Fastest rate at which the human body can possibly burn calories (per second, per minute)

[Bootis]

The OP doesn’t limit this to an existing organized event- I think the correct answer would be a something more along the lines of sprinting up a steep hill pulling a sledge of bricks, or some other extreme combination providing maximum resistance across the most muscle mass
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[Delicious]

A really high fever?

[Ambivalid]

@Bootis

The OP doesn’t limit this to an existing organized event- I think the correct answer would be a something more along the lines of sprinting up a steep hill pulling a sledge of bricks, or some other extreme combination providing maximum resistance across the most muscle mass
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I don’t know if that action could even be done while sprinting. Unless it’s a small but steep hill, I think you wouldn’t be able to accomplish the feat anaerobically. But I am only speculating here.

[snfaulkner]

@Ambivalid

Rowing uses the upper body at near maximum intensity but does not use lower body that way. An exercise that is going to burn the most calories is going to include the largest muscles in the body working at near maximum intensity. Rowing is out.

How does rowing NOT use your legs? At least on a rowing machine, the seat slides as you push with your legs.

[Ambivalid]

@Delicious

A really high fever?

…While doing sprinting intervals? We may have our winner here.

[snfaulkner]

@Ambivalid

…While doing sprinting intervals? We may have our winner here.

…while on fire.

[running_coach]

@snfaulkner

How does rowing NOT use your legs? At least on a rowing machine, the seat slides as you push with your legs.

How much resistance are the legs dealing with?

[Bootis]

@Ambivalid

I don’t know if that action could even be done while sprinting. Unless it’s a small but steep hill, I think you wouldn’t be able to accomplish the feat anaerobically. But I am only speculating here.

Agreed, though I still think the answer would be some combination of efforts that isn’t currently regularly undertaken, if we are looking for the absolute maximum possible calorie burn rate a human body is capable of achieving. And to take it a step further, I’d bet that achieving the absolute maximum physically possible burn rate would probably result in death
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[snfaulkner]

@running_coach

How much resistance are the legs dealing with?

If you’re on a machine, then as much weight as you choose. Rowing a boat in a race, I’d imagine it is quiet similar to a sprint, pushing as hard as you can. I’m not a rowing expert by any means, but my point is that discounting rowing because it “doesn’t use legs” is false.

Stages of a stroke
Drive

The drive is the phase from the catch to the extraction.

As soon as the oar blade is placed in the water at the catch, the rower begins to lever the boat past the blade by straightening the legs while the body remains leaned forward and the arms straight. This is called the leg drive.
The rower continues pushing with the legs while beginning to apply additional power by opening up his or her back towards the bow of the boat.
After the rower completes the leg drive, the rower finishes opening up his or her back towards the bow while at the same time using his or her arms to pull the oar(s) to his chest. This is called the draw. First, the shoulders heave, then the elbows bend. Often the shoulder heave is omitted, and power is wasted or lost
The rower pushes the oar handle down so the oar blade comes out of the water.
Just as the oar blade is being removed from the water, the rower rotates the oar handle 90 degrees so that the blade is again parallel to the water. This action is referred to as feathering.
At this point the rower is in the same position as the beginning, torso leaning back, hands drawn in to the body, and legs extended.

[Ambivalid]

@snfaulkner

If you’re on a machine, then as much weight as you choose. Rowing a boat in a race, I’d imagine it is quiet similar to a sprint, pushing as hard as you can. I’m not a rowing expert by any means, but my point is that you can’t discount rowing because it “doesn’t use legs” is false.

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were talking about rowing as in the gym equipment variety, I thought we were talking about actual rowing. And I never said rowing didn’t use legs, I said it didn’t use legs at maximum intensity. It definitely uses the upper body at maximum intensity. I think sprinting, which uses the largest muscles in the body at maximum intensity, would off set the much smaller upper body not engaged. I still think rowing would be up there though, top five for sure.

[GMANCANADA]

I think the obituary on rowing has been written too soon. (“Bring out your dead!”… “I’m not dead yet”)

As the brilliant and insightful snfaulkner notes - they are making full use of their legs with every stroke. They push back their body weight plus the some of the oar’s water resistance.

Whether that’s enough to keep them in the hunt for calories/sec prize, tough to say, but I still think it’ll be high on the list.

