From summer sports to winter activities, sports can keep you fit while also helping you lose weight. Find out which sports can burn the most calories and decide which is the right one for your lifestyle.
Discover the best sports for weight loss and enjoy an outdoors activity that will help you stay healthy, while also having a good effect in helping you lose the extra pounds.
Running
You don’t need any special equipment or teams to go running. You can burn a lot of calories, depending on your speed. If you’re looking to burn over 1,000 calories, you should know that an running for an hour at a pace of an 8-minute mile can burn over 1,150. If you go faster, the 6-minute mile can help you burn around 1,4000 calories if you manage to keep it up for 60 minutes.
Swimming
One of the best sports for weight loss, swimming doesn’t have the same negative long term effect on your joints, but you won’t burn as many calories as running. If you want to stick to a moderate pace and simply do freestyle laps, an hour of swimming can help you burn between 400 and 600 calories depending on your weight (the heavier you are, the more calories you’ll burn). If you go for breaststroke or butterfly stroke, you can burn over 850 calories an hour.
Kickball or Soccer
You don’t have to play soccer professionally to benefit from its excellent workout and weight loss benefits. You can burn over 400 calories in an hour of kickball. If you do choose to play a full soccer 90-minute match, this sport will help you burn even more calories, as long as you’re not the goalkeeper. With a lot of running involved and quick reflexes, you’re also likely to tone your muscles more efficiently.
Beach Volleyball
If you’re not looking for anything too structured, beach volleyball is one of the best sports for weight loss and for having fun with friends. Running on the beach burns a lot more calories than on solid ground, because you constantly have to pull your feet up from the sand. You’ll burn over 450 calories in a single hour of this fun sport.
Tennis
Even if it only burns around 300 calories per hour, tennis is a great workout, that includes everything from running to bending. Tone your arms and lose the extra weight with this stylish sport than can keep you on your toes and also improve your reflexes.
Racquetball
One of the best sports for weight loss, racquetball can give you a similar workout as tennis, except you’re free to set your own pace when you’re playing alone. For a casual game of racquetball, you don’t have to keep score in order to lose anywhere from 400 to 600 calories, depending on your weight.
Basketball
If you want to engage in a team sport, basketball is also a great workout. Just don’t confuse shooting hoops with playing basketball on a full court. The constant running and lunging, along with the quick movements for changing direction, will give you a great workout. If you keep moving, you can lose up to 700 calories in a single hour of full court basketball.
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Skiing
Definitely one of the best sports for weight loss, skiing is a fun outdoors activity, but you can also burn a lot of calories with a ski machine indoors. You can burn between 650 and 850 calories per hour when you go downhill or cross country skiing. At the ski machine, a single hour of exercise will burn over 700 calories.
Ultimate Frisbee
If you’d like a lighter version of basketball that’s still played in teams, try Ultimate. You’ll be running around the field a lot, and you’ll also work every muscle group while twisting and bending. You don’t have to play it at a competitive level to burn anywhere from 500 to over 650 calories with an hour of Ultimate frisbee.
See also: Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight from Your Hips?
Skating
Whether you prefer rollerskates or rollerblades, skating is definitely one of the best sports for weight loss. Whether you go for the team sport approach or do it on your own, you can burn around 650-700 calories while skating. If you’re already close to your target weight, you’ll burn more calories with an active sport like skating, more than you would lose if you chose swimming.
