Burning 1000 Calories: 7 Ways to Do It + How Long It Takes

Is It Safe to Burn 1,000 Calories Per Day?

For most people, it’s not safe to burn 1,000 calories per day through exercise. 

Depending on what kind of activity you do, you need to work out for over an hour to burn that many calories and it takes a long time to build up to that level of endurance. Plus, if you do higher-intensity workouts, it’ll be difficult to do them every day without getting injured or burned out.

Registered Dietitian, Avery Zenker, advises:

“In order to use 1000 calories for exercise, it’s likely not going to be a walk in the park (pun intended). There are a number of factors that impact how much each individual will burn during any given exercise. A group of people could all do the same workout, but use different amounts of calories. Some factors that impact our energy/calorie expenditure include body composition (amount of fat vs muscle etc), height, sex, weight, and more. Certain health conditions also can increase or decrease energy expenditure.”

Trying to burn 1,000 calories per day also becomes problematic if you’re eating a dangerously low number of calories, as this can be a sign of an eating disorder. If you’re trying to burn a high number of calories to offset behaviors such as binge eating, you need to consult with a medical professional.

Registered Dietitian, Sarah Gaginis, advises:

“My concern with thinking about calories burned during exercise is that it contributes to rigidity around exercise, which can be a slippery slope for disordered eating and eating disorders. Exercise should be about enjoyment and feeling good, not counting calories. Using the number of calories burned as a goal might seem like a good motivator at first, but it can be distracting from other health goals and create an unhealthy relationship to exercise.”

Factors to Consider When Burning 1,000 Calories

Everyone burns calories at a different rate based on several different factors, some of which are out of your control. Some considerations to take into account when trying to burn 1,000 calories include:

• Your gender. Men tend to burn more calories with physical activity because they generally have more muscle mass.

• Your age. As you get older, you lose muscle mass, which burns more calories than fat.

• Your body weight and body fat percentage. It’s easier for larger individuals or those with high body fat percentages to burn more calories with exercise. They have more mass to move, and it takes their bodies more energy to function properly.

• How in shape you are. Someone who’s new to working out may burn more calories with exercise than someone with a strong fitness background. People whose bodies haven’t yet adapted to physical activity may burn at a higher rate.

It’s also important to note that calorie counts on activity trackers and cardio machines can be incredibly inaccurate, so you can’t always tell exactly how many calories you’re burning. The best way to determine that number is to get a heart rate monitor, preferably one with a chest strap. Fitbod calculates calories burned based on the volume of weight lifted during a workout and the duration of the workout. It also uses your weight, height, gender, and age, which refines and improves the estimation of calories burned. 

Weight is a required entry for Calories Burned to be estimated. Input your weight by either connecting Apple Health (for iOS) within the Fitbod app (this will use your height and weight data from Apple Health) or input your weight manually (for Android). Plus, if you have an Apple Watch, it will even factor in your heart rate when calculating calories.

Alternatively, you can use a metabolic equivalent of task (MET) calculator, but these kinds of calculators only work well if you’re very honest about how much effort you’re putting into your workouts.

Related Article: How Long Should A Workout Be? (Science-Backed)

Do You Need to Burn 1,000 Calories Per Day?

Burning 1000 calories a day through exercise is not advised. Instead, we recommend focusing on exercise that increases muscle, like resistance-training workouts, since muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

According to ACE, here’s an average of how many calories you can expect to burn during an hour-long workout doing weight training exercises.

Fitbod builds you personalized workouts by combining cardio and resistance training so you burn calories during your workouts and build muscle to also burn calories when you’re at rest. You can also use Fitbod’s body composition feature to get a more comprehensive view of your body’s fat, muscle, and bone structure. 

Registered Dietitian and Master of Science, Juliana Tamayo, explains:

“In general, burning 1,000 calories a day is not recommended. For the most part, 1,000 calories are burned slowly throughout weekly periods by introducing different exercises, including cardiovascular exercise, strength training, rest, and recovery. When you focus on only burning calories every day, you run the risk of over-exercising and injury. Also, the amount of time needed to burn this large amount of calories is not sustainable for everyone on a daily basis.”

