50 Fat Loss Exercises RANKED (Using Science)
Summary
TLDRIn a quest to determine the most effective fat loss exercises, the video follows a comprehensive test comparing 50 different activities. High-intensity workouts like sprints and burpees initially lead, but the importance of sustainable, enjoyable routines is highlighted. Boxing emerged as the top calorie-burning exercise with the best effort-to-calorie ratio, while low-intensity activities like longboarding and walking were surprisingly effective. The video emphasizes that finding a balance between enjoyable, consistent exercise and proper nutrition is key to successful fat loss.
Takeaways
- π High-intensity exercises like sprints, burpees, and mountain climbers are very effective for burning calories but can be exhausting.
- π¦ The average calories burned per minute for sprints was 15, and for burpees, it was 12.5, which were lower than expected.
- π€ The perceived exertion for these high-intensity exercises was very high, with some exceeding the scale of 1 to 10.
- π‘ The use of a mask that measures oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide release, and heart rate was crucial for obtaining accurate calorie burn data.
- π΄ββοΈ Low-intensity exercises such as incline walking and longboarding can be surprisingly effective for calorie burn with less exertion.
- π Basketball was a fun and effective low-intensity exercise for Kevin, highlighting the importance of enjoyment in exercise adherence.
- ποΈββοΈ Strength training was found to burn fewer calories than cardio, emphasizing its role in maintaining muscle mass rather than fat loss.
- π§ββοΈ Low-intensity exercises like standing, sitting, and fidgeting contribute to daily calorie expenditure and should not be overlooked.
- π² Intellectual activities like playing chess can burn calories, though the claim of 6,000 calories a day seems exaggerated.
- π₯ Boxing emerged as the top exercise for calorie burn in relation to perceived exertion, making it a sustainable option for fat loss.
- π½οΈ Nutrition plays a vital role in fat loss, and Built With Science offers guidance on both diet and exercise for optimal results.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The main purpose of the video is to determine the most effective exercises for fat loss by ranking 50 different exercises based on their calorie-burning efficiency.
Who is Kevin and what is his role in the video?
-Kevin is a programmer at Built With Science and is working towards his own fat loss journey. He participates in the exercise tests alongside the host to provide data for optimizing a fat loss program.
What is the initial exercise tested in the video and how did it affect Kevin's heart rate?
-The initial exercise tested is 60 seconds of sprints. It was so intense that Kevin's heart rate went up to 185, and he felt it before the 60 seconds were finished.
Why were the calorie burn values for the exercises lower than expected?
-The calorie burn values were lower than expected because high-intensity exercises, while effective, do not necessarily burn as many calories per minute as one might think.
What is the role of the pool mask in the experiment?
-The pool mask is used to measure the amount of oxygen used and carbon dioxide released, combined with heart rate data, to get an exact number of calories burned during the exercises.
What is Dr. Eric Helms' opinion on the accuracy of cardio machines' calorie trackers?
-Dr. Eric Helms suggests that cardio machines' calorie trackers are not as accurate as gas exchange measurements and should only be used for relative differences in energy expenditure.
Why did the host decide to switch to low-intensity exercises?
-The host decided to switch to low-intensity exercises because high-intensity exercises were leaving Kevin exhausted, which is not sustainable for a long-term fat loss program.
What was the surprising finding about incline walking?
-The surprising finding about incline walking was that leaning on the treadmill or holding onto the rails reduced the calorie burn by 20%, as it unloads some of the body mass.
What is the conclusion about strength training in terms of calorie burning?
-The conclusion about strength training is that it burns significantly fewer calories than cardio, especially when the weights are not extremely heavy.
What advice does the video give for creating a sustainable fat loss workout plan?
-The advice given is to find workouts that one enjoys and can stick with in the long run, pairing them with consistent strength training for optimal fat loss.
What was the highest calorie-burning exercise found in the video?
-The highest calorie-burning exercise found in the video was boxing, which also turned out to be the most enjoyable for Kevin.
How does the video address the importance of nutrition in fat loss?
