Which Helps to Burn More Calories: Working Out the Upper or Lower Body?

If you are looking to maximize your calorie burn during workouts, it stands to reason that the big engines of energy expenditure are going to be the biggest muscles of the body. So a bit of knowledge of human anatomy -- and where the muscles burn the most fuel during energy expenditure -- can help you understand why lower-body workouts have the most impact on calorie burn.

  1. Anatomy

    • Although the large latissimus dorsi muscles cover the back, and thus are found in the upper body, the even larger lower-body muscles take the cake when it comes to generating power. Your glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings, the body's largest, are responsible for providing force during exercise. Smaller upper-body muscles such as the pectorals, deltoids, abdominals and muscles of the arms can't compete in terms of exertion and caloric expenditure during engagement.

    Lower Body

    • Lower-body exercises use larger muscles than upper-body exercises, resulting in a higher rate of oxygen consumption. Because you have much more muscle in your lower body, this increased rate of oxygen uptake can be tolerated, which results in higher calorie-burn numbers than upper-body exercises. This explains why cycling at a rate of 14 to 16 miles per hour, which is predominantly a lower-body exercise, can help a 160-pound person burn 726 calories per hour. The body is much more efficient at distributing oxygen to working muscles in the legs than to both the legs and upper body at the same time, according to exercise researcher Len Kravitz.

    Upper Body

    • Aside from upper-body exercises such as pullups, pushups and medicine ball throws, it's difficult for upper-body workouts to compete with the calorie-burn potential of lower-body workouts. During exercise at a given intensity, upper-body workouts involve less oxygen consumption than lower-body or total-body workouts, resulting in lower calorie-burn numbers.

    Exercise Intensity

    • How many calories you burn during exercise depends to a great extent on how intensely you exercise. Even if you burn more calories during high-intensity exercises, you won't be able to keep them up for as long as low-intensity exercises, regardless of whether the workout focuses on the upper or lower body. Circuit training and interval training, where you combine exercises of both types and alternate between high and low intensity, may be ideal for weight loss.