There are several long term strategies one can use to lose weight. These include the use of supplements, surgery, yoga, diet, and exercise. But to lose weight by exercise, you need a perfect and effective workout routine to follow all through the entire weight loss journey. 

In this article, we will discuss the tips for making the best workout routine, the best workout routine for weight loss, and the exercises that burn the most calories.

The best workout routine for weight loss should have strength training for three days a week, high-intensity interval training one day a week, steady-state cardio one day a week, and two days of active recovery. 

What is the best workout routine for weight loss?

The best workout routine is one that you will enjoy, is affordable, and will be able to burn calories thus weight loss.

A good workout routine should target the whole body for a uniform weight loss rather than spot reduction.

This is what it should look like;

• Strength training for one hour three days every week.

Strength training helps you burn calories with many variations of strength training you can do.

Bodyweight training -push-ups, dead squats, squat jump, bridge kick, pull-ups, chin up, and others.

Use of weights- Dumbbell training, kettlebell training, barbell training, and other equipment strength training exercises.

• High-intensity interval training for 20 minutes per session once every week.

Examples such as Burpee interval workout, jump rope interval, stair stepper machine interval, battle rope interval, resistance training interval workouts, and others.

• Cardio for around 45 minutes once every week.

Examples of cardio include jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jump lunges, squats, high knees, speed skaters, jumping jacks, box jumps, plank jacks, and others.

• Two days of rest and recovery.

Take days of rest to allow your muscles to fully recover and heal from the stress.

While making a weight loss workout routine you should put in mind the following;

• Exercises that are convenient for you in terms of fun, availability, and affordability.
• Time meant for the workouts.
• Calorie burning target.
• Your metabolic rate.

What exercise burns the most calories?

Besides dieting, exercise is one of the most common strategies for weight loss. Exercises burn calories and play a major role in shedding those unhealthy extra pounds.

Wondering what exercises can get you burning calories and fat at a high rate? Including the following workouts in your workout routine can get you losing weight much faster.

1. Running.

No matter your fitness level, with running you can burn to an average of 100 calories per mile you run. For weight loss, running can reduce your hunger and suppress appetite. High-intensity running reduces the hunger causing hormone ghrelin and producing a more satisfying hormone of peptide.

On average, you can burn around 370 calories in a 30-minute workout if you are running at a speed of 6 miles per hour. This is above the average for other exercises like walking.

It burns more exercises even after the workout. Up to 48 hours, a high-intensity workout will continue to burn calories.

Besides weight loss, running helps to build stronger bones, strengthen muscles, and improve cardiovascular fitness.

2. Cycling.

Cycling is one of the most fun exercises and of which burns plenty of calories too. It is done outdoors but with stationary bikes, cycling can be done indoors too.

In estimation, 250 calories are burned over 30 minutes cycling at a moderate pace. Outside biking and stationary biking are all great calorie burners that can lead to weight loss.

Cycling can be done no matter your fitness levels due to the different paces and intensity, you can do. It helps to improve overall fitness.

From beginners to athletes, cycling can be done by anybody no matter your fitness level. Besides weight loss, cycling can increase insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, it’s great for the joints, and improves overall body fitness.

3. Swimming.

If you are not a fan of boring exercises, swimming can burn calories and help you get in shape. It is estimated that a 155-pound person can burn approximately 230 calories in 30 minutes of swimming.

It engages almost all the major muscle groups of the body ensuring a whole-body fat loss.

Trying out different strokes, swimming for about 30 minutes and a period of 5 days a week, can help you lose weight.

4. Yoga.

Yoga is mostly known to be stress-relieving exercise. However, with yoga one can burn calories thus weight loss.

It may look like an easy breath in and out but when done the right way, it will get you sweating and losing fat.

Yoga targets major muscles, challenging them, and toning them. You can lose weight by doing yoga poses such as the boat pose, downward dog pose, bow pose, the chair yoga poses and others that are discussed in the article yoga poses for weight loss. While reading this article you will discover the different yoga poses and how they should be done. You can access the article here.

By doing yoga one can burn from 180 to 360 calories depending on the type of yoga poses, intensity, and time spent.

5. Weighting lifting.

Lifting weight is a common choice for people who want to lose weight due to the calories it can burn as you work out. For example, a 155-pound person can burn around roughly an average of 120 calories per 30 minutes of lifting weights.

Lifting weights helps to build lean muscles which raise metabolic rate which is the rate at which you burn calories while your body is at rest.

In a study, it was found out that by just doing 11 minutes of weighting lifting for 3 days per week managed to increase the metabolic rate by around 7.4%. Just that increase in metabolic rate is equivalent to burning 125 calories per day.

Besides weight loss, weight training keeps your bones strong and healthy, regulates insulin levels, improves posture, enlightens the moods, and boosts energy levels.

Related article: Benefits of lifting weights.

6. Interval training.

Interval training involves alternating short high-intensity bursts of exercise activities with periods of rest and recovery in between throughout a single workout.

It uses the body’s energy-producing systems; the aerobic and anaerobic.

During the high-intensity efforts, the anaerobic system uses the energy stored in muscles for short bursts of the workout.

Interval training such as running sprints is more effective than continuous brisk walking or biking in burning calories.

With interval training, your body becomes a calorie-burning machine.

