Best calorie burning cardio workout

23 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:17

In this YouTube segment, fitness coach Eric Roberts explains that exercise, including cardio, accounts for only about 5% of a person’s total daily calorie expenditure. He breaks daily calorie burn into four components: (1) basal metabolic rate – the energy needed just to stay alive, which is increased by having more muscle; (2) non‑exercise daily movement (NEAT) such as standing, walking between calls, and carrying groceries; (3) the thermic effect of food, especially protein, which can burn up to 30% of its calories; and (4) formal workouts, which are a small “lost‑coin” portion of the total. Roberts advises focusing on building muscle, increasing everyday steps, and consuming more protein for fat loss, while using cardio primarily for health rather than as the main fat‑loss driver.

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Exercise, all of it, cardio included, is only about 5% of your daily calorie burn. Your body burns calories in 4 different ways every day. Think of your daily calorie burn like a paycheck. Most of it, the big salary, is just your body being alive, breathing, pumping blood. This is the biggest chunk of calorie burn, and more muscle makes this calorie burn higher, which we'll talk about in a second. The next piece that burns the most calories is your daily Movement. And this isn't a workout. It's things like standing at your desk, walking between phone calls, carrying groceries, walking around the store. The next biggest piece is just digesting the food you eat. And then there's your workouts. And the workouts are like lost coins in your couch. You're looking for the lost coins in your couch and you're ignoring the salary you're getting paid. So you build more muscle to increase your daily calorie burn. You get more daily steps in overall movement and you eat More protein, because for every 100 calories of protein you eat, your body will burn up to 30 of those calories. So you can do cardio to make you healthy, but don't make it the main driver of your fat loss.