How Long It ACTUALLY Takes to Burn Off A Big Mac

Is it possible to out exercise a fat diet? To find out. Today, my friends and I are eating.

Our favorite meals from McDonald's.

But what they don't know is we'll then be using the world's most scientifically accurate calorie tracker to see who can burn off the calories the fastest.

Nicole, you're at 980 calories. Cam, you're at 1063 calories. And I am at 1600 calories to burn.

I am very shocked that my two small burgers and my root beer, which is honestly a regular meal for me, is 900 calories.

1063 calories for some nuggets. Dude, it felt like I was eating a kid's meal.

I got us some dessert.

Take that away from me. No takers.

All right, more for me.

The race was on.

My approach. I'm gonna be playing basketball. I'm gonna get some shots up, do some training, maybe play some one on one. I really like playing basketball, so I'm hoping that this takes some of the pain out of just mindlessly doing cardio and it can actually be fun.

Put that in the video. Put it in the video.

I'm gonna do a leg day, do some squatting. That is my usual go to. So I'm confident I can get my calories burnt and get my heart racing during that one. I don't think I'm going to beat Jeremy, but maybe I have a shot beating Cam. We'll see.

So while Nicole and Cam are almost certain I'm going to win, I have over 800 more calories to burn than they do. I need a secret weapon. So a day before the challenge, I spoke with well known fitness scientist, Dr. Eric Helms.

What I recommend is just accumulating a lot of time at a moderate intensity or moderately high intensity. Basically the most you can tolerate for a long period of time.

Eric recommended I take a look at the compendium of physical activities.

This bad boy ranks almost every exercise you could think of based on how energy demanded they are.

So I combed through the list and chose the most energy demanding upper and lower body exercises to guarantee my success, starting with vigorous uphill biking.

By now you're probably wondering what's up with the bane like mask everyone's wearing. Well, I'm sure you've all used an Apple Watch Fitbit, or even looked at the number on cardio machines to see how many calories you've burned from your workout. These have all been shown to inaccurately report calories burned by over 20%. The mask we're using, developed by a company called Pinoy, is the most scientifically accurate way to measure calories burned by capturing every single breath we take. It measures the amount of oxygen used and carbon dioxide released and uses that to determine the exact number of calories we're burning.

Now, the mask made everything so much harder. After the first 20 minutes, I was gassed. But I'm the science guy. I'm the fittest, and I'm competitive. I have to win. Losing would be an embarrassment. I kept pushing through until my legs were literally burning to the point where I just couldn't take anymore.

And after an hour of giving it everything I had, it was time to check in.

I'm hoping for at least 600 calories. Oh, just broke a thousand calories.

Dang.

Okay, so it's been 60 minutes so far, and you've burned an astounding 595 calories.

Not bad. That's not bad.

You're at 3:13 almost a third of the way there.

No.

I could cry.

After one hour of giving it my all, I'd already burned off my Big Mac and fries, but Cam was right.

There with me, burning off his 12 chicken nuggets just from playing ball. Nicole, on the other hand, has yet to burn off enough calories to cover.

Just one of her burgers.

Eric helps explain why this is.

You really don't see great energy expenditure from resistance training until you get really, really strong. You're spending 80% of the time resting between sets so you can maintain the intensity. So you want to burn the most calories possible. Cardio wins hands down.

Now, although Nicole made a smart move by jumping around instead of resting between her sets, just as Eric predicted, her weights workout just didn't burn very many calories. But this doesn't mean lifting weights is pointless.

Be a huge mistake to not do resistance training, because when you create an energy deficit, you're going to lose weight, but you really want to be losing as much of that weight as fat mass as possible. The resistance training tells your body, I need to hold on to my muscle mass. The cardio ups your energy expenditure to create the deficit. To make sure that deficit comes from fat mass.

I found refuge by this trash can because it's the only shade right now. So that's about how it's going right now.

I needed to get out of the sun, so I found a small patch of shade over on a pathway, and I figured I could do some jump rope now. I was so tired at that point, and everything was starting to hurt.

While Cam has gotten off to a.

Good start, he does have a slight advantage.

The heavier you are, the more calories you're going to burn moving.

However, Eric also explained, for a given.

Unit of time, if you're both training pretty hard and trying to redline it, or doing the hardest you can for 30 minutes, the person in better shape will burn more calories.

So if Cam's cardio isn't as good.

As mine, hopefully he starts slowing down soon to give me a chance to pull ahead.

After that first check in, I thought, I'm gonna need to bring Tani in. I've known her for a long time. We're really good friends, but it was almost like a boot camp.

So you're doing 12 all the way up.

Tawny was definitely pushing me to my hardest.

How's that feel?

Not good.

Not good.

Good.

Turn it off, then.

What the fuck?

There was no stopping. She wasn't gonna let me take a break. It was go, go, go.

One, two, one, two.

