If you want to maximize your calorie burn then you must first understand how we burn calories. Most of the calories you burn in a day are due to your metabolism, or basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR accounts for 60% to 75% of the total calories you expend in a day. Your metabolism is the rate at which you burn calories doing everyday normal activities including during sleep. So even at night your body is expending energy (burning calories) to maintain basic bodily functions like breathing, circulating blood and more.

The remainder of the calories you burn come from two different sources. The first is thermogenesis, or the processing of the foods we eat. This includes the process of digesting, transporting and absorbing the the foods. This process uses about 10% of the total calories expended in a day.

The second item that dictates how many calories you burn is your activity level and makes up the remainder of the calories you burn in a day. If you do not expend more calories than you consume, this leads to weight gain. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, meaning your burn more calories than you eat, then this leads to weight loss. In order to maximize your weight loss then you want to maximize your workouts. Here are some tips to help you get the most from your calorie burning exercises.

Eat Up!

Don’t go into your workout on an empty stomach. You need to fuel your body in order to get the most from your aerobic and strength training routines. If you have the proper nutrients you can workout harder and longer and will burn more calories. You want to have a low carbohydrate, high protein snack or meal about 90 minutes before your workout. The high protein helps build muscles and the more lean muscle you have the higher your metabolic rate. Which in turns means you burn more calories even when you are not exercising. The low carb means that instead of using up the readily available fuel for energy (which comes from carbs) your body will use stored energy, or fat, faster for it’s fuel source.

Be careful not to eat too soon before your workout as this can lead to stomach cramps as blood may rush to the stomach to help with the digesting process. Also, don’t wait too long after eating as your body will use up the energy source for basic body functions and you will not be properly prepared for a great workout.

Warm Up, Strengthen, Move Into Overdrive

In order to maximize your calorie burn you want to start with a warm up. Warm up for at least five minutes to prepare your body and muscles for the upcoming workout. If you are doing just a strength training workout then you do not need to stretch, however it never hurts to include this step as well. But if you are doing an aerobic workout, don’t forget to stretch your muscles before moving into overdrive to minimize injury.

If you want to combine them all, which is a great way to increase the amount of calories you burn, then start with strength training. Why you ask? Well it takes our bodies about 15 minutes to really warm up and start burning maximum calories. Strengthening exercises are a great way to warm up your body without diminishing your calorie burn. This is because these types of exercises do not burn as many calories while performing them. Instead, they are geared to build lean muscle mass which increases your metabolism.

Aerobics on the other hand can burn a lot of calories. However, due to the intensity of these types of exercises, many people will only do aerobics for about 30 minutes. So why spend the first 15 minutes warming up the body and not getting the most from your calorie burning workout.

Stay Active

In addition to your structured workout, stay active all day. The calories burned from exercising and your activities is accumulative. This means every walk up and down the stairs, every walk down to the store, playing with the kids or dog adds up for the day. Even being fidgety like tapping your fingers or bouncing your leg expends energy and keeps your metabolism going.

So don’t let that hard workout go to waste by sitting down on the couch. Instead, get up and get moving doing chores, gardening or playing with the kids will help you burn more calories and lose weight faster. You can use this free exercise calorie counter to track the amount of calories you burn from your workouts.