Do Burpees Burn Fat 2024? Is It Effective? 

If you’re familiar with HIIT, CrossFit, or any of the other high-intensity fitness trends that the blogosphere is perpetually obsessing over, you’ve likely heard of burpees before. It’s a full-body ordeal, and it’s not for the faint of heart. 

Mastering burpees isn’t easy, but if you can manage a couple of sets a day, you’re going to start losing weight like there’s no tomorrow. Is it all hype, or are they really worth it?

What Are Burpees?

Burpees, also known as squat thrusts, are often called the best exercise for improving whole-body fitness. They’ve been shown clinically to be more effective in terms of weight loss than ordinary, uncompounded exercise alone. 

Essentially, a burpee is a squat, a push-up, and a jump, all done in succession and without rest. You repeat this sequence as one move, a single repetition (rep). 

It might not sound like a lot on paper, but this compound exercise is famous for being high-impact and absolutely exhausting. If you’ve never seen one done before, clear out some space. We’re about to give it a shot ourselves.

How To Do Burpees For Weight Loss

At first, doing a basic burpee can feel kind of silly. After a couple of rounds, however, you’ll start to see why fitness junkies swear by this intensive, fat-burning exercise.

One rep consists of the following: 

1. From a squatting position, with your core muscles engaged and your feet shoulder’s width apart, place both hands on the floor in front of you.
2. Shift your body weight to your palms as you press them into the ground. 
3. Kick your legs straight back, assuming a plank position.
4. Do one push-up without letting your core fall.
5. Hop both feet back into a squat position, just as you started.
6. Rise quickly, jumping up with your arms outstretched above you.
7. Land back into your squat.
8. Repeat as many burpees as desired. 

Some simple variations include keeping your hands behind your head as you jump up, as well as a version that has you doing sit-ups instead of press-ups. How else can you shake up your burpee workout routine?

Intensifying Your Burpee Workout: Burpee Variations to Try 

This exercise, granted, is already a full-body workout. There are plenty of ways to make your session all the more rewarding for your time, however. 

Sit-Up Burpee

Fans of the basic burpee can expect all the same from this exercise, but they’ll be focusing more intently on a different muscle group: the abdominal(ab) muscles.

From your squat, roll back and do a full sit-up. From here, you’ll roll back forward and perform the rest of the burpee exercise as usual.

Like all upper abdominal work, this burpee variation will be a winner if burning belly fat is one of your fitness goals. Other burpee variations in this vein include burpees with added side planks and kettlebell burpees, as well.

Burpee Pull-Up

If you have access to a pull-up bar at home or at the gym, you’ll definitely want to try a few burpees on it. This high-intensity exercise is great if you love burpees but worry that they focus too much on the lower body.

Instead of jumping into a standing position and then immediately squatting back down, you’ll grab ahold of the bar as soon as you’ve hit peak altitude. You’ll do a pull-up before your feet hit the floor again, in place of your usual push-up. 

Burpee Box Jump

Burpee box jump-overs add a platform into the mix – you perform the burpee at the foot of the box, as usual, only instead of jumping straight up and down before squatting again, you jump up onto the platform.

Once there, you’ll turn yourself around and hop back off of the opposite side, assuming your squat and plank once more as you face your previous starting position. Continue to hop back and forth over the block, switching sides every time. 

The Benefits Of Burpees

High-intensity interval training, in general, has been proven^[3] to be one of the fastest ways to attain high levels of fitness, the likes of which people like soldiers, Marines, and professional athletes strive for. 

Burpees are certainly no exception; with each push-up, you pump your way into a fitter, sexier, and more heart-healthy future. 

What are some other benefits of burpees? If you perform them as part of a HIIT routine, you’ll receive all of the same benefits that HIIT exercise brings to the table: turbo-charged weight loss, a constant rush of endorphins, and even improved social functionality, and a more positive outlook in life.

Other studies have shown^[1] that burpees are markedly capable of helping you increase your skeletal muscle endurance. Burpees burn fat, but they’re especially useful if you would like to increase other aspects of your fitness, such as your strength, stamina, and body composition.

If you’re able to sustain your burpees with cardio and strength training and elevate your heart rate to HIIT or near-HIIT levels for the entire duration of your workout, you’ll improve not only your appearance and physical capability but the strength of your pulmonary muscles and your aerobic ability overall^[2], as well. 

With an improvement in cardiorespiratory function comes an improvement in your performance as an athlete. Every time you commit to a round of burpees at the gym, you make your next set of burpees that much easier to manage.   

How Many Calories Do Burpees Burn?

The more burpees you can manage, the more calories you’re going to burn, and the more fat loss you’re going to enjoy as a result. How many calories a burpee burns will depend on a few factors, such as your weight, your fitness levels, and the amount of gusto that you’re able to make each move with as you work out. 

According to BurnedCalories.com, you burn somewhere around ten calories every minute that you spend doing burpees continuously, about the same amount as jogging briskly. Increasing the speed and frequency with which you perform each move will only give you more value calorically for your time. 

Are Burpees The Ultimate Workout?

We’re going to let you be the judge on this one; try a couple out, and tell us how you feel.

The best types of exercise all have one thing in common – they reach as many of your muscles simultaneously as possible, building your body up holistically as one single unit. Burpees and variations on burpees get your entire body moving, leaving nothing out in the cold. 

Your routine will be exactly what you make of it, no more, no less. As with any other type of exercise, there are no shortcuts. Adding some types of supplements, however, may enhance your workout routine.

Taking things one day at a time is easy when you’re always exploring something new at the gym; burpees are one versatile move that you can take with you anywhere, whether it’s leg day, a day, or simply time to sweat.

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