How Many Calories Do I Burn With Crunches?
Reading Time: 10 minutes When people sculpt their abs and do stomach crunches, they tend not to focus on weight loss, but rather on building up the abdominal muscles so that they can achieve that much-needed six-pack look.
It turns out however, that crunches also assist with weight loss.
But how many calories do I burn with crunches?
The answer may surprise you.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve noticed your jeans getting a little tighter, your knees hurting that little bit more, or your fitness levels lacking, if you decide that now is the perfect time to lose weight there’s a lot you need to consider beforehand.
Not only is weight loss about dieting and eating right, it’s also about exercise.
Everybody knows that you lift weights to build muscle, you do calisthenics to tone your muscles, and you do cardio to lose weight, right?
Wrong!
The truth is that all of the aforementioned examples of exercise we just mentioned will help you burn calories and lose weight.
Crunches in particular, are great for people looking to lose weight, burn calories, and get in shape.
What Are Crunches?
While there are all manner of different types of exercise out there, with each one designed to work the body and the muscles in different ways, stomach crunches are most definitely one of the most simple.
Stomach crunches require no specialist kit or pieces of equipment, and they are one of the easiest to master.
This simple exercise is designed to work the muscles in your stomach and your core and is designed to help build your abdominal muscles.
As much as they do work your abs, however, the thing you also need to realize is that crunches also burn calories and can help you to lose weight.
Like any other exercise or form of physical activity and exertion, crunches burn calories and can assist with weight loss.
If you wish to work your chest, you’ll do exercises like bench presses and push-ups. For working your arms you’ll do bicep curls and triceps extensions.
For working your abs and core, however, other than planks and leg raises, you won’t find a better ab exercise than crunches, or sit-ups, as they are known in some parts of the world.
Crunches are a calisthenics-based exercise which means that they use nothing but your body weight for resistance.
This is great because it ensures that you don’t need any more equipment and that you can do crunches pretty much everywhere.
Don’t worry, though, we’ll look at the benefits of crunches shortly. Believe that.
How Are Crunches Performed?
While there are a whole host of different variants of stomach crunches, the basic premise of the exercise is the same for all, which is what we’ll look at now.
Crunches typically require you to raise your head and shoulders off the ground when lying down, making sure to keep your legs firmly in place.
When you sit up, you should feel your abs contract and squeeze as you perform each rep. It’s important not to do too many, however, as too much volume is not conducive to building a six-pack.
But are crunches really as great for weight loss as some people claim?
Which Muscles Do Crunches Target?
If you’re looking to burn calories, sculpt your muscles, and build a physique that a Greek Adonis would be envious of, you best believe that you need to include plenty of crunches in your workout routine.
Stomach crunches focus primarily on your obliques, core stabilizer muscles, and your rectus abdominus, also known as your abdominal muscles.
These are responsible for giving you that much-desired six-pack look and are essential for anybody looking to build a lean and aesthetic physique.
Stretching up from your pelvis and pubic bone up to your ribs, your rectus abdominus is arguably the most aesthetic muscle group on your physique, assuming of course, that yours are visible.
The problem with building a six-pack is that, no matter how hard you work your abs, if you are carrying too much fat, your abs just won’t be visible.
For you to reveal your six-pack, you need to burn fat and get your body fat percentages to below 13%, or thereabouts.
This number is roughly where your abs will become visible, yet dropping down to body fat percentages that low is not easy.
Your ab muscles are not only there to help you to look pretty, and to flex and show off in the summer, they play practical roles in basic human anatomy as well.
Ab muscles help to stabilize you, they assist with balance, they assist with posture, and they help you to generate strength and power for other things too.
What Are The Benefits Of Crunches?
Don’t worry, we’ll be getting to how many calories I burn with crunches a little later on in this article.
Before we look at that in more detail, however, let’s find out exactly why many consider crunches to be the best ab exercise in existence.
Here are several key benefits of crunches.
Strengthen Your Core
Without question, one of the main advantages of performing stomach crunches regularly, is the fact that they strengthen your core.
Having a strong core is essential for so many everyday processes.
We need a strong core for flexibility and mobility, we need it for lifting weights and using our muscles, we need it for walking 10 miles, running, and moving in general, and we need a strong core to avoid injury.
Crunches help to stabilize your core and your spine, which means you can enjoy better balance, more power outputs, and better stability as well.
Strengthen Your Ab Muscles
Not only will crunches help you to strengthen your core, but they will also help you to strengthen your abs as well.
Having strong abs means that you can enjoy better balance and posture and that you can generate more explosive strength and power. Not only that, but it also means that you’ll be less likely to pick up an injury.
Performing stomach crunches regularly is a great way to strengthen your abs, which in turn will help you to become a stronger person by default.
Improve Your Appearance
Let’s face it, at the risk of sounding arrogant, most people agree that a six-pack is the defining feature of any aesthetic physique.
If you want to get in better shape and show the world just how hard you’ve worked, a six-pack is the ultimate flex – literally.
The thing to remember, however, is that six-pack abs do not grow magically. The abdominal muscles are exactly that, they’re muscles, and they need to be trained like muscles.
To build a lean, aesthetically pleasing physique that you can proudly flaunt at any opportunity, stomach crunches are perfect as they are the ultimate ab exercise.
Easy To Do
Unlike some other exercises out there, one of the most impressive things about stomach crunches is the fact that they are so easy to perform.
Whereas some exercises require a great deal of work on perfecting your form and technique, with crunches you pretty much just lay down, secure your feet in place, and sit up.
