How to Exercise to Burn the Most Calories

Interesting article from one of my common sources of insight: eHow

How to Exercise to Burn the Most Calories
By Art Vandelay, eHow Member

Getting the most out of your workout can make or break a weight loss plan. Exercises that burn the most calories are generally going to share two characteristics: they will be highly active and they use just about the whole body. So what exercises burn the most calories? Among the best calorie killers are running, competitive sports, and swimming.
Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions.
1 First, there are a few factors to consider which will affect the value of these exercises. The intensity of your workout is the most important predictor of how many calories you burn. If you dog it, you will not be satisfied with the results. There are also a few personal factors including your weight, metabolism, and your endurance which can affect how many calories you burn and how long you can effectively exercise.

2 Running: 
Occam's Razor states that the simplest solution is often the right one; in this case, running is both one of the simplest exercises and one of the best at burning calories. Intensity plays a major part here. Running at eight or nine miles per hour burns significantly more calories than running at five or six miles per hour. If you want to measure the speed at which run, simply time your run, measure the distance between your start point and end point, and convert your units to miles and hours. Speed equals distance divided by time. Running at eight miles per hour for a half hour can burn 500 or more calories. 

3 Competitive sports:
Some of the best workouts can be competitive sports: full court basketball, flag football, soccer, ice hockey or field hockey, lacrosse, or any other competitive sport that generally involves constant motion and high speeds. All of these sports typically involve the frequent use of several muscle groups in an intense atmosphere. In addition to their surface value, the competitive spirit can often be the factor that gives a workout the extra boost it needs to become a good calorie burner.

4 Along the same idea, martial arts, wrestling, boxing, and even fencing are all excellent exercises that burn calories at a high rate. These are great calorie-burning exercises because they require a combination of frequent quick motions, endurance, and strength.

5 Swimming:
Once again, intensity plays a major part in your calorie usage. Spending a lot of time wading isn't going to do much for you, but swimming laps and keeping active will yield good results. In his Olympic swimming training, Michael Phelps didn't consume 10,000 calories per day because of the munchies - it was because intense swimming is one of the best exercises that burn a lot of calories. An hour of active swimming can burn between 500 and 1,000 calories.


6 Human-powered vehicles:
Biking, elliptical training, skiing, and canoeing can all burn well over 500 calories an hour if performed at a moderate or high level. Stationary bikes, elliptical machines, and skiing simulators are all roughly as effective as the real thing, so you can still burn a high number of calories while literally going nowhere fast.

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