The One Exercise You Should Be Doing for Maximum Fat Loss

Let’s be honest; many of us look in the mirror every morning and think about losing the flab. But then the reality of daily life — work and family commitments — pushes our fitness objectives to the back seat. After all, spending multiple hours in the gym daily isn’t for everyone.

But what if I told you you just need one exercise to eliminate the stubborn body fat and achieve a ripped physique? What more? It will only take 10 to 20 minutes a day.

Enter the burpee. 

Burpees combine several exercises, including the squat, plank, push-up, and jump, to train the whole body. All these exercises are compound movements, meaning they involve multiple muscle groups, leading to greater calorie expenditure. This also makes it an incredibly effective movement for burning stubborn belly fat, toning muscle, and improving your cardiovascular fitness.

Furthermore, burpees are an incredibly versatile exercise. You don’t need any equipment to perform them, making them an excellent choice for people who train at home or those who are always traveling.

In this article, I take you over why burpees should be a part of your training regime if you are aiming to maximize fat loss. Plus, I’ll detail how to include this exercise in your workout programming to maximize its effectiveness.

The Science of Burpees and Fat Loss

Most people (including me) have a love-hate relationship with burpees. They are tough and leave you in a pool of sweat within minutes.

Make no mistake. Burpees aren’t a fad. There is some solid scientific evidence backing their effectiveness over other forms of cardiovascular exercises. Here’s everything you need to know about it:

Calorie Burning Powerhouse

Burpees work your body from head to toe. This full-body engagement results in a massive calorie expenditure. Plus, since this exercise involves stringing together multiple reps, your body must produce a significant amount of energy, and it usually does so by burning stored body fat after it has extinguished its glycogen reserves.

A study concluded that burpee interval training resulted in better cardiovascular training results than sprint interval training and vigorous-intensity continuous training. (1)

Endurance Boost

Besides its calorie-burning and muscle-toning benefits, burpees are a potent tool to improve your overall endurance. Research suggests regular burpee training can boost endurance running performance and short-term memory. (2)

Burpees are also one of the most effective (and reliable) tools to test maximal oxygen uptake, which is a fundamental component of physical fitness. (3)

Metabolic Boost

Stringing together multiple reps of burpees results in a deep muscle burn that can make the biggest and meanest of us scream in pain. However, there is a silver lining to this suffering.

Burpees can lead to a phenomenon called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) or the afterburn effect. It cranks up your metabolism, helping you burn calories long after you’ve finished your workout. (4)

Your body replenishes its oxygen stores and begins muscle repair by burning stored body fat.

Hormonal Impact

High-intensity exercises like burpees trigger the release of hormones like growth hormones (GH) and testosterone, which are vital for promoting fat loss and gaining strength and muscle mass. (5)

Mastering the Burpee: A Step-by-Step Guide

Investing a little time in learning how to perform the burpees correctly will take you a long way:

How To Perform Burpees:

1. Stand upright with a shoulder-width stance.
2. Squat and place your hands on the floor in front of your toes.
3. Jump and extend your legs behind you so your body is in a straight line.
4. Perform a push-up.
5. Frog jump your feet so they are close to your hands. You should be in a squatting position.
6. Explosively extend your heels, knees, and hips to return to the starting position and jump at the top of your range of motion so your feet are clear off the floor. Reach your arms overhead, fully extending your body.
7. Focus on a soft landing to avoid lower body joint strain.
8. This is one rep.

Most Common Burpee Mistakes

Avoid these common pitfalls to maximize the exercise’s fat loss effectiveness:

Rounding your back

Keep your back straight throughout the entire movement, especially during the push-up and the plank phases. Hunching your shoulders or rounding your back can place unnecessary strain on your spine, significantly increasing injury risk.

Letting your hips sag

Most people usually make this mistake during the plank and push-up portion of the exercise. Letting your hips sag or even raising them towards the ceiling can take the tension off the primary target muscles.

Ensure that your body is in a straight line from head to heels during the floor part of the movement.

Kicking your legs too far back

But how can you kick your legs too far back? Turns out, you can.

Many people are super explosive, especially during the first few reps of burpees. They tend to extend their knees and hips so explosively that it compromises their upper body posture.

This misalignment can strain your lumbar spine, shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints.

Ensure that your shoulders and wrists are stacked during the plank and push-up part of the movement and that your lower back is in a comfortable position.

Not raising your arms overhead

Many people shortchange themselves during the final part of this exercise. They will jump up but skip raising their arms overhead as it makes it easier to place their hands on the floor during the next rep.

Extending your arms overhead during the exercise ensures optimal muscle activation and adaptations.

Improper landing

The exercise does not end until you land back on your feet. In my opinion, this is also the most injury-prone part of this movement. Bend your knees a little as you’re about to land to absorb some of the impact. Also, make sure you land with your feet shoulder-width apart to avoid losing balance and placing unnecessary strain on your lower body joints.

Burpee Modifications For Lifters of Varying Experience Levels

Here are some adjustments that make this exercise more suitable for people with unique needs:

Burpees Without Push-Ups

Let’s be honest: push-ups can be the most intimidating part of this exercise for many people, especially beginners. If you are new to burpees, you can simply skip push-ups. Instead, get into the high plank position and return to the bottom of the squat position.

