How Many Calories Do Burpees Burn?

Squat, plank, pushup for lower chest, plank, squat, jump, and all over again. Are these six different exercises? Not at all. These challenging and quick movements make one repetition of a burpee. Burpees, despite their funny name, are a physically demanding and multifunctional activity. Initially, it was created as a fitness test [1] to measure agility and coordination. However now, it’s a part of workout plans, races, competitions, etc. If it’s so arduous, how many calories do burpees burn? How many burpees a day will make you fit a strong? What if you do 100 burpees a day? In today’s article, we will provide all the details about burpees, their forms, and their benefits.

What Are Burpees?

Burpees are a unique and vigorous calisthenics exercise. They engage major muscle groups in your body as long as one burpee includes 4 types of movements. It allows you to do pushups, lift your body off the ground, and take a plank position before jumping up in the air. Burpees work your torso because it absorbs the force from the landing and jumping. The posterior chain of muscles is trained while doing the plank; the quadriceps are used when jumping up.

Since burpees train the entire body, they are often used to check your fitness and endurance level.

How Many Calories Do Burpees Burn?

How many calories do you burn doing burpees? This is probably the most frequently asked question. Typically people assess the exercises, not by their benefits, but by the number of calories they help to burn. And this approach takes you the wrong way. 

Counting calories is very individual because there are too many things to consider – weight, height, the intensity of training, time, repetitions, and age.

Approximately, an average person would burn around 10 calories for every minute of doing burpees. It takes roughly 20 burpees to do in 1 minute. 

There’s also a special formula to calculate your calorie expenditure for different types of sport using the MET value (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) of Burpees.

The MET value of Burpees is 8.

METS x 3.5 x BW (KG) / 200 = KCAL/MIN

We have a person who is 170 lbs (70 kg) who performs burpees for 15 minutes.

8 x 3.5 x 70 /200 = 9.8 kcal per minute

It makes almost 150 calories per 15 minutes of burpees and 300 calories in 30 minutes. Looks like a pretty good deal, till you try to perform them at least for 1 minute.

So, how many calories does a burpee burn? 1 burpee is 0.5 calories. 

How many calories do 100 burpees burn? Around 50. However, intensity matters. 

How many burpees to burn 100 calories? Obviously, it’s around 200 burpees.

Now, let’s imagine: you decided to snack with chips. 28-30 grams of potato chips 🍟are about 150 calories. For how long do you need to exercise not to gain extra pounds after such snacks?

And next time when your hand is automatically reaching for another piece of cake 🥧, which is around 400 calories, imagine how many burpees it takes to burn these minutes of pleasure.

 What Are Some Benefits Of Burpees?

Performing a burpee is an effective way of burning calories, making your body stronger, and improving heart health. It helps to regulate blood pressure, burn calories, and lose weight and fat. The benefits are countless [2].

• They Are A Full-Body Workout

A burpee is a calisthenic exercise that combines several simple movements which call on the muscles of the whole body. They are among the best exercises for increasing overall balance, strength, and endurance. Burpees also increase your speed and agility due to the constant change in direction.

•  Maximum Calorie Burning

Burpees are highly demanding forms of exercise. According to the calculation, a person burns around 10 calories in 1 minute. However, weight can affect the number of calories burned during exercise. The higher it is, the more energy you need to spend to burn the calories. 

• Improves Cardiovascular Fitness

Burpees are done at intensive intervals. The number of repetitions depends on the person doing it and their current fitness level. Burpees combine a whole-body workout with both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Performing them, your heart rate and respiration increase which in the long term leads to cardiovascular endurance

• Convenient And Versatile

Burpees belong to the types of physical activity, performed basically everywhere. Moreover, you can you kettlebells or barbells, to increase the workload, however, it’s optional. And as a result, we have a highly-effective workout, which engages all the muscle groups without any additional equipment.

• Improves Balance And Coordination

Burpees, like the majority of bodyweight exercises, help you develop balance and coordination because you have to be in an active state the whole time. All the movements are quick and require your muscles to contract and relax while working out. Performing the exercise, you must control every movement and keep the proper form to reap all the benefits from it.

• Improve Muscular Endurance

Burpees work perfectly for building endurance and strength. They can be done in many variations, but it’s important to keep a proper form throughout the movement. The correct technique keeps you away from injury, improves performance, and strengthens like nothing else.

• Weight Loss

Apart from having strong muscles, your will surely increase your muscle mass and melt body weight. It goes without saying, that you need to perform with full force to reach your goals. At the very beginning, you will take a slow pace; however after some amount of time, your technique will improve, and you’ll be able to exercise more and faster, burning more and more calories.

How Many Burpees Do I Need To Burn 100 Calories?

According to the MET formula we have counted above, 15 minutes of active burpees will burn around 150 calories. It sounds like a simple thing to do, but in reality, it’s far harsher. Burpees require lots of strength, which is not something you are born with, but something you acquire through practice. The more regular training you have, the better results you’re gonna get.

However, keep in mind ‼️ – sweating hard while working out will lose its value if straight after it you’ll buy a dessert as an encouragement.

Burpee variations

Diversity helps you avoid boredom and engage different muscle groups. Before we look at the variations, let’s deal with a standard burpee.

The procedure:

1. Stand straight, and lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor in front of you. That’s a starting position.
2. Kick your legs back into a push-up position and drop your chest to the floor.
3. Return your feet back to the squat position as fast as you can.
4. Make an explosive leap into the air as high as you can.
5. Clap overhead in midair.
6. Return to the standing position and repeat as many times as you can.

