A couple of months ago I set myself a challenge to burn 10,00 calories a week.
First of all, why would you even want to burn 10,000 calories a week? what are the benefits, how much weight would you lose, and more importantly is it even possible?
According to several studies 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, so burning 10,000 calories a week will burn around 3 lbs (1.3 kg).
So one of the main benefits of even doing this is that you will definitely achieve your desired physique much quicker.
Below we will show you the best way to go about burning 10,000 calories (burning 3 lbs) a week. And provide you with 10 research-driven techniques on how to do this optimally and start seeing results. let’s begin!
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is our first recommendation to anyone who is ready to start burning 10,000 calories a week and for one simple reason. it works!
Intermittent fasting involves fasting for 16 hours a day and eating within an 8 hour period. You can pick whatever time to be your feeding window but it must be within an 8 hour period.
So how is this going to help you burn 10,000 calories a week?
well first of all this is not a diet because there are no strict rules in terms of what type of food to eat. It’s merely just being in a fasted state for an extended period of time to maximize fat loss.
It maximizes fat loss by reducing insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and is released when you consume carbohydrates or a high protein meal. Insulin has been shown to be linked with weight gain.
Let’s take a look at the symptoms of high insulin levels according to Manipal Hospital:
- Frequent and extreme hunger
- High craving for sugar
- Weight Gain
- Lack of motivation
- Anxiety
According to several studies, intermittent fasting reduces insulin levels dramatically and increases natural growth hormone. Natural growth hormone increases your body’s capacity to burn additional calories.
Fasting for a long period of time reduces insulin which prevents fat loss.
Figure Out Your Maintenance Calories
Figuring out your maintenance calories first is very important when trying to lose 10,000 calories a week. This is very easy to do you can simply use Bodybuilding.com’s calorie calculator once you figure out how much calories you need to maintain your weight you will then need to figure out how much of those calories you need to cut to burn 10,000 calories a week.
Since 3500 calories = 1 Lbs, 10,000 calories = around 3 Lbs. This means you need to burn around 1429 calories a day to reach your goal of 10,000 calories a week (3-pound weight loss a week).
So all that you would need to do is find your maintenance calories for me it’s 2255 (I’m a moderately active 5’8 male, 171 pounds). Once you figure out your maintenance and you decide how much you would want to reduce your caloric intake you should match that with your activity rate. For example, my maintenance is 2255 calories if I eat at around 1555 calories a day that’s a 700 calorie deficit but I still have to burn an additional 729 to make up for my daily goal of 1420 total calories burned. You can do that by simply choosing an intense workout to do today and track your calories burned with a fitbit or any calorie tracker. Check out our burn 10,000 calorie a day guide for inspiration on high-calorie burning activities.
Pick A Workout Plan & Don’t Look Back
At this point, we found your optimal calorie intake and we will enhance the effectiveness of your calorie intake even further with intermittent fasting. But all you need to do now is pick a workout plan and stick to it. At least for 30 days commit to one program. It can be whatever you want yoga, weightlifting, spinning..etc. Just pick a plan or a youtube series and stick to it for a month. As you get better week by week you can challenge your self by changing up the routine in. a month’s time and going for something more advanced but for now your main focus should be to stay consistent and pick a plan and commit to it.
Daily Weigh-ins
It’s crucial that you way your self daily to know whether you should adjust your workout intensity or diet. Weighing your self daily will allow you to know whether you’re on track with your goal or not. Even if you’re not burning the number of calories that you would like to, weighing your self daily you will allow you to know how much more or less you should do to hit the right number.
Add To Your Workout With N.E.A.T
Neat stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, which in simple English means the number of calories you burn while you’re not in the gym or working out. The gym will account for 1-2 hours of your day but what about the other 22 hours?
By simply walking a couple more steps can burn a ton more calories. So next time rather than take the bus just walk or cycle it will definitely benefit you. I occasionally take the long way to work so I can burn more calories through cycling. By doing this I’m able to burn more than double the calories I burn at the gym because in the gym you’re limited to an hour or two whereas with NEAT there is no limit.
According to LifeHacker, you can burn an additional 150 calories an hour by incorporating NEAT to your day.
Dump Some Ice In Your Tub
Exposing your body to cold temperatures have been proven to burn calories this works because your body wants to maintain a temperature of 98.6 degrees. Once the temperature decreases your body will burn calories to bring your body temperature back up to 98.6 degrees.
Drink Some Coffee
Research has shown coffee to be an extremely effective way to shed a few calories. According to researcher Michael Symonds, this works by stimulating what is known as “brown fat”. Brown fat produces heat in your body by burning sugar and fat.
Burn Fat Not Muscle
Burning 10,000 calories a week is all well and good until you start burning muscle. Burning muscle is the last thing you want to do because it slows down the fat-burning process. To limit this you must consume 0.8g to 1g of pound of body weight. This will limit the chances of being catabolic. You can also take some Bcaa’s (Branch Chain Amino Acids) which replenishes your muscle and keeps it for being catabolic.
Sleep Better
Quality sleep is crucial when it comes to weight loss. Lack of sleep or even bad quality sleep has been proven to cause changes to hormones that stabilize hunger. One of your fat-burning hormones known as leptin gets negatively impacted by poor quality or lack of sleep.
Know That It’s Possible
10,000 calories a week is 3 pounds of fat a week burned which is definitely achievable.
People have burned 10,000 calories a day! by doing what’s known as the 10k a day challenge, yes these are people who are in good shape (and I’m not recommending doing the 10k a day challenge) but it is possible. So 10,000 calories a week is definitely achievable and is possible by following the steps mentioned above. Above all stay consistent and keep track of your progress and you will achieve your goal in no time.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, burning 10,000 calories a week is definitely achievable. Your focus should be to stay consistent follow a plan and go for it. As mentioned above it’s crucial to check your progress daily this will allow you to know whether or not you’re doing what it takes to reach your goal. It also helps by keeping you motivated, burning 10,000 calories equates to 3 pounds of body fat. 3 pounds a week is definitely an incredible achievement and will help you reach your desired physique much sooner than you thought possible.