However, I would recommend performing a set of incline or wall push-ups after completing each burpee set. This approach will help you build upper body strength, ultimately allowing you to perform a full burpee.

Step-Out Burpees 

If you are recovering from an injury or don’t want to strain your lower body joints or lower back, you should opt for the step-out burpee variation.

Step-out burpees are a lower-impact option that involves stepping your feet back one at a time into the plank position and then stepping them back to return to the squat position.

I have found that this variation helps you maintain a more steady rep cadence. Although conventional burpees have a plyometric component, they add up over time, leading to greater fatigue.

Jump Squats 

I have many clients who roll their eyes every time I tell them burpees are a part of the WOD. While some might despise burpees, others aren’t in an optimal shape to perform them. For such folks, I recommend the jump squats.

After completing a regular squat, jump up as high as possible. Remember, this is a plyometric exercise. You must be as explosive as possible to get the best bang for your buck.

Box Jump Burpees

While the other three exercises in this list are for those wanting to scale back, box jump burpees are for those craving a challenge. This variation involves a certain learning curve, but it will set your lower body on fire.

To do this exercise, perform a burpee as usual and then jump onto a knee-high box from the squatting position at the end of each rep. Step or jump down and repeat for the recommended repetitions.

Integrating Burpees into Your Routine

Now that you’ve learned about the why of burpees, let’s talk about how to integrate them into your training regime for the best results:

Beginner-Friendly Workout

Newbies should start with a set of five to 10 reps of burpees. The biggest goal here is to drill the movement mechanics.

As you gain more experience, gradually increase the number of reps and sets. A 10 percent increase is ideal to ensure consistent progress.

Sample Workout:

• 3 x 8-10 (60-second rest)

Perform a set of eight to 10 reps, rest for 60 seconds, and repeat two more times.

HIIT Workout

Once you can perform 20 unbroken reps, it’s time to move on to the next step — HIIT workouts.

This involves combining burpees with other challenging exercises like lunge jumps, mountain climbers, and high knees.

Sample Workout:

Repeat this circuit for five rounds (20 minutes total):

Exercise	Work	Rest
Burpees	30 seconds	30 seconds
Lunge Jumps	30 seconds	30 seconds
Mountain Climbers	30 seconds	30 seconds
High Knees	30 seconds	30 seconds

The best part about these workouts is that they are incredibly versatile and need no additional equipment. These can be done anywhere and at any time, making them an excellent choice for busy individuals as well as those who are always on the move.

Warm-Ups & Cool-Downs

Although this is primarily a bodyweight exercise, you shouldn’t take it too lightly. Begin each workout with a five-minute dynamic stretching routine to warm up the muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments. This approach improves exercise performance and limits injury potential.

Similarly, end each workout with a five-minute static stretching routine to flush out the metabolites from the muscle tissues. This kickstarts recovery and reduces the risk of inflammation and delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

Like with any other fitness program, consistency, dedication, and dedication are vital for achieving success with this burpee training program.

Learn to listen to your body. Stop the exercise if something feels weird or uncomfortable. Start with the easier variations and progressively increase the intensity and duration as you gain more experience and feel more comfortable and confident.

Conclusion

Burpees are what I could never be — an efficient multitasker. They blend cardio and strength training into one movement, making it one of the best exercises for people aiming for fat loss or body recomposition.

Burpees are undoubtedly one of the best full-body exercises you can do to get and remain in shape. I recommend intermediate exercisers start with a five-minute daily burpee session and increase it to 10 minutes within four weeks.

Instead of aiming to cram as many reps as possible within a certain duration, focus on performing each repetition with a picture-perfect form initially. This will not only maximize your fat loss progress, but it will also limit injury risk.

If you have any questions about burpees or need help implementing them into your routine, post them in the comments below, and I’ll be happy to help!

References:

1. Mayr Ojeda, E., Castro, F. A. S., Reich, M., Astorino, T. A., & Benítez-Flores, S. (2022). Burpee Interval Training Is Associated With a More Favorable Affective Valence and Psychological Response Than Traditional High-Intensity Exercise. Perceptual and motor skills, 129(3), 767–786. https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125221083180
2. Polevoy G, Cazan F, Padulo J, Ardigò LP. The Influence of Burpee on Endurance and Short-Term Memory of Adolescents. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 18;19(18):11778. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191811778. PMID: 36142051; PMCID: PMC9517252.
3. Yamashita Y. The 3-Minute Burpee Test: A Minimalistic Alternative to the Conventional Estimated Oxygen Uptake Test. Cureus. 2023 Mar 6;15(3):e35841. doi: 10.7759/cureus.35841. PMID: 37033564; PMCID: PMC10080365.
4. LaForgia, J., Withers, R. T., & Gore, C. J. (2006). Effects of exercise intensity and duration on the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(12), 1247–1264. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410600552064
5. Kraemer, W. J., & Ratamess, N. A. (2005). Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise and training. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 35(4), 339–361. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200535040-00004

---