QUESTION: Hi Tom. I have asked several other experts about thisand so far no one seems to give me an EXACT answer. Some trainers tell me I have to go steady and nonstop for 30 minutes straight or more to burn fat. Others tell me I have to do intervals and they have to be in a certain ratio of sprint to recovery. I’m getting tired of my cardio ritual and would like a change. I love basketball. I could play for an hour and enjoy everyminute of it, and I FEEL like i’m getting a good workout doing it. But is it really the same as something like a good run?
Thank you,Dan
ANSWER: Dan, I just plugged basketball into my calories burned calculator and it says that if you weigh 185 pounds, moderate basketball(full court game play) burns 839 calories per hour.
Moderate basketball (non-game) is 528 calories per hour. I’mguessing “non-game” means either half court or just casual playwith your buddies.
Either way, 528-839 calories burned per hour sounds like a goodfat burner to me – especially the all out- full court BB ball. Don’t you agree?
Basketball also gives you a wide variety ofdifferent physical challenges and intensity levels – running down the court,jumping, pivoting, shooting – and you said you enjoy it.
If you feel guilty when you finish your game, as if you didn’tburn enough, when the game is over, just run intervals up and down the court… do about 8-10 of them or until you yak.(just kidding).
In the most recent edition of my Book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (version 2.0), I have clarified my position on cardio quite a bit to remove any confusion. My recommendations haven’t changed much…. I’ma very strong proponent of exercise and becoming more active to burn fat rather than just cutting calories. However, I changed some of the language to make it clearer that fat loss is about BURNING calories and that your choices for HOW to burn them virtually infinite.
The problem, in my opinion?
The word “Aerobics” sets people off… especially the macho guys.
There’s an instant emotional connotation carried in the word “aerobics,and it’s negative for many people.
“Aerobics” is also usually a very narrow definition making fora fairly small list of choices.
I like the word “cardio” a little better, because it’s a little broader, but even “cardio” carries with it some pre-conceived notions and it’s unclear whether various types of “cardio” exericse are good fat burners.
Is basketball cardio? I suppose it depends on your definition.
Is basketball a good fat burner? Sure. But you might not think so if you were inflexible about how you define exercise and training.
What I would do if I wanted to most clearly define what makes a good fat burner, I’d recommend that you focus on:
“INCREASING ENERGY EXPENDITURE” (BURN MORE!)
This description leaves the choice of activity up to your own personal interpretation and personal preference.
Is 500 to 800 calories per hour a lot of energyto expend? You bet. Better still is the fact that you enjoy it.
I know, I know, everyone wants to be told EXACTLY what to do; how many minutes, what intensity, what type, what heart rate, blah, blah, blah, and gurus are infamous for being dogmatic about their systems as the “best way” or “only way.”
But what if Dan loves basketball and Tom loves the Stepmill and Joe loves to jog and Kyle likes calisthenics and John likes kettlebells and Suzy likes kickboxing? Then what?
By changing your language and focusing on increasing “energy expenditure” (Burning more), that should change your conception of what efficient fat burning exercise is.
DEFINITION OF GOOD FAT BURNING EXERCISE =
High # of total calories burned/expended
DEFINITION OF GREAT FAT BURNING EXERCISE =
High # of total calories burned/expended and high # expended per unit of time
DEFINITION OF WHOOP-ASS FAT BURNING EXERCISE =
High # of total calories burned and high # burned in a short period of time and you love doing it! It’s play time!
Fat oxidation and excess post exercise energy expenditure andall that other scientific stuff (that I could bore you to death talking about) does matter, but your primary focus should be on:
1) Burning as many calories as you can in the time you have.
2) Finding something you like to do.
3) Focusing on RESULTS above all else… Is your body fatdecreasing or not?
Last, but not least, don’t forget that optimal fat loss is achieved with a three-part approach including nutrition, weight training and “cardio” training. I’m NOT saying that basketball should replace your strength training. I’m suggesting that basketball or other sports can be a perfectly viable alternative to traditional aerobics or cardio if they’re high energy cost activities.
Using my new definition for fat burning exercise should help lift the fog of confusion that has been created by only defining fatburning exercise as”aerobics” or “cardio.”
The word “Aerobics” is somewhat restrictive in scope and definition. The possibilites for “expending energy” are endless.
So now, go forth and BURN THE FAT… however you choose to do it… just do it!
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
PS. By the way, you see some fat dudes in the NFL, but you don’t see a lot of fat jiggling around the court in the NBA do you?
PPS. Info on the latest version of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (version 2.0) can be found at: www.BurnTheFat.com
I have a similar situation as I have been doing 45 minutes on the stairmaster at 145-155 HR and have decided to mix it up by running. I only run about 1.5 miles but this I feel is a great way to shock the body and jack up the intensity a bit. I dont run fast but man I am telling you….way more intense than the stairmaster…just for a shorter period of time.
Hello Tom,I read attentively your newsletter I was amazed at the explanation, not a bit of similarity with other explanations given him or me anytime. I love the way you explain things so clearly Tom. thank you.Best regardsGerta
Hi Tom,I have a few questions for you, like everyone els but I looked around and couldn’t find the answeres. I was wondering if u have to run for 45 min. 7 days a week in order to get the body a person dreams about? My problem is that I can run for only 10 minutes straight or so, but then I need a brake so I walk for a bit but when im ready I run again. I also bring water with me on a run, I dont drink it, I swish it like a hockey player, or poor it on myself. I ussually endup going for 30minutes, i try for 45 but then I start to get cramps which ur not supose to run with so I have to stop, then I go home and do some excirsizes for about 30minutes to an hour.
