the incline by 2% every 15 seconds to get back to 0% incline.
- Repeat this routine 6 times in a row.
Check out more information about losing weight by treadmill walking here.
Elliptical interval training
- Start at medium intensity for 6 minutes
- Increase resistance to several levels every 30 seconds for 2 minutes
- Decrease resistance every 30 seconds for 2 minutes to get back to the original
Repeat the routine 3 times.
Stationary bike interval training
- Start at moderate intensity for 5 minutes
- Increase the resistance 2 to 3 levels every 30 seconds for 2 minutes
- Decrease the resistance to returning to the original every 30 seconds for 2 minutes
- Increase the resistance to high intensity for 1 minute
- Repeat the routine 3 times
Burn 300 calories with High-Intensity Interval Training
If you don’t have time for long exercise sessions, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is for you. HIIT is like interval training, except the high-intensity periods are more challenging and get you close to an RPE of 10. The rest intervals are easier to let you recover. It burns calories very quickly, and it makes your body burn fat even after finishing the exercise with a phenomenon called Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) due to improved metabolic rate. You can do HIIT doing a wide range of exercises.
HIIT bodyweight workout
Doing a HIIT routine doesn’t need equipment. You can just use your body weight. here is how:
- Do squats for 1 minute.
- Do lunge for 1 minute.
- Do burpees for 1 minute.
- Do push-ups for 1 minute.
- Do jumping jacks for 1 minute.
- Rest for 3 minutes, doing some stretching exercises
Repeat the routine 3 more times.
HIIT running workout
Running is a great high-intensity exercise that needs no more equipment than a pair of running shoes.
- Run at the highest pace you can for 30 seconds.
- Walk at a moderate pace for 1 minute.
Repeat the routine 5 times
HIIT dumbbell workout
If you want to burn your calories even faster, get a pair of 5-8-lb dumbbells and do this 10-minute workout routine to burn 300. This is a pretty intense workout, so make sure to warm up beforehand and cool down with some stretching afterward.
1. Deadlift to squat-press, 20 times on high tempo: Hinge at your hips, do a deadlift, stand up, and squat while lifting the dumbbells over your head.
2. Swing squats 20 times on high tempo: Hold your dumbbells right in front of your body, and squat down. Swing the dumbbells up to your chest level as you stand back up.
3. Alternating Lunge Rows, 20 times on high tempo: Stand in a lunge position. Hold the dumbbells at an angle in front of your body. Do a lung rowing one arm, stand back up, and do another lunge rowing the other arm.
4. Sit-ups with crossed punches: You should sit on the floor with your feet on the ground, and your legs in front of your body, forming an upside V. Hold the dumbbells in your hands in front of your body and keep your elbows close to your torso. Lie back and do a sit-up. Punch the right arm across your body all the way to the left and back. Do the same cross-body punch to the right with your left hand.
5. Rest for 1 minute
Do this routine 3 times.
Consume fewer calories by Sleeping enough
That’s right! Sleeping is a physical activity and it can contribute to general health and even weight loss. A study that was published in Jama Internal Medicine journal shows that young overweight adults who slept for 6.5 hours or less per night ended up consuming, on average, 270 fewer calories per week just by adding 72 minutes per night to their sleeping routine. Some could even consume up to 500 fewer calories by fixing their sleeping habits.
Final words
Emergency calorie burning is fine from time to time to make up for a cheat day or bar night. However, what makes a healthy body and good fitness level is a healthy lifestyle. That includes watching your diet, enough daily activities, aerobic and strength training exercises, sleeping enough, and last but not least, drinking enough water.