I am not a runner. I am a walker. I walk every day, sometimes as exercise and others just as part of a busy life. I also work out regularly, but until very recently, my suspicions that the right type of weight training will burn more calories than running were only that, my own suspicions.

I just read an article at Prevention’s website which confirmed my suspicions that weight training does indeed burn calories and the right types of weight training can burn even more calories than running

” At a 10-minute per mile pace, you’ll fry about 10 calories a minute.

But if running isn’t your favorite activity, there are plenty of other modes of exercise that can help you torch calories at a lightning fast rate.

“In general, you burn more calories by doing high-intensity weight training than you do running,” says Harold Gibbons, a trainer at Mark Fisher Fitness in New York City, and the New York state director of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Most people don’t realize this, though. That’s often because the number of calories you’re told you just burned is typically estimated from The Compendium of Physical Activities, which calculates energy expended through aerobic metabolism. That works well for low- to medium-intensity exercise, but not so well for higher-intensity activities that rely on anaerobic metabolism.

In fact, when researchers at the University of Southern Maine used a more advanced method to estimate energy expenditure during exercise, they found that weight training burns up to 71% more calories than originally thought. Which suggests that a fast-paced circuit workout burns as many calories as running at a 6-minute per mile pace.

But resistance training isn’t your only option. There are also cardio exercises that can boost your burn, too. We found 10 exercises that will help you incinerate calories—without ever having to hit pavement.

Kettlebell Swing
This explosive exercise works the big, powerful muscles around your glutes and quads, and sends your heart into overdrive, according to research from the University of Wisconsin. In the study, participants burned 20.2 calories a minute and their average heart was 93% of its max for the course of a 20-minute workout. “The kettlebell swing works you so hard because it’s not a movement you’re used to,” says Dan John, a strength coach in Salt Lake City and the author of Intervention. “You’re not super efficient at it, which taxes your body.”

The Article goes on to explain how several other activities can burn off as many calories as running. I like the rowing and kettle bell myself. Let me know which ones work for you!

Valentina Boonstra