-The video addresses the importance of nutrition by mentioning that Built With Science guides viewers with weekly workouts and step-by-step diet plans to achieve their fat loss goals.
What was the unexpected outcome of the chess game challenge in terms of calorie burn?
-The unexpected outcome of the chess game challenge was that it did not burn as many calories as anticipated, with a rate of 2.2 calories per minute.
Outlines
π₯ High-Intensity Training for Fat Loss
The video script begins with an introduction to a calorie-burning challenge involving high-intensity exercises. The narrator and his friend Kevin, a programmer, test various exercises to determine which ones are most effective for fat loss. They start with sprints, burpees, and mountain climbers, finding that sprints burn the most calories per minute, but all are exhausting. The goal is to find exercises that burn a lot of calories without being too difficult to maintain, leading to the exploration of 47 more exercises. The use of a mask to measure oxygen consumption and heart rate is highlighted as a method to get accurate calorie burn data. A deal is made with Kevin to push through the challenge for a cash bonus, emphasizing the intensity of the workout and the struggle to maintain it.
πΆββοΈ Low-Intensity Exercises and Their Calorie Burn
The script moves on to test low-intensity exercises after realizing that high-intensity workouts are unsustainable for Kevin. Incline walking is tested at different speeds and inclines, showing a significant increase in calorie burn with higher intensity. Leaning on the treadmill is revealed to reduce calorie burn by 20%, aligning with a 2014 study. Longboarding and basketball are found to be effective low-intensity exercises that Kevin enjoys. The importance of finding a sustainable workout routine is emphasized, with the suggestion to match fitness levels and preferences to the intensity of the exercise. Strength training is also tested, but it's found to burn fewer calories than cardio, highlighting its role in maintaining muscle mass rather than fat loss.
π Everyday Activities and Their Impact on Fat Loss
The final paragraph explores the calorie-burning potential of everyday activities and chores, such as vacuuming, reading, and folding laundry. The narrator tests various activities to determine their calorie burn, including standing, sitting, and even playing checkers. The script also investigates the claims of certain exercises and activities that are said to burn a large number of calories, such as boxing, medicine ball slams, and power walking. The importance of finding enjoyable exercises is reiterated, as it contributes to the sustainability of a workout routine. The narrator and Kevin discover that boxing, in particular, is both enjoyable and effective for calorie burning. The script concludes with the revelation of the top three calorie-burning exercises and the suggestion to combine them with consistent strength training for effective fat loss.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Fat Loss
π‘Calorie
π‘High-Intensity Training
π‘Perceived Exertion
π‘Sprints
π‘Burpees
π‘Incline Walking
π‘Longboarding
π‘Strength Training
π‘Consistency
π‘Nutrition
Highlights
The video aims to determine the most and least effective exercises for fat loss through a comprehensive test.
High-intensity training, starting with 60 seconds of sprints, is initially tested for its calorie-burning potential.
Surprisingly, the average calories burned per minute during the first exercises were lower than expected.
Burpees and mountain climbers are tested next, with high perceived exertion but moderate calorie burn.
A challenge is issued to Kevin to beat a 34-calorie-per-minute benchmark on the assault bike for a cash reward.
The accuracy of the assault bike's calorie tracking is questioned and discussed with Dr. Eric Helms.
Dr. Helms suggests that gas exchange measurement with masks is more accurate than cardio machines' calorie counters.
Low-intensity exercises, like incline walking, are tested next, showing a significant increase in calorie burn with increased speed and incline.
Leaning on treadmills during incline walking reduces calorie burn by 20%, aligning with a 2014 study's findings.
Longboarding and basketball are found to be effective low-intensity exercises for Kevin, enjoyable and sustainable.
Strength training is tested and found to burn fewer calories than cardio, emphasizing its role in maintaining muscle mass rather than fat loss.
ABS exercises like crunches are revealed to be the least effective for calorie burning.
The importance of daily activities and steps over intense workouts for overall fat loss is highlighted by Dr. Helms.
Everyday chores and activities are tested for their calorie-burning potential, with standing and walking being significant.
