The Calories Per Minute Study
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin lead by John Porcari, Ph.D., and Chad Schnettler, M.S., recruited 10 volunteers, male and female, ages 29 – 46 all whom were experienced in kettlebell training.
They ran them through a variety of work-rest intervals and had them use an appropriately sized kettlebell based upon their weight; 26lb, 35lb, or 40lb (12, 16, or 20 kilograms).
The researchers wanted to see how many calories could be burned in a 20-minute bout of single-arm kettlebell snatches. They measured heart rate, VO2max, blood lactate and several other variables. But let’s skip to the salient part for you if you are interested in fat loss, cardiovascular health, improving insulin sensitivity, metabolic flexibility, and more… did I mention fat loss?
The Results
The average amount of calories burnt between the subjects during the 20-minute single arm kettlebell snatch protocol was 404 calories. Most forms of exercise would take an entire hour to burn that many!
This rivals any other form of exercise tested thus far except for cross country skiing uphill with a weighted pack on. And frankly that isn’t a 20-minute bout of exercise. Rather that is several hours of preparation, driving, putting on and taking off gear and needing to have access to a snowy mountain.
Keep in mind that results will vary based upon your weight, the weight of the kettlebell that you use, etc. However they will only vary by a little.
The Protocol & How You Can Modify It As Needed
So once again they picked an appropriate weight that they could handle for single arm kettlebell snatches. If you go too light you won’t get as good of results and if you go too heavy you won’t be able to sustain the protocol and thus won’t get as good of results. Finding the sweet spot is ideal.
The 20-minute protocol was simply 15 seconds of snatches followed by 15 seconds of rest repeated for 20-minutes. The subjects switched hands each bout of work.
Obviously you could go for a longer or shorter period of time based upon your fitness level, motivation, or other constraints. The study could have been for 25 minutes or 17 minutes, what matters is the roughly 20 calories per minute that you are burning. If cardiovascular fitness is what matters more to you then starting out at 5 minutes and working up to 20 minutes is fantastic.
If mobility, shoulder issues, or a lack of kettlebell snatch technique are preventing you from doing the snatch the kettlebell swing could easily replace the snatch. Frankly any version of a kettlebell snatch will do as long as it is heavy enough to be a challenge for the 15 on 15 off intervals. A very light weight that doesn’t make you breathe hard will not provide the same levels of calories burnt nor cardiovascular benefits.
If you are a beginner it is perfectly fine to start with a light kettlebell but as your technique improves you really do want to increase the weight.
Summary
You can burn around 20 calories per minute, theoretically up to 1,200 per hour (I say theoretically because 1,200 per hour just sounds insane but the research shows it to be true) by doing the following:
Link to article here
Until next time,
Brian
