Ask HN:How many calories can non-athlete burn in one shot without been exhausted
The amount of calories burned is based on my intensity and amount of time spent doing the activity. It&#x27;d not about being athletic, it&#x27;s about having endurance. I don&#x27;t consider myself fit. But I think the day with my most energy expenditure was when I spent a day just walking around New York City, 20 miles in about 10 hours. Both quantities seem like high numbers but the average speed is 2 miles per hour. It&#x27;s hard to walk that slow intentionally. I had my heart rate chess strap on the whole time and I averaged in the 150s and hit a high of 185bpm when I was rushing to make an dinner with a friend. That is about 1800+ calories burned. But then I have had days when I did 7+ mph for an hour each on a treadmill and elliptical and a 60 minute group yoga class in the middle and my max hr hit 208bpm. I estimated that I spent a minimum of 1200 calories that day. I have had a few months of going to the gym twice a day for 90 minutes each. I am 6&#x27;1&quot; and am around 230lbs, 25%+ body fat. I am not fit, I can&#x27;t run a mile at more than a jogging speed without getting tired.<p>I realized that I will need time to get to athlete level performance so instead I focused on the endurance.<p>I would say hitting 600 calories in 90 minutes is possible by everyone that&#x27;s fit enough to walk&#x2F;jog for that amount of time, a minimum average of 4.0 mph and at least 30 minutes at above 6.5mph. Being a non-athlete would mean you take 15+ minutes walk&#x2F;rest between each 10 minute jog.<p>I can comfortably say even now, after I took a long break from working out due to covid, I can do a 30 minute class&#x2F;jog then do 30 minutes in the evening and over 2 weeks work my way back up to 90+30. An hour of intense activity is 400+ calories as long as it&#x27;s a cardio&#x2F;high repetition centered session.<p>To answer your question, I think a  90 minute session with 600+ is reasonable and then 200+ calories in a 30 minute evening session. The evening doesn&#x27;t have to be intense, it could be stretching and yoga so you reduce the risk of injury. Yoga might need to be closer to an hour though because it might be harder to hit 200+ calories in just 30.<p>The difference between the actual calories burned and your goal of 1000 can be made up by taking care of your diet. 200 Calorie deficit with 600 calories burned during a workout is a sustainable lifestyle.<p>Some people say that exercise isn&#x27;t the solution to weight-loss but I think that isn&#x27;t completely accurate. If you work out intensely, you will feel more hungry and your diet would get worse even if you feel like you are eating the same amount. Diet without exercise feels so draining because you don&#x27;t feel any sense of accomplishment from not eating, just hungry. Accomplishing goals of working out longer are measurable.