A search for enjoyable high-calorie burning exercises leads to testing boxing, medicine ball slams, and power walking.
Boxing is found to be the most enjoyable and effective high-intensity exercise for both calorie burn and perceived exertion.
The video concludes that finding sustainable and enjoyable exercises is key to long-term fat loss success.
A list of all 50 exercises ranked by calorie burn is provided for viewers to find the best fit for their fat loss journey.
Transcripts
what are the best and worst exercises
for fat loss today my friend Kevin and I
are putting on the world's most accurate
calorie
truck and together we're going to rank
50 different exercises at the end we'll
reveal one as the most effective fat
loss exercise but we'll also discover
which exercises burn the most calories
with the least effort and which ones are
high effort but don't actually burn very
many calories using these bindings I'll
create the perfect Fat Loss plan guarant
to help you shred body fat starting off
with what all the data tells me is the
most effective for calorie burning high
intensity training beginning first with
60 seconds of Sprints
go because of workouts are so intense
Kevin was already starting to feel it
before the 60 seconds were finished
that was brutal your hurry went up to
185 I go to that water fountain over
there for the dogs and
first exercise done I'm a little
for Kevin we're asking a lot for him
today but he's a
champ in case you're wondering Kevin is
a programmer here at bill with science
and he's currently working towards his
own fat loss Journey my hope is that
doing these workouts together will give
me the data I need to help Kevin
optimize his fat loss Journey next up
were 60 seconds of burpees and then 60
seconds of mountain
climbers as fast as you
can just like with a Sprint Kevin was
struggling to make it the full 60
seconds keep go keep
go I remember why I hated those so
much with three exercises down Sprints
had taken an early lead at an average of
15 calories burned per minute and
burpees coming in second with an average
of 12.5 now these values were lower than
I expected but we'll explain why that is
later on but so far all three exercises
have been exhausting how would you rank
your perceived exertion on burpees on a
1 to 10 scale 10 11 how about on the
Sprints 12 10 10 10 for me the Sprints
were like eight or nine the burpees were
like they exceeded the scale so if I
want to help Kevin build a program that
burns a ton of calories without feeling
like he's dying we're going to have to
keep searching fortunately we still have
47 exercises left the test that's good
as we continue testing high-intensity
exercises the data showed we were
burning through our calories but just
like with the previous exercises
training at high intensity it's not
easy I would not I would not choose
this and with Kevin still struggling to
make it through some of the exercises I
had to find a way to continue pushing
him to collect the best data possible so
as I finished my circuit on the assault
bike I decided to make Kevin an offer he
couldn't refuse if you can beat my total
of 34 calories in a minute I'll give you
$500 I'm okay with not let's
go now some of you data nerds may be
wondering how the assault bike could
tell me I burned 34 calories in a minute
when the best exercise we tested so far
didn't even burn half of that well
that's why we're relying on the pooi
mask for all of our data basically it
measures the amount of oxygen we use and
the carbon dioxide release and it
combines us with our heart rate to get
the exact number of calories we're
burning so while Kevin was catching up
to my 34 calorie total I was skeptical
about the accuracy for more insight I
reached out to Dr Eric Helms a pearl
bodybuilder and host of the mass
research review YouTube channel cardio
machines are really a bit of a black box
there is some equation that goes in
there it's definitely not like a peer-
reviewed equation and it's certainly not
going to be as accurate as gas exchange
like you're measuring with the masks the
only way that I would use the energy
expenditure on a cardio machine is if
you're comparing a previous session on
that same machine entering the same
measurements as a relative difference if
you burned 30 on that machine last time
and this time you burned 60 you probably
did about twice as much work but beyond
that I wouldn't put much stock into
those values even though I learned you
can't always trust a cardio machine's
calorie tracker for this challenge a
deal is a
[Music]
deal don't pass out don't pass out don't
pass out all right Kevin gets a fat
bonus I was not expecting that instead
of 34 plus calories per minute we
actually burned around 12 and 13 and to
avoid skewing results we'd make sure to
wait for our heart rates to return to
Baseline before moving on to the next
exercise but when I checked in on Kevin
I realized we had a problem all right
let's get Kevin out of his death