The Reverse Burpee

The Reverse Burpee is an effective exercise worth including in your routines. It will help you to develop your leg strength, simultaneously giving a good workout to your core, quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. It’s quite challenging but the calories burned are worth the effort.

The procedure:

1. Place your feet hip-width apart, extend your arms up pointing forward or out in front of you; tighten your core.
2. Push your hips back and bend at your knees lowering your butt to the bottom squat position. Lean backward and roll your back onto the floor bringing your knees towards your chest.
3. When your knees are pulled in, lift your butt off of the floor and place most of your body weight onto your upper back.
4. Kick forward in the reverse direction and place your feet back on the ground. Without using your arms, get your body up. Tighten your core for that, use the muscle strength but DO NOT USE YOUR HANDS.
5. Drive your heels into the floor and move your feet into an explosive leap.
6. Land with your feet shoulder-width apart to quickly move into the next repetition.

Repeat for your selected number of reps and sets.

The Ball Slam Burpee

Yet another multi-functional activity, which engages different muscle groups and helps you burn every extra calorie you have. By doing this exercise you will increase your athletic performance, strengthen your muscles and raise your heart rate for cardio benefits too. The best of both worlds combined in one!

The procedure:

1. Put a medicine ball on the floor with both of your palms down on it. Jump with your legs backward. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet.
2. Lower your body towards the floor, keeping your elbows tucked close to your sides. Breathe in and bend your elbows until your chest is touching the medicine ball.
3. Breathe out and press your body back up by extending at your elbows and squeezing your chest.
4. Jump your feet back up to the starting position and grab the medicine ball with your hands placed on the sides. Bring the ball close to your chest.
5. Breathe in as you push your hips back and bend at the knees lowering your body. Pull your shoulders back and keep your chest high. Keep lowering your body until the crease of your thigh passes your knee.
6. Breathe out and explosively reverse the direction pushing your heels into the floor.
7. When you reach the 3/4 squat position, begin to extend your arms and press the ball up to the wall in front of you. The ball should leave your hands when you reach the top of the squat.
8. Catch the ball and place it back on the floor in front of you.

Repeat for the desired time or number of repetitions.

Pistol Burpees

Reverse burpees are an excellent workout to build overall body strength. It looks like an ordinary activity, however, the benefits are extensive, as it includes several types of exercises. The pistol squat is effective in building legs and glutes strength. The reverse crunch targets the lower abs. The handstand helps to build upper body strength.

The procedure:

1. Stand on your right leg and hold your left foot 6-12 inches off the ground. Hold your hands together in front of your body.
2. Bend your right knee and lower your butt down to your heal.
3. Keep your left leg straight the whole time and off the ground.
4. Stand back up using your right leg.
5. Bend at the hips and knees; reach down and put your hands on the ground.
6. Extend your legs out behind and place your right foot on the ground keeping your left foot in the air.
7. Keep your hands on the ground and bring your right foot back under you.
8. Stand up as quickly as possible, keeping a straight line.

 Repeat the movement using the legs in turns.

Kettlebell Deadlift Burpee

This workout is a combination of high-intensity interval training: the burpee to build endurance and a deadlift for whole-body strength and power.

The procedure:

1. Begin standing with a kettlebell in each hand. The weight mustn’t be too heavy, just to allow maintain good form.
2. Keep your flat and straight back, bend your knees and push your hips back until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
3. Place the kettlebells on the floor, outside your feet. With your hands on the floor, jump your feet backward and perform one push-up. Then jump your feet forward between your hands.
4. Stand up with your kettlebells. Continue as many times as possible.

The bottom line

Burpees belong to HIIT and calisthenics exercises that require lots of endurance and persistence. By performing burpees you strengthen your body and train all the large muscle groups. The calories you burn increase with every minute of burpees. As we counted, you burn roughly 10 calories in a minute. Of course, we need to consider other important factors for a precise number like weight, height, etc.

To do a burpee you need nothing but desire. At the initial stage of the workout, you don’t need to buy any additional weights. Just when you feel you have mastered the technique, you can move to other variations. The benefits of performing burpees will not be noticed at the beginning, because you’ll be focused on the sore muscles mainly, but it’s just a part of the deal.

If you want to do burpees to burn fat and lose weight, avoid rushing into the quantity at first – 30 minutes of exercising will seem like torture. Master the quality, let your body learn this exercise and muscles adjust to these movements – start with 10 – 20 burpees and see how it feels. Choose your pace and go slow but firm.

The first results – toned-up legs, torso, and arms – will make a perfect source of your further motivation.

Don’t forget about rest days, which work great for your muscle recovery.

FAQs

Are Burpees Good For Weight Loss❓

Burpees are extremely beneficial in weight loss respect. Calories burned doing burpees depend on how intense your workout is. Besides, it's important to consider your nutrition, If you don't keep to the basic rules of healthy food consumption, don't get surprised if there are no changes on the scales.

How many calories do 30 minutes of burpees burn❓

10 calories you burn while performing burpees for 1 minute. If you can withstand this exercise for 30 minutes in a row, with a 30-40 seconds break, you'll burn around 300 calories. But can you really do it from the very beginning? Mind your body, health, and strength.

How many calories do 25 burpees burn❓

1 burpee is approximately 0.5 calories. So, by performing 25 burpees you would burn around 10-13 calories.

Sources:

1. International Standards for the 3‐Minute Burpee Test: High‐ Intensity Motor Performance

2. Burpees Aren’t a Bad Exercise! The Practical & Scientific Reasons Why