Fitness Training
What exercise burns the most calories? 20 ways to Burn More Fast
Discover effective ways to burn calories and enhance your fitness routine. From high-intensity workouts to everyday activities, find the best methods to stay in shape.
Burning calories is essential for achieving fitness goals, maintaining a healthy weight, and improving overall well-being. You’ll need to choose the right exercise to shed those extra pounds, build endurance, or boost cardiovascular health.
The number of calories burned during exercise depends on several factors, including intensity, duration, and individual body weight. High-intensity workouts that engage multiple muscle groups tend to burn the most calories. But which exercises top the list?
To help you identify the most effective workouts, we’ve curated the top 20 activities so you can reach your goals. Barbara Ainsworth, lead author of the Compendium of Physical Activities study, says the activities that come out on top are those that “increase your rate of breathing, move your arms and legs in a rhythmic motion, and cause you to break a sweat.”
Those who want to see how intense some workouts can get should watch Red Bull athletes such as Lucy Procter take on blood-pumping competitions like Hyrox events. Now, let’s explore what factors impact calorie burn and which exercises can help you torch the most fat.
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Factors that influence calorie burn
How to burn more calories? Not all exercises are created equal in this area. The amount of calories burned depends on intensity, duration, body composition, and even environmental conditions. Running uphill, swimming in cold water, or exercising in high heat can increase calorie burn due to added resistance and increased energy usage.
Your body weight, muscle mass, age, and gender all influence calorie burn. Generally, those who weigh more burn more calories than those who weigh less when performing the same activity. Additionally, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat, meaning those with higher muscle mass have a faster metabolism. Exercise type also plays a critical role. High-intensity workouts that elevate heart rate and longer workouts at a moderate pace also result in significant calorie expenditure.
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Top 20 calorie-burning exercises ranked
Each exercise varies in intensity, affecting the fat-burning process. Higher-ranked exercises, such as running, skipping, and taekwondo, require significant endurance and engage multiple muscle groups, leading to rapid calorie burn. These higher-intensity activities engage more muscles, demand greater oxygen consumption, and increase post-exercise calorie burn.
Even lower-ranked exercises, like water aerobics and hiking, provide excellent cardiovascular benefits and contribute to overall fitness. The key is to find a balance that suits your fitness level and goals. If you’re asking, what exercise burns the most calories, you’ll find the answer below.
20. Water aerobics
Also known as ‘waterobics’ and ‘aquafit,’ this is more than just splashing about in the pool. The water provides extra resistance – meaning you burn about 501 calories per hour.
19. Light or moderate lap swimming
Burn those calories in the pool
© Kelvin Trautman/Red Bull Content Pool
Fancy expending around 528 calories per hour? Swimming light laps in a pool will do the trick.
18. Hiking
Lace up your walking boots, because you could work off around 546 calories per hour on a 60-minute hike. Choose a route with plenty of steep sections for maximum results.
17. Water skiing
Burn off those calories (jump not required)
© Phillip Platzes/Red Bull Content Pool
Getting pulled along by a speedboat is not as easy as it looks – and is a great lower and upper body workout that also works your core. Do it for an hour, and you could use up as many as 546 calories.
16. Rowing on a machine
Not a big fan of water? You’ll burn the same amount of calories (546 per hour) by rowing on a machine. All on the comfort of dry land.
15.Cross-country skiing
Strap on those skis
© Magnus Osth/Red Bull Content Pool
Forget downhill skiing, if you really want to burn the calories then you should stick to flat terrain. Cross-country skiing will make you work up a sweat – and burns up to 619 calories per hour.
14. Backpacking
Hiking with a heavy backpack on can burn as much as 637 calories per hour – so chuck in a few extra items into your pack on your next walk.
13. Ice skating
British champs Torvill and Dean were on to something… Tearing up the ice on your skates also burns around 637 calories per hour.
12. Racquetball
Similar to squash, this is played with a hollow ball in a court with high walls – and works up a good sweat. An hour burns up to 637 calories.
11. High-impact aerobics
Dust off your leotards! Designed to get your feet tapping and heart pumping, high-impact aerobics can use 664 calories per hour.
10. Rollerblading
Rollerblading may not be as popular as it was in its heyday – the nineties – but it’s still a great form of cardio and a good alternative to biking and skateboarding. As well as increasing endurance and coordination, it’ll burn 683 calories per hour.
9. Basketball
Get Your Game On
© All Yazbeck
Dribbling, bouncing, passing, slam dunking… Playing a game of basketball is tiring work. And it will see you burn 728 calories per hour.
8. Tennis
You’ll also burn around 728 calories by playing singles tennis for an hour.
