A primary goal for many fitness enthusiasts is losing weight while maintaining or building muscle. Weight loss requires a strategic approach combining diet and exercise, resulting in a caloric deficit (burning more calories than consumed). You might wonder how many calories do push-ups burn and whether they are effective for weight loss.

Push-ups only burn about seven calories per minute. This is not significant, considering you must burn 3500 calories a week to lose one pound. While there are multiple components influencing calories burned, push-ups may not be the most effective way to lose weight.

Certain people will burn more calories than others due to genetic and lifestyle factors like gender, age, fitness level, and diet. Alternatively, fitter individuals who perform pushups more quickly will burn more calories per minute than those who move more slowly. 

Although push-ups are not an efficient method for weight loss, they still effectively build strength and sculpt the upper body. They also improve functional performance in many daily tasks like lifting boxes, reaching for objects, and carrying groceries.

Read on for details regarding calories burned by doing pushups, factors influencing caloric expenditure, and other methods for losing weight.

How Many Calories Do Push-Ups Really Burn?

As mentioned above, most individuals burn an average of seven calories per minute of continuous push-ups. This number is an estimate and can increase or decrease depending on multiple external influences. Some of these factors include body weight, fitness level, age, and gender.

A person with an above-average weight may burn 8–10 calories per minute, while a lighter individual may only burn 5–6. Men and younger people typically burn more calories than women and older people due to a higher basal metabolic rate. This rate refers to the number of calories burned at rest, which will impact overall caloric burn during exercise.

However, although the traditional push-up doesn’t burn a significant amount of calories, some alternations or variations may burn more. For example, adding a weight onto your back, or increasing your speed might result in more calories burned. 

Furthermore, adaptations like the decline push-up, spider push-up, or pike push-up provide a different stimulus, resulting in a greater challenge. These variations fatigue the muscles in a different way, which can burn more calories than the classic version.

What Affects How Many Calories Are Burned?

A variety of factors contribute to how many calories are burned during push-ups. Most of these are related to body composition, age, gender, and lifestyle behaviors. For example, people with more muscle mass generally burn more calories due to muscle tissue’s greater caloric-burning ability. 

Additionally, as mentioned earlier, men on average burn more calories than women due to having higher testosterone levels. Testosterone is a hormone that contributes to muscle building and thus influences a higher caloric burn.

Younger individuals burn more calories than older people because their bodies are still growing and developing. This process naturally requires energy, generating caloric expenditure.

Lifestyle factors influence calorie-burning potential, such as diet and physical activity levels. Active individuals are generally more fit than sedentary individuals, allowing them to perform more push-ups in a shorter timeframe. Therefore, these people will be able to burn more calories per minute because they can do more push-ups. 

Regardless of your lifestyle, here are a few tips to ensure you’re getting the most out of every repetition:

• Make sure to use a full range of motion to engage all muscles involved and improve mobility and flexibility.
• Focus on the mind-muscle connection during each exercise. Concentrate on contracting and stretching the target muscle group to achieve maximum activation and optimum results.
• Ensure you are engaging the core to encourage trunk stabilization, reduce lower back pain, and improve posture.

Push-Ups For Weight Loss Is Not A Good Idea

Weight loss is complicated and must be strategically planned to do so safely and healthfully. It requires combining multiple elements, including diet planning and exercise to achieve a caloric deficit. This refers to burning more calories than you consume, which ultimately results in weight loss.

While push-ups are a beneficial exercise, they are not efficient for losing weight. You must burn 3500 calories a week to lose one pound. Continuous push-ups for a minute will only burn an average of seven calories. 

You would need to do a ton of pushups to burn enough calories for weight loss. This could result in muscle imbalances and improper form leading to injury. Push-ups are still part of an effective workout routine, but incorporating cardio or high-intensity training will burn more calories.

Conclusion

While push-ups are a beneficial workout, they do not burn a lot of calories. If weight loss is your primary goal, there are other exercises you can perform that will be more effective. Some of these include steady-state or high-intensity cardio training which results in greater caloric expenditure.

However, while push-ups may not be the most beneficial workout for weight loss, they still have many benefits. Some of these include building strength and toning the upper body and core muscles. By programming push-ups into your routine along with cardio training, you can lose weight while building strength and muscle.

Frequently Asked Questions