bed got tap out of that you're going to
tap out yeah I'm going to tap out of
that turned out that even though I had
tried to select the most optimized
workout for fat loss nearly every
exercise so far was leaving Kevin
absolutely exhausted and that's no way
to sustain a program which means we're
going to have to find a new approach low
intensity exercise first up incline
walking so we started with 3 mph and a
two incline which burned around 6
calories per minute oh this is so nice
coming bumping the speed up to 3.5 in
the incline up to six led to a pretty
impressive 30% jump in calorie burn but
you know how people at the gym tend to
lean on the cardio machines or hold on
to the rails when incline walking yeah
so we tested that next and it drop the
calorie burn by 20% Which aligns with
the findings of a 2014 study that tested
the exact same thing if you are leaning
on the treadmill unloading some of your
mass you're essentially reducing your
body weight then you're basically only
walking with the part of your body is
where does that sounds and therefore
burning fewer calories so much easier
but what's true of all of our walk-in
was that Kevin was able to get through
without feeling like he was going to
collapse which meant the switch to low
intensity training was definitely a step
in the right
direction longboarding an activity I
love doing as a kid was winning in my
calorie battle for low intensity
exercise burning an oppressive 11
calories per minute beating the
elliptical stair master and other forms
of cardio that I just don't really enjoy
and although Kevin didn't feel
comfortable hopping on the board
basketball was working out really well
for him and it looked like he was having
fun doing
it so I think the first thing you want
to do is establish do you have the
fitness level that high-intensity
training is on the table if yes do you
enjoy it great if you enjoy it equally
to a moderate intensity then you can
choose when you want to do it based upon
your time availability if you don't
enjoy it don't do it for me it always
comes down to what's practical what's
sustainable and do they have the fitness
level so it's not a potential risk of
doing this very high intensity
activity and time you're dude
getting easier man
too and after catching our second wind
with low intensity we moved into
strength training to find out how it
Compares a
cardio surprisingly unless the weights
got really heavy strength training was
burning significantly less calories in
cardio not to mention we could just
barely make it to a minute on most
exercises he strength training is even
higher intensity than many forms of
quote unquote high-intensity cardio it's
so high intensity that instead of going
all right I'm going to go a minute on 2
minute off like you might with cardio
you're typically doing 5 to 12 reps
which is going to take less than a
minute that's typically going to be
completed in 20 to 30 seconds and if
you're training to failure then you may
need to rest you know 1 2 or 3 minutes
before you can then perform at your best
afterwards you're spending more time
resting during a weight training workout
than you are actually lifting weights so
weight training is great for maintaining
muscle mass and ensuring that the weight
you lose is primarily body fat but it's
not a great tool for a fat loss itself
from an energy expenditure perspective
we also tested ABS exercises like
crunches which ended up burning the
fewest calories of all the exercises
we've tested so far at this rate you'd
have to do 17 hours worth of crunches to
burn the calories equivalent of one lb
of fat after our first day of testing it
felt like I had pretty much everything I
needed to create the perfect fat loss
workout plan to help Kevin until I
presented some of that data to Eric I
think an important perspective for the
viewer is that if they go in and they
absolutely crush it with say a bunch of
interval work for 45 minutes three times
per week the impact of that will be a
whole lot less than if they say went
from having 3 to 4,000 steps per day
being relatively sedentary up to getting
7 to 9,000 steps per day the latter
would have a far greater impact on their
total daily energy expenditure and their
ease of getting into a calorie deficit
and seeing sufficient successful weight
loss over time than those three 45
minute allout sessions talking to Eric I
realized that just testing exercise to
create an optimized workout wasn't going
to be enough it turns out what we do
outside of the gym can have a far
greater effect when it comes to fat loss
and to find out just how much I had to
keep testing that means testing every
chore activ video you can do with your
free time whether it's vacuuming reading
or folding the laundry and starting
right off with standing just simply
standing as for cabin he was going
through the same circuit of test
downstairs testing average calories burn
standing sitting sitting while fidgeting