Tom,Thank you!!! I’m glad to hear that it’s ok to do something you like to burn fat. I’ve been doing an additional 30 to 45 minutes of intense cardio (i.e. tread climber, treadmill, etc.) or HIIT to burn fat after I’ve already completed 20 to 30 minutes of intense muay thai training (3-4 min. rounds with 15 sec rest between rounds for a total of 6 to 8 rounds). I am completely exhausted when the training is over and at times have to drag myself for additional time on the treadmill at 4.5 mph. I also integrate a circuit or heavy weight lifting routine 3 to 5 times a week. I figured with my nutrition being clean and all the cardio I do, I’d burn fat, but my “nutrition coach” always tells me to do something else other than kickboxing, because I’m not “keeping my heart at a steady rate”, so to instead do walking (they consider that a 7 RPE) once a week, HIIT twice a week and some other type of cardio at a 9 – 10 RPE twice a week for 30 to 45 min. I’ve been competing in figure for close to 2 years and they’ve always told me “no kickboxing” without an explanation, until just recently.There have been many arguments between my fiance and I due to this, because he’s always told me I’ve burned the most with muay thai and he dislikes my coaches very much and feels they don’t know a thing about prepping for shows. My team has the most wins, so they must be doing something right.Is what I’m doing not enough? Especially when prepping for an upcoming show?
As a Lifestyle Fitness Coach and Personal Trainer I receive a lot of e-mails and newsletters from fitness gurus. Tom, yours is the only one I read everytime and come away feeling like I’ve learned something new or had my own thoughts on fitness validated.I love your “no-nonsense” approach and your answer to this question is perfect. Doing what you love doing is going to produce better, long lasting results than forcing yourself into the gym and then quitting as soon as you’ve reached your goal only to slip right back to where you started.Becky (lifestylefitnesscoaching101.com
Tom, I like reading your newsletter from time to time I have something to add to the question of is basketball good for fat loss:its a simple test you can do and I often tell my clients this…give it the ole, “what do the pros look like” testlook at pro basketball players they play a lot of basketball and are extremely lean… you can apply this with swimmer, sprinters, etc
Tom, this is such a great post. So many people are stuck on “following a specific formula” to lose fat and you clearly state that to burn fat, you have to be ACTIVE, no matter what you do.So other experts I follow state clearly that they don’t do the “traditional cardio” but rather, for example, mountain bike for an hour or so.Denise: I am also a martial artist and I must say: BE CAREFUL. Muay Thai is a very challenging martial art, I know, I’ve taken classes before. If you are crawling after a class and you drag yourself to the cardio machine, please, be careful. You’re borderline over training. If you are not losing the fat, check the other parametes: are you strength training? is your nutrition plan in check?This is a mistake a found a lot with martial arts, they don’t eat right. So, be careful, we don’t want you to injure yourself.
Tom,I’m a dietitian and diabetes educator. I work with people every day who have a block against “exercise”, “aerobics” or “cardio”. They’ve forgotten that when we were kids “exercise” was playing at the park or being out in the front yard with our friends until the street lights came on and mom yelled at us to come in. Thanks for reminding us all that whatever type of “cardio” we do we should enjoy it.Keep up the good work.L. Ron McIntosh, RD
Hey Tom,Loved the post, I’ve been playing basketball all my life and still am, and what I have noticed is that recreational basketball, is only as good as a workout as you make it. For example, if you tend to have a good shot, people tend to slack on playing hard defense, running hard and basically cheat around the running which keeps your heart rate going, because they can make it up by shooting better than the opponent. In that case an hour on the treadmill is a much better workout, however if you hustle every play, play hard defense and just keep running, not only will you get in better shape but you burn more calories. So keep burning that fat peoples!!
I think the most important aspect of this question is that doing what you enjoy will help you stay with your plan in the long term, which is ultimately what will make the difference, but I want to point out two other things…Sports help with accountability. My capoeira teacher notices if I miss two weeks of class and gives me a hard time, but I doubt the receptionist at the gym would.Also, I think many bodybuilders focus too much on the aesthetic results of training, and forget that the point of building muscles and a great body is to USE it. Sports train all your muscles to work together, instead of focusing on them individually, as well as improving balance and flexibility (depends on the sport of course). Running and weight training are great exercise, but sports train your body to work together as a whole, which is ultimately how you are going to end up using it in your everyday life.
Awesome post Tom. People forget that if you want to lose weight you can “play” and still lose weight. Your right people hear the word exercise for fat loss and immediately they think of suffering and boring forms of exercise. PLAY to lose weight and create a caloric deficit. That’s what its all about as you have very clearly pointed out before. Create a deficit and as you pointed out playing full court basketball will do that. Thanks Tom.
Tom -As always an excellent and informative response. If someone were in doubt as to how many calories they burn doing basketball (or any other activity) as opposed to more conventional cardio, they could wear a heart monitor and compare their calorie expenditure between the two activities. That way they could know if they are an all out high intensity calorie burner, or more of a slow calorie burner on the court. It never hurts to monitor intensity.
Tom, I like reading your newsletter from time to time I have something to add to the question of is basketball good for fat loss:its a simple test you can do and I often tell my clients this…give it the ole, “what do the pros look like” test look at pro basketball players they play a lot of basketball and are extremely lean… you can apply this to swimmer, sprinters, etc