It was one of the breaking points. I was just so tired.

You would probably assume the most energetic method of burning a lot of calories is something kind of like what a CrossFit Games competitor would do, where you're bouncing between ball slams, sprints back and forth. Obviously, that will burn a lot of calories, but I think for the average person, they don't necessarily have the cardiovascular conditioning to make that really, really effective. You're most of the time going to see higher energy expenditure just from spending that time, you know, doing moderate intensity training.

So I'm halfway through my total. I'm feeling confident, but my legs were exhausted. So it was time to change my approach and use one of the most energy demanding upper body exercises from the compendium of physical activities, axe chopping. So I was hoping axe chopping might actually take me all the way to the wind. But just 10 minutes in, my hands were blistering, my cardio was perfectly fine, but my hands just couldn't bear the pain. Clearly, I'm not used to getting my hands dirty, but I couldn't let this stop me from the wind. I pushed harder and faster for the next 30 minutes until I just finally had to call it quits.

Okay, so that was 40 minutes. Honestly, my cardio was good. I could have kept going, but my.

Hands just, like, ate me up.

Okay, 497 calories. It's honestly, like, more than I expected at this point.

I burned off my Big Mac, my.

Fries, my drink, and my McFlurry, but.

My body was exhausted eating that apple pie may just end up costing me.

The win, but defeat was no option. I had one more trick up my.

Sleeve to help me secure the win.

After a bit of jump rope, I realized I was having a much better time playing basketball. So I opted to go back out into the heat, do some shooting, some dribbling drills. And that is when my brain really started to kick in, telling me, please stop exercising, please. My shots were bad, my form was bad. Everything was starting to deteriorate.

After feeling so exhausted from the circuit, I thought, let's change it up, go for a walk.

Felt good.

Then I came back to find out I have another 180 calories to burn. I forfeit. So I jumped on the treadmill, tried to do some sprints there.

It's down to the wire.

I only have my apple pie left to burn. But Cam only has his fries.

And Nicole only has to burn off her root beer. It's time for the final push. Losing was not an option, so I chose to stick with the basics. StairMaster. With Cam and Nicole closing in on their totals, I just didn't have a second to lose. Luckily, I recalled Eric's comment about body weight. The heavier you are, the more calories you burn. So I decided to add 25 pounds to a backpack to speed things up.

I was exhausted, my ankles were hurting, my legs, I couldn't feel. So I thought the best decision in that point would be to get on the bike.

I opted to do the most mindless thing I could do, which is just going up and down the court and doing a layup. I can't even call it running because it was just pathetic at this point.

If I'm being honest.

You're almost there. Come on, bring it all the way home.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. He's the last one in.

Three more calories, bro.

You got it. You got this. Last bucket.

Come on.

Don't slow down just because you know it's coming to.

Go, go, go, go.

Bring it home.

That was the hardest one.

That was all mental. Holy sh. I am never eating McDonald's again.

Alright, let's be real. That's a lie. Don't think because of this video you can never eat fast food again or that you need to burn off all the calories every time you eat something bad. The average male already burns around 2000 calories doing absolutely nothing all day. But nowadays, it's easier than ever to gain weight by simply eating more calories than your body needs. And while it is possible, it's very difficult to try to reverse this through exercise alone. It's much easier to turn down an apple pie than it is to burn off 300 calories. Don't get me wrong. Exercise is amazing for you when everyone needs it. But if you want to lose weight and get in shape, you you'd be a fool not to prioritize your diet. And if you want a proven step by step plan that'll tell you exactly what to eat and how to work out to transform your body based on science, then just head over to buildablescience.com and take our quiz to find the best plan for you and your body. But now it's time for the results. Well, coming in third place with a total of 134 minutes, Nicole. Now, keep in mind, she did have a disadvantage being the lightest of us three. And considering her poor choice of exercises, I'd say her time was very impressive. This means it's down to just me and Cam. So my Official time was 126 minutes and you clocked in at 107 minutes. Yo, you smashed it, dude. Dude, you beat me at my own game.

Let's go.

So here's your prize, dude.

A fry.

A McDonald's gift card. Dude, I'm about to burn this. You can get 100. 100 chicken nuggets with this.

As disappointed as I was about my loss, Cam's victory taught me an important lesson. This whole time, I was so obsessed with science and creating the best plant. But while a fancy workout may look good on paper, it's not going to do much if you absolutely dread doing it. Exercise is crucial for both your physical and mental health. And it doesn't have to feel like torture. Whether it's basketball, biking, playing with your dog, or who knows, maybe even chopping wood, Find activities you actually have fun doing, as that's what you'll be most likely to stick to.

So here's a full breakdown of the results. For those interested, Comment down below what you'd like to see us test next. And special thanks to Eric for all his help with the video. I'll leave links to his stuff down below. Thanks so much. I'll see you next time.