7. Jump rope.

You can burn up to a whopping 1,600 calories per hour if you skip at a high intensity.

On average a 150-pound person jumping at 1 jump per second will burn up to about 100 calories per minute.

The more the weight of the person, intensity, and time spent jumping the rope, the more calories you will be able to burn.

8. Dance.

Did you know that you can dance and shed those pounds off? When done at the right intensity and with the right moves, dancing will be more than fun and will turn into a calorie-burning exercise.

A 30 minutes dance can burn between 130 to 250 calories which are close to cardio like jogging.

Besides weight loss, dancing improves your heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and improve cholesterol levels.

Different styles like freestyle, hip-hop, belly dance, salsa, Zumba, ballet, pole dance, and African dance can get your body burning fat.

See this article about how to dance for weight loss. In this post, you will learn the different styles that can help you burn fat. The article also includes the health benefits of dancing which includes weight loss. See the article here.

 What exercise burns the most belly fat?

Most of the weight loss exercises burn fat unless you want to focus on spot reduction.

Exercises like cycling, swimming, weight training, yoga, running, jogging and other cardio exercises can help you lose weight.

For belly spot reduction or when you want to apply extra emphasis on the belly, these are the exercises you will do.

• Forearm planks.
• Mountain climbers.
• Russian twist.
• Sit-ups.
• Crunches.
• Lying alternative leg raise.
• Knee in

Losing belly fat and getting your abs toned can be done by doing the above exercises. To get a detailed view of the exercises read the article I wrote about Effective Ways To Get More Out Of Abs Workout which you will read here.

Is working out 30 minutes a day enough to lose weight?

Whether you have a fixed schedule or you hate long hours of workouts, the time you spend exercising should be aimed at meeting your workout demands. Many fitness experts recommend 120 minutes of working out each day.

The 120 minutes of exercising are just a general or average estimate. It is an estimate for people doing exercise at a moderate pace however with high intensity, the time can be reduced and you still get the best results.

Let’s first break it down, everybody has a calorie breakdown target depending on how much weight he or she is intended to lose. This is where the type of exercise comes in.

Different types of exercises have different calorie burn calories differently with some like running burning more calories than brisk walking.

People with lean muscles burn more calories than those with high-fat content.

All these factors vary the number of calories one has to burn to lose weight.

Therefore, 30 minutes of workout can be enough to help you lose weight. By working out at a high intensity, plenty of calories will be burned in a short time helping you meet your calorie-burning target.

In most cases, people who work out for 30 minutes are more committed than those who work over 60 minutes. The thought that ”I have got time” makes one take long rests in between exercises and workout at a slower pace.

Following all the above factors above will help you estimate if 30 minutes of workouts are enough for you. Working out 30 minutes requires commitment and stamina for an intense workout that will deliver results.

Will I lose weight if I work out 3 times a week?

You may relate this to the previous question of whether 30 minutes of workouts are enough. As earlier said, this all depends on how many calories you need to burn, the type of exercises you work out for weight loss, and other factors like your diet.

To people who are maintaining weight, 3 days of workouts are enough. However, for weight loss it is recommended to workout at least 5 days a week.

Though you may lose weight by working out 3 days a week, it will exhaust you because you will have to work harder in order to burn enough calories for weight loss.

 How can I lose fat overnight?

It is not realistic and it’s a lie if somebody tells you that you can lose weight in just a single night. No matter how hard you work out or starve yourself, you won’t lose weight overnight.

The healthy weight loss target can be 1-2 pounds which are 0.45-0.9 kg per week. This is a healthy and safe rate and comes with fewer health risks while more than this is considered too fast and otherwise unhealthy.

However, in case of an occasion where you have to look slim, there are various actions you can take to look slimmer. They include;

• The use of body shapers can offer a quick and immediate way to appear slim. Body shapers can hide fat, make you look thin though they won’t offer immediate weight loss.
• Get fitting undergarments.
• Try to avoid clothes that are too big or small but rather wear fitting clothes.
• Dark clothes make you look thinner.
• Maintain a correct posture by standing or sitting straight.
• Wear high heels.
• Learn to pose for the photos in a way that will make you look thinner.

To learn more about how you can look thinner, read this article about How to look skinny and slimmer on an occasion. This will not take the weight away but rather help you look slim for the occasion or date.

Can you lose weight from exercising only?

Doing exercises alone while ignoring a proper diet may make weight loss hard and unachievable.

Let’s break it down, in order to lose weight, one must burn calories more than you consume. In short, you must be in a calorie deficit.

Therefore, ignoring the diet can make it difficult to get a calorie deficit. Imagine consuming 3000 calories and burning 2000 calories. The remaining calories will be stored as fat by the body.

In summary, the combination of workouts and diet is the best weight loss strategy.

With plenty of diets out there, it will be up to you to choose a diet you can follow for weight loss. Here is a breakdown of weight-loss diets;

The vegan diet for weight loss

Gluten-free diet for weight loss 

The raw food diet

A look into the Ketogenic diet for weight loss

The bottom line.

While making a workout routine, make that one where you include exercises that won’t harm you, that isn’t expensive and choose those that will deliver results much faster.

I hope this article has helped you learn the basics to follow while making a weight loss workout routine. If you somebody that needs to read on this article, feel free to share and spread the love.

 

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