7. Flag Football
Similar to tag rugby, this form of American football sees players ‘tackle’ an opponent by removing a tag from the ball carrier. Expect to lose 728 calories per hour.
6. Running (5mph)
Smiling burns more calories...
© Aitor Matauco/Red Bull Content Pool
Is running your sport? If your pace is 5mph, you could be burning around 755 calories every hour.
5. Running up the stairs
Reckon you could run up a particularly long flight of stairs (or a step machine) for an hour? If yes, then you would be burning around 819 calories per hour.
4. Vigorous swimming
Get that heart rate up
© Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool
An even better workout is ‘vigorous’ swimming, burning some 892 calories per hour.
3. Taekwondo
High kick your way to your dream body
© SonStar/Red Bull Content Pool
The most intense competitive sport on this list in taekwondo, which will see you kicking, blocking and striking while sparring with an opponent. The martial art burns around 937 calories in a 60-minute session.
2. Skipping
Making the top of the list (in joint first position), skipping will see you churn through around 1,074 calories per hour.
1. Running (8mph)
Up the pace for maximum calorie burn
© Leo Francis
Finally, running at a pace of 8mph will also burn 1,074 calories per hour. Now you know, it's time to go, burn, sweat, and thrive!
Moderate and low-calorie burn activities
While high-intensity exercises burn the most calories, moderate and low-intensity activities also play an important role in a balanced fitness routine. Exercises like dancing, hiking on beginner trails, and yoga provide a great workout while being more accessible to a wider range of people. These activities improve flexibility, coordination, and endurance while still contributing to calorie burn.
Lower-intensity activities like walking and bowling may not burn as many calories, but they are excellent for recovery, maintaining mobility, and encouraging consistency. Walking, in particular, is one of the best ways to stay active daily and can be intensified by adding inclines and speeding up the performance. These workouts offer long-term health benefits, like combating certain health conditions, boosting mood and energy, improving sleep, and controlling weight. Plus, walking can be easily incorporated into a daily routine.
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How to choose the best exercise for you
The best exercise for you depends on several factors, including your fitness training level, available time, and personal preferences. Beginners may benefit from lower-impact activities like swimming in pools or walking before progressing to higher-intensity workouts such as high-impact aerobics. Those with limited time might prefer exercises that maximize calorie burn in a shorter session, such as running uphill.
Personal enjoyment is also crucial for maintaining consistency. If you dislike an activity, you’re less likely to stick with it long-term. Experiment with different exercises until you find ones that you enjoy and can commit to regularly. Variety can also prevent any boredom and reduce injury risk, so mixing high- and low-intensity workouts is an effective strategy. Besides keeping your mind entertained, remember your goal to keep you motivated. What are your motivations for exercising? Focus on your personal answer.
For those looking for a highly challenging workout, Hyrox is a popular choice. This competition-style event combines endurance running with functional strength exercises such as sled pushes, burpees, and rowing. It’s designed to push your limits while maximizing calorie burn and overall fitness.
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How Red Bull athletes stay fit
Elite athletes incorporate high-calorie-burning exercises into their training to maintain peak performance. Many Red Bull athletes define their fitness routine with endurance-based sports such as running, swimming, and mountain biking to stay in top shape. These activities not only burn calories but also build strength, agility, and stamina.
Red Bull World Cup mountain biking champion Kate Courtney tells enthusiasts her fitness routine goes beyond mountain bike riding with her team.
“We do hours of riding, interval sessions, a little running, and a good amount of gym work,” she says. “When I was younger, I focused on coordination and balance, but now I focus on form and precise movements.”
Courtney needs to endure long rides through rough terrain, which requires both cardiovascular and leg strength. On the other hand, swimmers train for hours to build endurance and explosive power, while martial artists like taekwondo practitioners engage in high-intensity sparring sessions to enhance their speed and reaction time. All of these skills can be cross-applied to training like a pro for other sports or even aspects of everyday life where you want to be healthier.
Red Bull athlete Laura Horváth emphasizes you need to also ensure you focus on your recovery, nutrition, and mindset like enjoying the workout, to balance out the physical strength.
“It’s not just what your body can do, but also what your mind can do,” she says.
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Find the perfect burn
If you’re looking to burn the most calories, high-intensity workouts like running, skipping, and taekwondo are the best options. However, the key to long-term success is consistency. Choose exercises that align with your fitness level, lifestyle, and personal preferences to stay motivated and active.
For the best results, combine high-calorie-burning exercises with lower-intensity activities for recovery and variety. Whether you prefer endurance-based workouts like swimming and hiking or explosive movements like stair running and skipping, there’s a perfect exercise to fit everyone’s style. Now, you know how to burn calories fast — so get moving, break a sweat, and reach your fitness goals.
