Burpees and Energy Expenditure

The amount of energy expended (or calories burned per minute) varies according to:

1. Your weight: The amount of calories burned by your body does not depend on your weight alone, since a higher bodyweight requires (relatively) more energy expenditure to move.
2. Intensity of physical activity/exercise.
3. Your metabolism.
4. Your level of physical conditioning (including current level of practice and efficiency).
5. The number of repetitions, sets, and total time of the physical activity/exercise.

It is has been estimated that:

1. High-intensity interval-style training/workouts will burn between 8 and 14 calories per minute;
2. In general, a person will complete between 10 and 20 burpees per minute.

“These are the approximate amount of burpees an average person weighing around 70kg would have to do in order to burn off certain foods.” (Steen, 2017).

1. Big Mac: 506 burpees.
2. Doughnut: 218 burpees.
3. Slice of cake: 493 burpees.
4. Snickers: 236 burpees.
5. Caesar salad: 671 burpees.
6. Sub sandwich: 402 burpees.
7. Pizza: 1,266 burpees.
8. Ice cream: 90 burpees.
9. Cookie: 141 burpees.
10. Lollies: 644 burpees.
11. Meat pie: 437 burpees.
12. Frappuccino: 233 burpees.

Dr Jeff Godin (PhD, CSCS, and Spartan Coach) (2014) has conducted some research in this area, resulting in the following kcals per burpee by bodyweight (Table 1).

Table 1: Calories burned by bodyweight for burpees
Bodyweight (lbs)	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190	200	210
kcals per Burpee	0.95	1.03	1.11	1.19	1.27	1.35	1.43	1.51	1.59	1.67

References

Godin, J. (2014) Burpee Equivalents: Understanding Junk Food in Terms of Your Favourite Exercise. Available from World Wide Web: https://fatshapetofitshape.wordpress.com/…/burpee-equivale…/. [Accessed: 19 February, 2018].

Steen, J. (2017) This Is How Many Burpees It Takes To Work Off 13 Popular Foods. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/…/this-is-how-many-burpee…/. [Accessed: 19 February, 2018].