Calories Burnt Doing Crunches

It is a well-known fact that exercising on a regular basis in important for everyone, especially those who are overweight. Your body burns calories while you engage in any form of physical activity, especially exercising. Therefore, exercising every day can help you lose weight and reach your desired weight range at a faster pace. Many people prefer to know exactly how many calories they have lost during a workout session, so that they can plan their caloric intake accordingly. The calories burned while exercising depends upon the type of exercise you are engaging in. Some of the other factors that also have an influence on the number of calories burned exercising include the duration for which you work out, your metabolism, your age, your body weight as well as the intensity with which you exercise.

Most people who work out at the gym using machines like the stair stepper, a stationary cycle or the treadmill can get to know how many calories they have burnt while exercising. This is because most of these workout machines have an inbuilt calorie counting device, which analyzes many factors their body weight, workout intensity, duration and speed, before telling them approximately how many calories they burned. However, if you lift weights or engage in other exercises like crunches or pushups, then it may be a bit more challenging for you to know the exact number of calories burned at gym, during a single workout session. In such instances, you need to consult your fitness instructor, who can give you a rough idea about the calories burned through crunches, situps, pushups, and so on.

Calories Burned With AB Crunches

Crunches are not easy and performing even 4 or 5 sets of them may feel like a huge task, at least in the beginning. There are several different types of crunches that you can engage in while working out and the calories burned doing crunches may vary, based on the type of crunches you are performing. Some of the most common abs crunches include:

Traditional crunches
Abdominal crunches on an exercise ball
Vertical leg crunches
Long arm crunches
Reverse crunches

However, do bear in mind that crunches are a part of anaerobic exercises, which means that they are mainly beneficial for muscle development. Therefore, the calories burned during abdominal crunches may be quite low, as compared to other aerobic exercises, such as jogging and running.

In case you are aiming for 6-pack you’re your instructor will ask you to perform AB crunches on a daily basis. However, performing abdominal crunches can help you burn no more than 4 to 5 calories per minute, depending on your body composition. Therefore, you burn only around 120 to 150 calories or so, after 30 minutes of abdominal crunches.

Health experts claim that an average person who weighs 150 pounds burns around 1 calorie after every 10 crunches or so. Therefore, the calories burnt doing 100 crunches is only 10 and the calories burnt in 200 crunches, which could take a very long time, is around 20. It is very difficult for a person to do 400 or 500 crunches an hour. Moreover, the calories burned while doing 500 crunches is as low as 50.

Calories Burned With Situp And Crunches

The number of calories burned through situp and crunches depend on the duration of your workout as well as the intensity. On average, a person weighing around 150 pounds can burn up to 9 calories a minute, during a set of situps and crunches. You can burn no more than 270 calories even if you practice high-intensity situps and crunches for half an hour at a stretch, which is quite a challenging task for just about anyone.

Calories Burned Through Pushups

In case you are trying to lose weight, by burning fat it is best for you to engage in exercises other than pushups. This is because pushups are quite strenuous and are fairly challenging to perform, yet, they do not burn an impressive amount of calories. After performing pushups for around half an hour at a stretch, an average person weighing 150 pounds can lose around 250 calories to 280 calories or so. Of course, there are very few people who can engage in pushups for more than 15 minutes or so.

Many gym-goers wonder why their fitness instructors insist on including situps, pushups or crunches in their workout routine, if these exercises do not help in burning fat and weight loss. However, these exercises are great for building muscles and toning up though they may not help you lose any pounds. For weight loss purposes, it is best that you add some form of aerobic exercise to your weight loss routine. Cardio exercises increase your heartbeat, causing you to burn more calories. Some of the best cardio exercises for weight loss purposes include walking, running, swimming, cycling and jogging. Before following any workout routine, it is important to consult a fitness instructor as well as a doctor and get an approval.

Submitted on January 16, 2014