There’s a reason why basic stomach crunches are among the first exercises you are taught in school, and the reason is that they’re so easy to do.
Make no mistake about it, however, just because stomach crunches are so easy to do, that does not mean that they aren’t effective, because you bet your bottom dollar that they are.
No Equipment Necessary
If you want to perform a bench press, not only do you need weights but you also need a bench.
Most typical gym exercises require exactly that – a gym, and the equipment contained within. Not stomach crunches, however.
One of the best things about performing stomach crunches is the fact that they don’t require any equipment.
You don’t need weights, bars, dumbbells, benches, machines, exercise balls, mats, or anything else, all you need is a little open space.
With stomach crunches, the great thing about them is the fact that they don’t require any additional equipment, tools, kits, or accessories. You simply lay on your back, secure your feet, bend your knees, and away you go.
Can Be Done Anywhere
When you mention the benefits of stomach crunches, another hugely important benefit of this exercise is the fact that it can be done anywhere.
Because crunches require no equipment, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the gym, at home, at work, in the garden, at the park, or on the road, you can perform stomach crunches virtually anywhere, at any time.
Burns Calories
Although we’ll be answering the question of how many calories I burn with crunches, before we get to that question in more detail, allow us to quickly slip this benefit in for you.
If you’re looking to lose weight and get in shape, stomach crunches are very beneficial.
When you perform crunches your heart rate will increase and as you exert yourself your body will compensate by burning calories to generate more energy.
When you find out how many calories you can burn with stomach crunches, you’ll be amazed.
Take it from us, however, stomach crunches burn calories and are ideal for anybody looking to lose weight and get in shape.
Different Variations To Choose From
Another of the main benefits of stomach crunches is the fact that there are so many different variations for you to choose from.
Regular crunches may be easy to perform, but after a while, they will get a little repetitive and samey, which is why it’s good to mix things up every once in a while and try something different.
The great thing about crunches is the fact that there are so many different versions for you to choose from, so you can mix up your training and try different versions.
Even though each one is designed to target your abs primarily, they will hit them in slightly different ways, meaning you’ll get more from your workouts and your abs will become stronger than ever.
You can perform bicycle crunches, incline crunches, decline crunches, cable crunches, single-leg crunches, and many more besides.
How Many Calories Do I Burn with Crunches?
Okay, so, now that we’ve looked at some of the key benefits associated with stomach crunches, let us now take a look at how many calories you can burn with crunches.
If you are not only looking to obtain that elusive six-pack but are also looking to burn fat and lose weight for your abs to become more visible, crunches can certainly help.
Stomach crunches are a form of exercise, and like any other form of exercise or physical exertion, the more physically active you are, the more calories you burn.
There are, however, many more factors to take into consideration when it comes to determining just how many calories you will burn off.
Your age for example, will play a key role, as will your gender, your weight, and your genetics in general.
There is, therefore, no one true answer in terms of how many calories you will burn when doing crunches because that all depends on you.
With all of that said, we can give you a very rough overview and a general idea just to show you how many calories you could potentially burn off.
A person who weighs 125 pounds, for example, would burn off an average of around 45 calories with 10 minutes of crunches performed at a moderate intensity.
A 185-pound person, however, will burn off as many as 66 calories with 10 minutes of crunches performed at a moderate intensity.
If you were to step up the intensity however and speed up the tempo of the crunches, performing 10 minutes of crunches would allow a 125-pound person to burn off 80 calories, which is almost double those they would burn during moderate activity levels.
The 185-pound individual, however, would burn off 118 calories.
A very basic formula for calculating how many calories you would burn off during crunches would be as follows:
Number of calories burned per minute = MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) x 3.5 x body weight in KGs / 200.
To determine your body weight in kilograms, simply take your body weight in pounds, and divide it by 2.2. This is because there are 2.2 pounds in every KG.
Just to give you a rough idea of how many calories you could burn off, a typical individual will perform around 30 stomach crunches per minute.
Per 30 crunches per minute, they average 5 calories.
Now, say you were to perform 4 sets of 30 reps for crunches, to figure out how many calories you would burn off you’d multiply the total number of cals burned per minute by 4 as 4 works out as the number of minutes it would take you to perform 120 crunches in total.
This means that you’d burn 20 calories.
Just be aware that these are only rough guidelines as there are so many different factors to consider.
A much bigger and heavier person, for example, would likely burn more calories, whereas much smaller and fitter people would burn less.
Are Stomach Crunches Ideal for Weight Loss?
With everything that’s said and done, however, does this mean that stomach crunches are the best activity for weight loss, or should you choose something else?
Well, again, that depends on you.
If you are looking solely to lose weight, you can’t use crunches as your primary source of exercise. You’d be much better off performing cardio, resistance exercise, or a more high-intensity form of exercise.
If however, you incorporate crunches into these routines, coupled with a healthy diet and a calorie deficit, the pounds will melt away much quicker.
Final Thoughts
Now that we’ve answered how many calories do I burn with crunches, hopefully, things are much clearer and easier to understand.
Crunches are not the best exercise solely for fat loss, but if you want to lose weight, tone your abs, and improve your physique in the process, performing crunches and the different available variations, along with cardio and a healthy diet, is certainly very strongly recommended.
Are Crunches The Best For Fat Loss?
No, but they work your core, they strengthen your abs, and they still burn calories. For a simple calisthenic exercise, you couldn’t ask for much more.