and sitting while playing a video
game right Kev that's a minute no I'm
burning calories man
[Music]
and Not only was I earning boyfriend of
the Year award by taking care of all the
housework I was finally starting to
build a clear picture of all the ways
you can maximize calorie burn through
the course of the day for example just
walking outside Burns an impressive 6
calories per minute for Kevin although
that's almost a third of what he burned
doing sprints I'm pretty sure he'd much
rather go for a 30-minute walk than
suffer through 10 minutes of Sprints two
one that was hard burpees or dishes
Jeremy dishes all day every
day but the one thing I still haven't
found in our testing was a high calorie
burning exercise that Kevin actually
enjoyed so I started searching online to
find other exercises that claim to burn
a shocking number of calories in hopes
of finally finding one that's a great
fit for Kevin training beginning first
with boxing medicine ball slams and
power walking at least one foot on the
ground all times just try to go as fast
as you can I guess you just look like a
bunch of angry moms out there you know
what's incredible how much Burns off
energy is playing chess can burn up to
6,000 calories a day while playing in a
tournament okay so I don't actually know
how to play chess but to testa's claim
Kevin and I will be playing a game of
high stakes Checkers remember the $500 I
lost challenging Kevin on the assault
bike well now we're going double or
nothing if Kevin beats me again he's
getting ,000 bonus so I do not want to
lose are you sure about that
one I don't know but since this could
take a while let's take a look at some
other tests so we'll just go right to
the single leg burpies what
the turn to Tik Tok that's one of the
highest calorie burners but we'll see so
what was the actual calorie burn from
Kettle bu Wings well not anywhere close
to some of the other special EXT
exercises we tested but what can you
expect taking advice from Tik Tok
anyways just like the assault bike
challenge the Checker match was neck and
neck with Kevin once again getting the
best of me as for the calorie burn
although my brain probably wasn't
working quite as hard as a master chess
player it didn't burn nearly as much as
I anticipated 2.2 calories per minute
just a touch higher than S I have no
doubt that um being intensely
intellectually active burns more more
calories than say just chilling you
probably burn more calories playing
chess than listening to Joe Rogan I'm
sure the uh the first is a lot more
intellectually challenging and
stimulating but I don't think it's
probably as high as 6,000 calories a day
if I had to guess and even though I was
now $1,000 poorer than when I started
the challenge I had all the data I
needed from each exercise including a
shocking first place exercise to reveal
to Kevin what exercise do you think
burned the most calories well see like
burpees I don't want to be number one
like any any of the burpees I don't care
what you tell
me if it was the highest I I still
wouldn't do them so your number one
alltime highest calorie burning exercise
was boxing oh wow that's surprised me
too boxing and you said you had some fun
doing it right I think it was fun it
just felt like we were like goofing off
at that point in fact Kevin and I had
the same top three sprinting boxing and
the devil's press burn more calories
than any other exercise and although
Sprints when average up between us came
out as number one boxing was the one
that burned the most calories compared
to our perceived exertion which is
enough to make it the winner in my books
as for the low intensity exercises that
still burn a surprising amount of
calories long boarding shooting hoops
and even just plain old walk-in worked
great so depending on your conditioning
you can pair any of these exercises with
consistent strength training and you
should be well on your way to losing fat
cuz ultimately it's about finding the
workouts that you enjoy and can stick
with in the long run and thankfully
that's exactly what we were able to find
for
Kevin though maybe we could use a
coach now in the description box down
below I posted the link to a list of all
50 exercises ranked from highest to
lowest based on calorie bir while
finding the right workout plan is a
great first step to tr succeed in your
fat loss Journey you can't neglect your
nutrition and that's why here at bill
with science we not only guide you every
single week with your workouts but we
also guide you step by step with your
diet to get you into the best shape of
your life and to join today just head
over to built with science.com and take
our quiz to find the best plan for you
and your body but for those of you who
are just looking for a cheap healthy
sizebed meal plan you can start
following today to lose fat then give
this video watch next thanks so much for
watching I'll see you next time
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