[snfaulkner]

@Ambivalid

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were talking about rowing as in the gym equipment variety, I thought we were talking about actual rowing. And I never said rowing didn’t use legs, I said it didn’t use legs at maximum intensity. It definitely uses the upper body at maximum intensity. I think sprinting, which uses the largest muscles in the body at maximum intensity, would off set the much smaller upper body not engaged. I still think rowing would be up there though, top five for sure.

Read the wiki I linked to. The seat slides on real boats too so you can get max extension. And I can’t imagine in a rowing race sprint you aren’t using everything at max intensity, pushing with legs and pulling with upper body with all your might on every stroke. The difference might be in the recovery portion of the stroke that might lessen the cal/sec, however.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Ambivalid

I would think sprinting would burn calories at the fastest rate per second.

According to this, a 200 lb person doing a 100m sprint will burn 10 calories.

How Many Calories Are Burned by a 100M Sprinter? | Livestrong.com

If the world record is 10 seconds, that works out to about 1 calorie per second.

[running_coach]

Here’s one answer to the rowing question.

In this “gem”, on slide no. 15 it shows the % of power produced by the Legs, Back & Arms. Dr. Kleshnev’s values (on the water) are: 46.4% Legs, 30.9% Trunk (back), 22.7% Arms (based on around a 30 spm rate with legs% increasing with stroke rate, trunk% staying constant and arms% decreasing)

My values for on the water were: 40.7% Legs, 30.9% Trunk (back), 28.4%

Unfortunately, the link to a PDF of the results is a 404.

[Francis_Vaughan]

I’m going to bet on weight lifting - in particular - a squat. Simply because you have a huge mass of muscle all running at maximum effort. Sure, only running for a few seconds, but the burn in that time is probably astounding.

[Velocity]

Thanks for the great answers everyone - now, an add-on/follow-up: If the human body gets to the point where it burns, say, 5 calories per second, is that probably a fatal rate of burn?

[am77494]

I think the fastest rate of work done (power) Is going to be weight lifting - where you lift 100s of pounds in less than a second or so. Power wise, I don’t think any of the sports above come close. But again, it’s only for a few seconds - so the total calories burnt may not be much but the rate of burn (power) is the highest.

This is why weight lifters are often very very muscular.

[Ambivalid]

@Wesley_Clark

According to this, a 200 lb person doing a 100m sprint will burn 10 calories.

How Many Calories Are Burned by a 100M Sprinter? | livestrong

If the world record is 10 seconds, that works out to about 1 calorie per second.

Sorry i am having issues with my phone but this is a excerpt from a LiveStrong article…

People also ask
Which exercise burns the most calories?
Error loading player:
Sprint Intervals. Sprinting burns 400-500 calories per 30 minutes. …
Tabata Training. Tabata-style training burns about 15 calories per minute. …
Rock Climbing. Rock climbing burns about 400 calories in 30 minutes. …
Swimming. …
Hill Workouts. …
Jogging. …
Jumping Rope. …
Rowing.

[Mijin]

Stair-climbing?

When I climb a spiral staircase as fast as I can, I pull on the railing with my arms a lot and they can get pretty tired (and legs obviously).
If the riser height and radius of the stairs were just right, and you were sprinting up the stairs as you could go, it’s gotta be a contender.

Also…

@Velocity

I didn’t mean this as a Game Room thread, though, this was more about the body itself. Because who knows, maybe there is a non-sports activity or disorder that can cause the body to burn calories quickly too…

Depends what exactly we mean by “burn” calories, but certainly many infections can make you lose weight hella fast.
1 liter of blood is about 900 calories, so ebola at its peak will bleed a lot of calories away plus whatever extra your body is doing to (try to) fight off the infection.

[Dr.Strangelove]

I have a hard time believing that any of the top sprinting-like activities (basically anything with a couple tens of seconds of peak activity) has a significantly different calories per second.

To burn calories you need oxygen. So regardless of which muscle groups are engaged, in the end you will be limited by oxygen in the bloodstream and from the lungs. Unless one group of athletes demonstrates vastly superior lung capacity (or more accurately, VO2max rates), I would say all of them are burning calories at similar rates.