Keep in mind that your body continues to burn calories while you’re at rest. This is what’s referred to as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the number of calories your body burns by performing life-sustaining functions such as the beating of your heart, breathing, and circulation. You can lay in bed, not moving for an entire day, and still burn calories.

Most people don’t spend their days that way. As such, you also need to consider how many calories you burn per day through a combination of the life-sustaining functions mentioned above plus all of your other daily activities, including working out. This is referred to as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

You likely already burn at least 1,000 calories per day just by existing. Doing things like walking to and from the parking lot at work, running after your kids, cleaning the house, and of course, exercising all contribute to your daily calorie expenditure.

However, you likely also eat more than 1,000 calories a day. And when you don’t burn off as many calories as you consume, it can lead to weight gain since you’re not expending all of that extra energy.

Many people tend to underestimate their calorie consumption and overestimate their activity levels, which is especially problematic when you’re trying to lose or maintain.

This may lead you to believe that you need to burn as many calories as possible through exercise, and you’ll punish yourself with long, intense workouts.

But the truth is, it’s not really necessary to burn 1,000 calories a day through exercise alone, even if you have weight loss goals. While it can certainly help, it requires a lot of exercise that many people either can’t handle or don’t have the time for.

Zenker notes:

“There’s a common phrase: ‘You can’t out-exercise a poor diet,’ and there’s definitely some truth to it. A holistic approach that includes a balance of healthy diet, quality sleep, physical activity, and stress management helps set us up for our wellness goals better than only focusing on one part.”

So instead of slogging through grueling workouts to try to burn 1,000 calories in one shot, you’re better off burning more calories throughout your entire day. Some of the ways you can do this include increasing your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) — or ways that you move your body without exercising — and getting in at least 8,000 steps per day.

Not sure how to get started with working out? Check out the Fitbod app and try your first workouts for free.

How Much Weight Will You Lose by Burning 1,000 Calories?

Most experts agree that you need to have a 3,500-calorie deficit per week to lose one pound. So if you burn 1,000 calories per day — or 7,000 calories per week — you could lose 2lbs per week.

However, it’s not that straightforward. Your rate of weight loss depends on your training age. Your training age refers to how many years you’ve been doing strength training. So for example: 

• A 20-year-old who has been lifting weights since 14 has a training age of 6. 
  
• A 40-year-old who has been lifting weights since 39 has a training age of 1.  

It also comes down to what kind of training you do, how you eat, and other genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors.

Mayo Clinic Endocrinologist Dr. Michael Jensen also advises focusing on nutrition before exercise when trying to lose weight:

“Having an immediate change in eating habits, and then gradually increasing your physical activity until you have a comfortable, active lifestyle is probably the best combination.”

To make things more complicated, your progress will eventually stall when you’re on a weight loss plan. You can only sustain a 2lb/week rate of weight loss for so long. Think about it — if a 200lb person was able to consistently lose 2lbs/week, they’d lose close to half of their body weight in a year, which is an unrealistic expectation.

Furthermore, trying to lose weight at such an aggressive rate isn’t sustainable in the long term. It can also lead to a loss in muscle mass, which is usually the opposite of what many people want.

Burning 1000 calories in a single workout simply isn’t realistic for most people. Instead, it’s more feasible to break down your calorie burn into a series of workout sessions throughout the week. 

The average workout on Fitbod lasts an hour and burns nearly 400 calories. So, if you do two to three 1-hour Fitbod strength training workouts per week, you’ll burn 1000 calories. The best way to increase your calorie burn with Fitbod is to select “Tone muscle and lose weight” as your goal. This will give you higher reps with lighter weights in a circuit training format so your heart rate stays more elevated. It will also give you more cardio.

You can also eat 250-500 calories less than your maintenance calories — which you can determine using an online TDEE calculator — and increase your NEAT calorie burn through your daily activities. By following a more reasonable approach, you can expect to lose 0.5-1lb/week.