11 Fun Summer Activities That’ll Burn Your Fat

Summer is here and in full swing. Are you ready to take your fitness outside into the sun? Here are the greatest summer fun activities to take some fat off your hide!

Walking

Just go for a stroll on the beach, take in the air and sun and you burn 342 kcal / hour.

Hiking

Here’s one activity I love. Especially on sunny summer days I enjoy hiking through forests, where the light breaks through the leaves and the trees’ smells intensify from the warmth. Ok, I stop the waxing.

It rids you of circa 380 kcal / hour if the terrain is a bit hilly. Otherwise it’s about the same as for walking because, uh, hiking is walking.

Light Jogging / Running

Although I don’t get along with running on beaches and abhor the thought of running in direct sunlight, there are those that love it. One hour of it at 5 mph takes care of 490 kcal.

Fast Jogging / Running

For those daredevils that manage 7.5 mph under a sun that looks like it came straight out of the backdrops of Mad Max, it’s 898 kcal / hour.

Light Cycling

Loads of people of course enjoy riding a bike more than walking, hiking and running and if you got knee trouble it’s the better activity anyway. One hour at leisure speed (slower than 10 mph) take care of 490 kcal.

Hard Cycling

Do you too sometimes see those people in bright clothes and on $5000 carbon bikes, looking determined to show the world that they could take on the Tour de France if they just wanted to? At 17 mph, they burn 816 kcal / hour.

Inline Skating

Here’s to the activity that every time I do it for the first five minutes makes me look like I’m under the impression of a severe Tokyo earthquake. Where have all the inline skaters gone to, anyway? Years ago they were as much a common sight as their four-wheeled Pleistocene ancestors were in the 80s.

Who says you need a super-expensive bike to wear bright clothes and look grim? You can also do it on inline skates!

If you still love your inline skates, an hour with them will expatriate 441 kcal from your body.

Light Swimming

This list wouldn’t be complete with what I think is greatest summer fitness activity of all: swimming. If you take it easy, it’ll relieve you of 408 kcal / hour. Especially if you are untrained, swimming is also a great full body workout, because it involves so many muscles!

Hard Swimming

For the Michael Phelpses among us: if you really go for it, swimming burns 653 kcal / hour.

Rowing

Ok, no personal experience here, but a friend loves to take his canoe and paddle along canals that from that perspective (and according to him) look like the closest real life approximation of Tolkien’s Shire. Maybe I should show him some spots that look like Mordor.

If you too enjoy a bit of leisurely rowing, you’ll lose about 490 kcal / hour.

Beach Volleyball

With some friends that’s one cool and fun beach activity. Although it’s the one I’m always at a disadvantage at, as I’m not in the supermodel category for body height. I make up for it by kicking and shoving.

You’ll lose about 200 kcal doing it for an hour. Probably more if you have to get mean like I do.

Got More?

What fitness activities do you enjoy in the summer? And, by the way for the sake of completeness, those calorie numbers above I calculated for a 150 lbs person.

Picture courtesy of “lenny” and “lenny“.