How many squats does it take to burn 450g of body fat?
How many bodyweight squats would you have to do to burn about 3500 kcal, or 450 grams (almost half a kilo) of fat?
From the translator: this is a question that has fascinated me for years. I realize that the answer differs for every individual and depends on a great many things, but still: how many kilocalories does a single bodyweight squat burn, even on average? The article below may offer some kind of answer. Of course this is pure theory, but it’s intriguing all the same!
The squat is a popular exercise, done both with added weight and with just your body weight. Squatting engages a large part of the body, especially the entire lower body. It is a high-expenditure exercise, and when it comes to burning fat, burning calories is usually one of the goals. As we know, regulating calorie balance is the key to controlling your weight. Since everyone squats at a fairly different pace, it is impossible to give one calorie figure that fits everyone. In that situation, it makes more sense to look at how much time it would take to do bodyweight squats to burn 3500 kcal, which in theory means burning about 450g of fat.
Correct squat technique
Squats can be done in many ways: using your body weight, using a barbell or holding dumbbells. In general, the technique and body position are very similar across all variations. The most important thing is controlled execution. You should also first work out whether you are more of a knee-dominant or a hip-dominant squatter. Usually the feet are shoulder-width apart, the back is straight, your gaze is forward, and the descent starts by pushing the hips back. Don’t overdo the bounce at the bottom. The thighs should go down to at least parallel. Then you simply repeat the movement.
Calories burned per minute
How many calories you burn depends on many things, such as body weight, the speed of the movement, your personality and so on. According to What’s Cooking America, we can find the calories burned per minute of bodyweight squats by multiplying our body weight in kilograms by 0.2112. If you weigh, say, 100 kg, you burn 21.12 kcal in one minute of bodyweight squats. To find out how many minutes a person weighing 100 kg would need to squat to burn 3500 kcal, you divide: 3500 kcal / 21.12 kcal, which rounds to 166 minutes. In other words, in theory, to burn 450 grams of fat with bodyweight squats alone, you would have to squat for an average of 166 minutes.
Knowing how many calories a given activity burns is a great help. Every 450 grams (1 pound) of fat holds about 3500 kcal. Creating that much expenditure through squats alone is pretty brutal and would take hours. But if you still want to get rid of fat through squatting alone, know that the facts are, on average, what the calculations showed. Whether you do nothing but squats, spreading them across different days, or fit them into your daily activity as just one part of it – that is up to you.
Original article here: The Number of Squats It Takes to Burn 3500 Calories
Author: Janar Rückenberg (translation)
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