When it comes to badminton vs jogging, they are both great calories burner. If you are looking to lose weight, badminton and jogging are both great choices for that. That being said, they do have their pros and cons.
Jogging at 5 mph continuously will burn more calories than badminton. In fact, jogging will burn on average 600 calories per hour whereas badminton will burn about 480 calories per hour.
Even though jogging will burn more calories, there are other things you need to consider. Factors such as how enjoyable it is and convenience play a big role. If you want to lose weight and keep in shape for good, you need to be consistent with your workout. I used to struggle to lose weight until I started playing badminton. Keep reading to find out the difference between badminton vs jogging and factors that will affect your weight loss journey.
Calories Burnt In Badminton
Badminton is one of, if not the fastest racket game in the world. You need to be moving around the court with great speed and that will get your heart rate up in no time. When your heart rate is high (up to a point), you will start to burn a lot of calories. Moreover, badminton can also be considered a High-Intensity Interval Traning (HIIT).
This type of training includes big, explosive movements followed by rest which consist of short, low-intensity movements. Therefore, you are never truly resting. This is the same with badminton.
During a rally, you should never be standing still. Right after you make an explosive movement to hit the shot to your opponent, you need to quickly move back to the center of the court. You need to be on your toes, ready to pounce explosively for the shot when it is returned to you. This is exactly what makes badminton a HIIT exercise.
Because of this, badminton is a sport that burns one of the most calories per hour. You can find out more about how badminton will help you lose weight in this article. As stated in the introduction, on average. badminton burns approximately 480 calories per hour.
Of course, this will depend on your body weight and height. The heavier you are, the more calories you will burn. If you do not know what 480 calories look like, it is equivalent to almost 2 big macs.
Calories Burnt In Jogging
Jogging can be interesting to some people but to me, it is not all that interesting, especially if I’m running on a treadmill. However, jogging does burn more calories than badminton if you do not take any rest at all.
It is a fair assumption that most people will be jogging at a speed of about 5 mph, anything less is considered walking or fast walking. With that speed, you will be burning on average about 600 calories per hour, that’s 120 more calories than badminton. Again, the number of calories burnt per hour will depend on your current weight, the heavier you are the more you will burn.
This only applies if you jog for 1 hour continuously at 5 mph without any rest at all. To most people, this is quite unrealistic, especially if you just getting started. If you have the fitness level and want to burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time, jogging will be superior.
Factors That Affect Weight Loss
When choosing an exercise or sport to lose weight, there are many factors other than how many calories they burn. Factors such as enjoyment, satisfaction, social aspect, convenience, and how much muscle they build are also very important. These factors will determine whether you succeed or fail in your weight loss journey.
Enjoyment
When you enjoy doing something, you are likely to do it more often and feel less like work. To me, badminton is extremely fun to play and I enjoy it very much. On the other hand, jogging is just boring for me. 1 hour of jogging feels like a day while 1 hour of badminton feels like 5 minutes to me.
Afterall, badminton is a game and will give you adrenaline. You might be different than me. Try out both of them and see which one you enjoy more, not everyone will enjoy badminton as much as I do.
Satisfaction
Being satisfied is very closely related to enjoyment. In badminton, it is very satisfying if you win a point against your opponents or hit a shot just like how you want to. To add to that, when you see yourself improving and able to hit more advanced shots such as jumping smash or saving a smash you weren’t able to before is extremely satisfying.
When you start improving in badminton and win against opponents you use to always lose against, you will get addicted. In jogging, there’s really not much satisfaction I can remember other than feeling accomplished or being able to run further or faster for a longer time.
Social Aspect
The social aspect is another factor that can get you hooked to something you do. Badminton is a game you cannot play alone. This is great because you will be able to make a lot of new friends especially if you are playing in a badminton club. You will be able to make a lot of lifelong friends that you would have never met if you didn’t play badminton.
When there are people you like playing with, you are more likely to go even if you do not feel like playing badminton. On the other hand, you don’t really need friends to jog with. Most of the time, people just put on a pair of earphones. shut off the world around them and proceed with jogging. If you do not like interacting with others, jogging could be suitable for you.
Convenience
We are human beings and we like to do things that are convenient. We do not like to go out of our way to do something, especially if we do not like it very much and without monetary rewards. When choosing between badminton vs jogging, it is important to analyze which is more convenient for you in the long term.
There might not be any badminton courts around your vicinity and if you have to drive 1 or 2 hours to reach the badminton court, you might just skip it. In this case, jogging might be a better option for you. You can literally jog anywhere you go, all you need is a pair of running shoes.
Muscle Building
Building muscle is extremely important if you want to keep fit while eating a decent amount of calories. If you don’t already know, the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn. Both badminton and jogging will not build you a significant amount of muscle without extra exercises.
However, badminton will build you more muscle than jogging because the movements made in badminton are harder and more intense. Movements such as lunges are often performed in badminton can build a decent amount of muscle on your legs without any added resistance. Other than that, there are also jumping and side steps that can really work those leg muscles.
Badminton players usually have pretty developed shoulders on their dominant side. A strong shoulder is needed to perform powerful smashes, the more you perform a smash, the stronger your shoulder will become.
It is normal to have a muscle imbalance in badminton since most of the movements are only made with one side of your body. Therefore, you can often see the dominant side of badminton players to be much more developed.
On the other hand, jogging does not really build too much muscle elsewhere other than on your calves. You cannot expect much else because there is only really one movement in jogging and it’s not very intense.
Conclusion
When it comes to badminton vs jogging, jogging will burn more calories if you do not take any rest. If your ultimate goal is to lose weight, you cannot just look at the number of calories these 2 exercises burn. There are other factors that are way more important than that to keep you motivated and consistent.
The only way to lose weight in the long term and keep in shape is to stick with it. Do not give any excuses to skip the days you are supposed to exercise. Basically, it all comes down to how much you enjoy the exercise you are doing. Do an exercise that you WANT to do and not because you NEED to do it.
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