If you are looking to burn some calories, most people assume cardiovascular exercise is the best option.
Yes, cardio is a great way to burn calories, but many people tend to overlook weightlifting on this front.
While it's true that weightlifting is an excellent way to build muscle mass and improve your strength, it's also a great way to burn some calories.
So if you want to burn some calories and have a well-defined physique, lifting weights is a great choice to lose unwanted weight.
Just to give you a rough idea, weight lifting can burn up to 4 calories per minute on average, even more, if you exercise rigorously.
Let's take a closer look at how many calories are burned by lifting weights.
Strength Training and Burning Calories
Before we can talk about how many calories you'll burn by lifting weights and engaging in strength training, it's important for you to know what calories are.
Calories are a way of measuring your energy. When we talk about a specific exercise or activity burning a specific amount of calories, what we're really doing is trying to quantify and represent the amount of energy that we expend.
Now, the issue with making accurate calculations is the fact that many different factors influence how many calories you burn through strength training.
First and foremost, both the duration and intensity of your weightlifting and strength training will impact how many calories you burn throughout the session.
We will take a closer look at how many calories you'll burn from lifting weights for 60 minutes versus lifting weights for 30 minutes.
As you can rightfully assume, strength training for 60 minutes will burn about twice as many calories as a 30-minute session, because the longer the session is, the more time you have to burn those calories off.
Something else worth noting is that how intense your exercise is will also determine how many calories you burn.
What we're talking about here is the pace of your exercise combined with how you are lifting during each exercise.
The fact of the matter is that simply going through the motions isn't enough. If you expect to burn a lot of calories by lifting weights, you need to challenge yourself every single time.
You need to increase the amount of reps and sets you do, as well as the amount of weight you lift, or a combination of all of the above. It's all about reaching a training intensity where it starts burning those calories.
Another notable point is that if you want to burn more calories lifting weights, and not resting for long periods of time between sets is another big factor.
The less you rest between sets, the higher your heart rate stays, and the more calories you end up burning.
The bottom line is that if you do twenty sets of exercise in an hour compared to somebody who does ten sets of exercise in that same amount of time, you're the one who burns more calories.
Next, we also need to consider that your own fitness level and body weight can influence how many calories you burn during strength training.
Generally speaking, the better your fitness level is, the less energy you'll need to perform a specific activity.
Therefore, if you've been an avid weightlifter for many years, you'll burn fewer calories than someone who is just starting. The less fit someone is, the more calories they burn for the same type of exercise.
On that note, the heavier you are, the more calories you burn on a daily basis, simply because the heavier your body is, the more calories it needs for maintenance.
Related to weightlifting, the heavier you are, the more calories you’ll burn during a specific weightlifting session.
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How Many Calories Does an Hour of Weightlifting Burn?
Alright, so let's find out how many calories you'll burn through an hour of weightlifting.
So, as we mentioned above, on average, you can expect to burn about four calories per minute when weight training.
Exactly how many calories you'll burn in a specific period of time depends on a variety of factors.
In general, you can expect to burn anywhere between 180 calories and 300 calories during a 60-minute weight lifting or strength training session.
Once again, consider your own fitness level, weight, the pace of your exercise, the intensity, and the amount of weight you are lifting.
However, there is a bit more to it than that, because there are specific exercises that make you burn more calories than others.
For example, compound exercises like deadlifts, squats, and even bench presses usually burn more calories than isolation or singular exercises such as biceps curls.
The more muscle groups you activate, the more calories you end up burning during a set period of time.
How Many Calories Does 30 Minutes of Weightlifting Burn?
If we do the math, considering that you can burn an average of four calories per minute when lifting weights, it is safe to say that you'll burn anywhere between 90 calories and 150 calories through a 30-minute weightlifting session.
How Many Calories Do Squats Burn?
Generally considered one of the best compound exercises thanks to engaging a variety of large muscle groups, the squat is capable of burning a good deal of calories.
While most people view the squat primarily as something designed to strengthen the lower body, many people ignore its ability to burn a high amount of calories.
This makes squats a great exercise for runners who want to train their legs while also burning calories.
You can expect to burn anywhere between 15 and 25 calories per minute while doing squats.
Now, of course, this number will differ from one person to another based on all of the different factors that we discussed above.
With that being said, your average barbell squat is capable of burning a lot of calories in a very limited amount of time.
Keep in mind however that to burn so many calories, lifting a good deal of weight is required. If you are doing basic body weight squats, you likely won't burn many calories, especially when compared to doing weighted barbell squats.
How Many Calories Does the Bench Press Burn?
As far as a compound exercise for the upper body is concerned, the bench press is often considered one of the best.
The reason for this is also because it engages several large muscles and muscle groups, including your shoulders, chest, triceps, and more.
If you are looking to develop muscular size and strength in your upper body, then the bench press is a great option for you.
What is also worth noting is that bench press generally burns more calories than other chest machines, such as the chest press.
If you weigh 160 lbs, you can expect to burn roughly 365 calories in a single hour of a bench press workout of moderate intensity.
Of course, how much you lift and how intense your exercise is plays a role here. The closer you exercise to failure, the more calories you burn because you're really challenging yourself.
How Many Calories Does Deadlifting Burn?
If we're talking about compound exercises that work out many different muscle groups, the deadlift is yet another one to consider.
Deadlifts engage your glutes, back, hamstrings, and quadriceps. If you're looking to engage your posterior chain, then the deadlift is often considered one of the very best exercises.
This is especially the case because it's very challenging as it engages some of the very largest muscle groups in your body.
With moderate deadlifts, it is possible to burn up to 450 calories per hour. Once again, less weight and fewer repetitions results in fewer calories burned.
However, what it comes down to here is that deadlifts, especially with a lot of weight, can be extremely challenging, and therefore burn many calories.
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How to Burn More Calories Lifting Weights – Top Tips
To maximize the amount of calories you burn lifting weights, here are some essential tips for you to follow.
- The intensity of your exercise plays a large role here. Therefore, exercising at a faster pace with less rest in between sets will help you burn more calories. The more you rest in between sets and the less intense your exercise is, the fewer calories you will burn.
- Try to always push yourself in terms of the amount of weight you are lifting. The more weight you lift, the more calories you have to burn to support that weight. Continuously increase the amount of weight you are lifting in small increments to challenge yourself on a regular basis. However, be sure that you are using proper form and proper safety measures because lifting too much weight can result in injuries if not done properly.
- A good tip to help you burn more calories by lifting weights is to increase your intake of certain substances, such as B vitamins and caffeine. Both B vitamins and caffeine can help boost your metabolism. With a boosted metabolism, your body burns more calories in the same amount of time, therefore allowing you to lose more weight.
- If you find that your muscles get too tired because you aren't resting enough in between sets, a good tip is to do super sets with two different exercises. This way, you can switch back and forth between two muscles or muscle groups, while maintaining a high level of intensity.
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Rounding Up
There are two main takeaways from today's article, with the first one being that weightlifting is indeed ideal for burning calories.
On average, expect to burn anywhere between 3 and 5 calories per hour by lifting weights and engaging in strength training routines.
However, this can of course vary greatly depending on the exercise intensity, the amount of weight you're lifting, the rest you take in between sets, your physical fitness level, and more.
The second takeaway is that if you want to maximize the amount of calories you burn by lifting weights and engaging in strength training, then the number one thing you need to do is to constantly push yourself.
By pushing yourself to failure and exhaustion, you can rest assured that you're burning more than enough calories.
