Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed the calorific content of the extreme diet that fuels his high-intensity exercise habit.
The Facebook founder called his 4000-calorie diet “so delicious” after sharing his family-sized McDonald’s order during an exchange on Threads.
He wrote: “Not cutting weight so I need ~4,000 calories a day to offset all the activity.”
The rumour is he’s preparing for a mixed martial arts (MMA) showdown with tech rival Elon Musk.
Brad Pickett, a former British featherweight champion who now coaches MMA at Great Britain Top Team gym, suspects Zuckerberg is eating to gain weight so he can build muscle to compete.
“It’s the decathlon of martial arts. It’s not just one aspect, it’s wrestling, boxing, and grappling. All of this put together makes it one of the hardest sports not just physically, but also tactically,” says Pickett.
Luke Worthington, a celebrity personal trainer and qualified sports scientist who has also coached in MMA, says the calorific content of Zuckerberg’s diet “sounds about right” for an MMA fighter.
“He’ll be very comfortably going through 1500 calories worth of exercise a day,” he says.
However, you don’t have to turn to extreme exercise to lose weight. Any exercise will have an impact.
A calorie is burnt when the chemical energy in food is metabolised and turned into kinetic energy through movement.
Worthington explains: “Your heart rate will of course go up because you’re having to deliver the fuel to the working muscles and throw the blood, which moves through the body at an increased rate.”
More calories can be easily burned with high-intensity activity in a shorter period of time, but low-intensity, long-duration exercise is actually a more desirable method for fat loss.
Personal trainer Dalton Wong, who has worked with the likes of Olivia Colman, Jennifer Lawrence and Kit Harrington, explains that losing weight is a “marathon, not a race”, advising that people should approach their weight-loss goals with consistency in mind.
”You will end up burning through quite a few calories if four-hour walks are your preferred weekend activity,” says Wong. “Its low-impact nature means it’s easy on the joints, making weight loss more sustainable. You don’t have to train like an MMA fighter to lose weight. Slow and steady can win the race.”
But if you want to know which exercises are the best calorie burners, we’ve done the sums.
Skipping
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 184
- Average woman: 149
Guaranteed to burn through an impressive number of calories in record time, skipping can work off nearly 200 calories in 10 minutes. Done in short bursts, skipping is an efficient way of improving your stamina, meaning those longer runs will soon become more manageable. And you’ll also boost your brain power, bone health, coordination and strength.
Do it alongside longer and less intense physical activity to keep the pounds off.
Running
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 163
- Average woman: 139
Running is a foolproof way of dropping the pounds. Jogging is typically 4-6 miles per hour (6.4-9.6 kmh), while a run is anything faster.
“If you think that energy is what’s required to produce force, the faster we’re running, the more force that we’re producing, the more energy we’re expending,” says Worthington.
So if you’re running for a sustained period of time, you will be sure to burn a significant amount of calories, but before trying to increase the intensity of the workout, you should consider what you can realistically do.
Mixed Martial Arts
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 141 calories
- Average woman: 120 calories
If you are looking to push your body and challenge yourself in the areas of cardio, strength and agility, you might want to get fighting fit. Brad Pickett says the highest number of calories can be burnt in sparring sessions, which simulate a fight.
Not only does Pickett herald MMA as a weight-loss tool, but emphasises that in taking up the sport, you’re also learning a life skill. ”It’s always nice to be able to feel like you can protect yourself or your family,” he says.
Climbing
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 131 calories
- Average woman: 111 calories
Rock climbing is a low-intensity and low-impact sport that still works the whole body, burning ample calories.
A social sport, indoor rock climbing can be done with friends and paced at a speed you can easily manage.
However, if you don’t feel like heading to the local climbing wall, you may find an alternative in the long, stick-like piece of machinery in your gym. The VersaClimber, first popularised in the 1980s, has held its spot for top calorie burner amongst cardio machines.
The vertical machinery simulates a climbing motion, targeting the glutes, transverse abdominals, obliques, lats, delts, triceps, biceps, quads and calves. It’ll give you a full-body, calorie-shedding workout that is gentle on your joints.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 119
- Average woman: 101
The time-efficient calorie burner, HIIT is made up of short bursts of intense exercise designed to make you sweat.
Wong says the easiest way to start your weight-loss journey is at home, and with a variety of HIIT exercises available for free online, HIIT is a great place to start.
However, those who have weight loss as their main goal must remember that HIIT cannot be done over a long period of time, and won’t result in weight loss when done alone.
Cycling
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 107
- Average woman: 91
The great bike boom of the pandemic has inspired Brits to consider cycling as a mode of transport, meaning many are getting their morning workout in on their work commute. However, the conditions we cycle in can have an effect on the amount of calories we burn.
Cycling offloads around 80 per cent of bodyweight onto the saddle of the bike, which means the sport is much more accessible to people who are completely new to exercise or have a physical impairment.
However, for the more experienced cyclist, this means that downhill and flat conditions will require little energy use and fail to challenge the body. Wind is also a huge factor when it comes to cycling, and aerodynamics can increase or decrease your calorie burn.
If you’re going for the burn, you might like to try a HIIT approach to cycling with a spin class, such as SoulCycle, which adds a unique meditative twist to its high-intensity cardio workouts.
Weightlifting
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 86
- Average woman: 78
Though most of us focus on cardio for weight loss, weight training - or resistance training with body weight - is a surefire way to shape up.
Wong explains: “The more lean muscle we have, the more calories we burn at rest.” This means that with increased muscle mass, you’ll burn more calories all day, every day, whatever you’re doing.
If you feel a bit lost at the gym on your own, try a class such as CrossFit, which incorporates strength training with functional movements including deadlifts and squats.
Dancing
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 71
- Average woman: 61
Exercise doesn’t have to be a bore. Wong says: “If you put your favourite song on and dance to it for three minutes, that’s the equivalent of doing a hill incline at a spin class.”
And if you want to give your brain a workout and are feeling sociable, sign up for a dance class and learn a new skill.
Yoga or Pilates
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 58
- Average woman: 53
Yes, they’re relaxing and a brilliant way to boost your flexibility, but Pilates and yoga are also fantastic for strengthening the core and shaping your abdominal muscles.
Want to up the ante? Try a class like Power Yoga or Barre that focuses on strengthening your body.
Walking
Calorie burn in 10 minutes:
- Average man: 38
- Average woman: 45
Although the numbers may not look so impressive at first glance, walking is one of the simplest things you can do to lose weight, simply because you can keep going.
Turn your Sunday stroll into a brisk calorie burner by upping the pace. Try introducing short bursts of fast-paced walking – or “fartlek training”, as the Swedes call it – increasing your pace for 30 seconds so you are walking out of your comfort zone, slowing down until you have almost recovered, then going again.
Food calorie source: nutracheck.co.uk
Sport calories source: burned-calories.com