Exercises That Increase Metabolism

The more intense your workout, the more you’ll temporarily increase your metabolic rate (in other words, burn calories). But anything that gets your body moving will use extra calories, whether it’s gardening, household chores, or running after your children. Some research has shown that slim people tend to fidget more than others. That alone might burn hundreds of calories a day.

Many people who start exercise programs compensate by moving less during the rest of the day and/or by eating more calories. Watch out for these tendencies if weight loss is your goal.

With any exercise routine, consistency is key. It’s also important to get your doctor’s OK if you’re just starting out with exercise.

Endurance exercise

The most efficient way to burn calories is with heart-pumping aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, or jumping rope. You might also hear this type of workout called endurance or cardio exercise. Experts suggest a minimum of either 150 minutes of moderate cardio activity or 75 minutes of vigorous cardio activity every week.

Endurance exercise makes you breathe faster while it boosts your heart rate. Doing it regularly improves the health of your heart, lungs, and circulation system. This reduces your risk for many serious health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes

High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

In HIIT, you include short bursts of higher-intensity exercise into your workout. For example, you might walk briskly for a minute or two, then run or jog for 30 seconds at a pace that feels intense for you. You repeat this process until your workout is complete. 

How many calories you burn depends on your size and what kind of workout you do. But you can expect to burn more calories during an HIIT session than during a steady-paced workout of the same length.

There’s even some scientific evidence that HIIT keeps your metabolic rate up for longer after you exercise than other types of workouts. For example, one small study found that women who did HIIT running workouts burned more calories after their exercise sessions than women who did aerobic endurance exercise or high-intensity strength training. This effect lasted up to an hour.

Weight training

Weight-lifting burns calories while it builds muscle. Depending on your size, you might burn around 126 calories in a half-hour of weight-lifting. And the benefits likely don’t end there. One small study found that, after six weeks of strength training, formerly inactive women had higher metabolic rates even though their body compositions didn’t change much.

For maximum health benefits, include both strength and cardio movements in your exercise routine.

Dancing

Dance is a type of cardio exercise that may appeal even to people who don’t like going to the gym. It helps improve balance and coordination while it burns calories, and it can be a social activity as well. How many calories you burn depends on what type of dancing you do. Faster-paced types, such as aerobic dance, can burn up to 500 calories per hour, depending on your size. Slower styles, such as ballroom dancing, burn around half that.

Swimming

Swimming is a low-impact, whole-body aerobic workout that people with various body sizes can do. Even people with physical limitations can swim comfortably. It’s easy on your joints and helps you stay flexible.

It’s also an effective calorie-burner, partly because it requires your body to work against the resistance of water. How many calories it burns depends on your size, how fast you swim, and what stroke you do. You might burn up to 900 calories an hour doing the butterfly stroke and about 225 calories an hour treading water.

Brisk walking

Walking is a type of endurance exercise that’s low-impact and easily accessible for most people. It’s a great place to start if you’re just beginning to exercise. You might start by walking for 10-15 minutes, then add five minutes to your walk time each week. 

Walking is not the fastest way to burn calories. You’ll use about half the calories in 30 minutes of walking that you would in 30 minutes of running. But the faster and longer you walk, the more calories you’ll burn.