1,000 Calorie Workout: This workout burns a schnitzel with fries

Your body, your machine. You fill up their tank every day and start again – ready for new challenges. How much you consume when you activate the motor depends entirely on the demands you put your machine through.

The higher the speed you run, the more “fuel” you use up. And during intense exertion, the energy consumption lasts for many hours – even after you’ve long since settled back on the couch.

This is called the afterburn effect, scientifically correct also “Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption”, short: EPOC.

To get into that afterburn zone, you only need one thing: an intense workout—like our 1,000 calorie workout.

The 1,000 calories is about the equivalent of a deep-fried pork chops and fries or two bars of chocolate—so the workout can make up for a well-deserved cheat day.

Developed exclusively for us by sports scientist Elmar Trunz-Carlisi from the Institute for Prevention and Aftercare (IPN) in Cologne and his colleague Alex Winkler – once FIT FOR FUN fitness model of the year.

Test persons were able to prove that it works! Tester Sven Korn: “I run a marathon, but such an interval workout is a change for me too – and quite exhausting.”

Our interval program in a reality check

Three different types of men, one experiment: we sent athletes with fitness trackers to a workout check.

Conclusion: With our running and bodyweight circuit, you can already burn up to 900 calories during training – and the EPOC effect costs around 15 percent extra.

• Sven Korn: The Hamburg running coach is a marathon runner. He blogs about running at www.runsven.de.
• Kevin Henry: Crossfit is the real passion of the wiry content strategist from Munich.
• Albert Brown: For the strength athlete from Hamburg, interval training was an unusual challenge: “The intensive 1,000 calorie training really pushed me to my physical limits!”

Alternatives for the running intervals

The total workout time for ten exercises is around 80 minutes (40 minutes workout plus 40 minutes running). If you can’t run in a day, you can replace the run intervals with other cardio activities: jumping rope and cycling are also great building blocks.

With rope skipping instead of running units, for example, a 80-kilo man can burn almost 500 calories during our interval workout!

Such a circuit workout combined with intense cardio islands is one of the most efficient ways to burn as many calories as possible in one workout. Our concept of circuit training dictates a very short rest between sets, just 10 seconds, to keep your heart rate up.

Your individual calorie consumption naturally depends on physiological factors: age, gender, body size – and on your percentage of muscle mass and fitness level. A well-trained athlete will always burn more calories than an untrained person with similar physical conditions.

The exercises for the 1,000 calorie workout

For a good afterburn effect, a pulse range of 140 to 160 beats is recommended for the four-minute running intervals or cardio alternatives between the exercises.

An efficient circuit should always include exercises that target multiple muscle groups – so we’ve included burpees, support and crunch variations, and jumping elements. This way you can train all the main muscles in your body while improving your cardiovascular endurance and burning as many calories as possible.

Here are the exercises in detail:

Check: Which Studio Classes Demand the Most Calories?

Four women from the FIT FOR FUN editorial team also set out to burn calories – and tested offers from local fitness clubs with a calorie tracker.

Party on a bike at Hicycle

The concept: full-body workout with cycling intervals at Hicycle

“You pedal to a fat beat and at the same time train your torso and arms with weights or push-ups on the handlebars. The club atmosphere, the loud music, the training in the group, the coaches – all of that motivates. The HIIT workout is quite challenging, the sweat is pouring out. Sometimes I have to sit on the saddle, although you almost always cycle standing up. In 45 minutes I burned exactly 500 calories, up to 700 should be possible.”

HIIT at Urban Heroes

Workout mix of running and strength units at Urban Heros

“The 50-minute class consists of two interval sessions on the treadmill and two strength sessions on the floor. Since I’m not that fit at the moment in terms of endurance, I felt a little queasy in front of the treadmill. However, I was able to keep up well because you can choose from three speed levels. I was particularly motivated by the other participants – who wants to cheat on the speed when everyone on the left and right in front of you is flat out? Conclusion: exhausting, but varied. I burned 800 calories in 50 minutes.”

Warrior at Fitness First

Short, crisp, intense – but also fun in many Fitness First Studios

“Really hard, what is required here in just 20 minutes! The Warrior workout consists of four circuits, each with three exercises. Each circuit trains a different part of the body, lasts four minutes and should be completed according to the motto ‘As many reps as possible’. At the end you have completed a full body workout. And as if leg raises, kettlebell swings, rowing and the like weren’t exhausting enough, there are 90 seconds of non-stop burpees for everyone at the end! Calories burned: 350.”

Fat Burner Live Class at McFit

New at the McFit discounter: workouts with “real trainers”

“The 60-minute group fitness course sounded promising: The workout combines bodyweight exercises, elements on the aerobic step and spot running parts. The program is actually aimed at burning fat, i.e. getting the metabolism going at full speed. What I didn’t understand: that we should take a drink break every ten minutes. I really didn’t find it that tiring. My tracker reported a calorie burn of around 300.”

This is how you burn 1,000 calories in everyday life – without a workout

However, it does not always have to be proven training, because even everyday things cost energy: