It’s no secret what you have to do to lose weight; eat less and exercise more. But what do you do when you need a tougher workout in order to continue your weight loss progress? There’s a simple answer actually; find a more efficient way to burn a lot of calories!

{Running, jumping and winning; a great way to lose weight!}

Forget spending endless hours in the gym in front of a mirror trying to burn calories by lifting weights and running on a treadmill—although those are totally effective too—and get competitive. Sports provide you with a more exciting and challenging way to burn more calories.

Keep reading to find out which sports you need to do to burn more calories!

Why Sports?

Sports are a great way to burn more calories because of their competitive nature. When you’re competing you work harder to win and you’re not watching the clock to make sure you’ve put in your 45 minutes of cardio.

Because there is a goal to competitive sports, more than just finishing them, you are more likely to engage in these activities. These sports will help you burn more calories, which can help you reduce your risk of weight related illnesses like heart disease and chronic health problems. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute recommend weight loss of 10% to see a decline in risk of obesity related illnesses, but some studies indicate results with just a 4% to 5% decrease in overall body weight.

Basketball Game

Strap on your favorite pair of sneakers, grab a few pals and hit the nearest basketball court if you’re looking for sports for to burn more calories. One hour of competitive basketball can help you burn tons of calories—mostly from running from one end of the court to the other—while keeping your heart healthy and strengthening your legs.

In addition to improving your stamina and coordination, an hour of competitive basketball can burn 745 calories per hour for a 205-lb. individual. If the game takes longer to win, it’s a bonus for you because you get to log more calories toward your weekly calorie deficit.

Rowing

You don’t have to be on the rowing team at Harvard to appreciate the insane amount of calories burned in just one hour of vigorous rowing, although I’m sure it helps!

Rowing is truly a full body workout, giving you a healthy dose of cardio along with working your arms, back, legs, core and shoulders. Why should you row vigorously? To win the race, of course!

Spend one hour in a boat rowing to the finish line and you could burn 981 calories if you weight 180 pounds and 1,117 calories if you weight 205. Participate in a rowing race just once a week and you’re 1/3 of the way to burning off an entire pound for the week! Not a bad trade off for rowing until your legs and arms are on fire, right?

Cross Country Skiing

If nothing gets your heart pumping like winter sports for to burn more calories, then consider cross country skiing. Often thought of as the boring step-sister to the more exciting downhill skiing, a cross country ski race is a good way to work up a sweat while it’s cold and burn tons of calories.

Never mind that you’ll probably burn another 100 calories simply suiting up for the race, but you’ll also burn more than 1,300 calories if you weight 205 pounds. Gliding through the snow in a race for the finish line can help you burn more calories than traditional exercise but it’s also an incredibly exciting way to burn 1,144 calories if you weight 180 pounds!

Just think when you’re done your reward can be a hot cup of green or oolong tea!

Cycling

Nothing takes you back to childhood more than hopping on 2 wheels and racing your friends to your favorite hangout. Well when it comes to sports that burn more calories than traditional exercise, cycling is back in fashion.

Strap on your safety gear and challenge your friends to a bicycle race—loser buys sushi for everyone else!

I know what you’re thinking; I can just hop on a bike at the gym and burn tons of calories instead of inhaling carbon dioxide bicycling on the road. Unfortunately when the pride you feel about winning isn’t on the line you won’t push yourself as hard, which means you won’t burn as many calories. The difference?

Bicycling at the gym for 1 hour burns 372 calories for a 205 pound person, while bicycle racing burns an impressive 1,489 calories per hour for that same person. And if you weigh 180 pounds, you will still burn off an inspiring 1,308 calories in an hour.

Jai Alai

Those of you looking for an extreme sport that’s fun and burns enough calories to make it worth the risk, look no further than the popular world sport known as jai alai. Played on a court with 3 walls, a ball and a cesta, jai-alai is like racquetball at more than 100 miles per hour!

The game of jai alai is a major calorie burner due to the swinging of the ball and running to the ball. This game is also considered quite dangerous thanks to the high speed at which the ball travels, but if you have the stomach for this sport you will be rewarded after one hour of play with between 980 and 1,117 calories burned! And if you don’t get a massive bruise because you didn’t move fast enough, chances are you also have won bragging rights.

Jai alai is a great sport to burn more calories than an hour of traditional exercise.

Martial Arts

Whether you’ve always had dreams of beating those jerks at Cobra Kai, looking to learn self-defense or even a little discipline, learning martial arts is also a great way to get in shape.

In addition to teaching you the discipline that will help you make healthier food choices, every hour of martial arts training you attend will burn between 817 and 931 calories! Learning to protect yourself while losing weight is a win-win situation, and when you consider how many calories will be burned during a martial arts competition you’ll be burning calories faster than you can count them!

BONUS CALORIE BURNER: Step Aerobics

Ok so the 90’s are over but I’m sure plenty of you out there still have a step gathering dust someplace in your home. If not I’m sure you have a neighbor (or mom) happy to part with theirs.

Why should you go back to this 90’s exercise craze? For starters it is one heck of a calorie burner, in addition to being a super fun way to burn calories. Step aerobics can be done at home or at a class at your local gym. Although not a sport, step aerobics burns 695 calories per 1 hour for a 180-lb person and 791 calories for a 205-lb. person!

The competitive nature of sports makes you work harder and longer for the glory of the win, which is why these sports burn more calories than traditional exercises.

If you’re tired of counting calories and worrying about food all day long, read our review of Eat Stop Eat. Intermittent fasting might help you worry less about calories and more about getting fit!