What Burns the Most Calories: Situps or Step Aerobics?

Whether you want to keep active to maintain a healthy body or lose a few pounds of fat in anticipation of your summer beach holiday, picking exercises that burn calories quickly is important. Situps and step aerobics are exercises you can perform at home or in the gym, and while each is effective to keeping you in shape, step aerobics burn calories faster than situps.

  1. Situps

    • Situps are a simple body-weight exercise that are easy to add to your gym or home workout regimen. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Link your hands and hold them at the rear of your neck. Engage your core muscles and bend at the waist to lift your chest to your knees, then lower your upper body back to the ground to complete one repetition. The target muscle of this exercise is the rectus abdominis, or ab muscles.

    Step Aerobics

    • Step aerobics classes take many forms, but a standard class involves up-tempo movements aided by an adjustable step you can raise to increase the intensity of the exercise. According to the American Council on Exercise, benefits of step aerobics include improved cardiovascular function, management of your weight and improvement of your mood. Although you can take a step aerobics class at your gym, you can also practice this workout at home by following DVDs or online programs.

    Calories Burned

    • The calories you burn during any activity depends on your weight and the intensity and duration of the activity. According to HealthStatus, a 160-pound person will burn 108 calories in 20 minutes of performing moderate-intensity situps, and that person will burn 195 calories in 20 minutes of performing vigorous-intensity situps. The website reports that the same person will burn 169 calories while performing 20 minutes of low-impact step aerobics and 256 calories while doing 20 minutes of high-impact step aerobics. As such, step aerobics burn more calories than situps.

    Considerations

    • Although situps don't burn calories as quickly as step aerobics, don't discount this effective body-weight exercise. Bodybuilding.com suggests creating a calorie-burning circuit training regimen by combining aerobic exercise and strength training. Spend 1 minute performing step aerobics, then quickly switch to 1 minute of situps. Repeat the two exercises back and forth to boost the rate at which you burn calories.