Achieve Your Weight Loss Goals With Effective Exercise Regimens
Generally, to lose weight, burning more calories than you consume is essential. It is helpful to set specific, measurable goals and work toward them.
Those goals may include losing one to two pounds per week through a combination of lower-calorie eating and exercise. Effective exercise regimens generally involve a mix of activities, including strength training and cardio.
Efficient HIIT for Weight Loss
HIIT workouts are great for anyone who wants to improve their fitness and increase calorie burn in a short amount of time. Since HIIT involves short bursts of high-intensity exercises with short recovery periods, you can easily do them anywhere and with minimal equipment.
Moreover, you can do a variety of HIIT workouts with varying durations, intervals, intensities, and completed cycles depending on your fitness level and goals. You can also combine HIIT with weight training and low-impact cardio exercise to optimize your results.
In a recent study, overweight and sedentary men who performed HIIT for 12 weeks experienced impressive body composition and aerobic capacity results. They saw significant reductions in body mass, % body fat, abdominal visceral fat, and abdominal trunk fat.
However, it is important to remember that the most critical factor in losing weight and reducing body fat is achieving a calorie deficit. HIIT can help you achieve this goal, but it is essential to eat in a deficit as well. Moreover, HIIT is only effective for fat loss if you do it consistently.
Targeted Fat Burning Exercises
Many people have specific body areas they want to get leaner, such as the thighs, hips, or stomach. While spot reduction is possible with targeted exercise and diet, the most effective way to lose overall body fat is to focus on exercises that burn a high amount of calories.
For example, a combination of a squat and overhead press (also known as a thruster) works the whole body and burns many calories. Another effective option is mountain climbers, which work the upper body and core. To perform a mountain climb, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a kettlebell in both hands, then move into a squat going down as low as you can and then explode up to the standing position.
To get in the fat-burning zone, you want to reach your heart rate up to about 185 percent of your maximum (which can be found by subtracting your age from 220). Aim to do this for about 20 minutes and alternate between exercises that target different muscle groups.
Max Calorie Burn Cardio
The most effective workouts for weight loss are the ones that elevate your heart rate and burn calories quickly. These workouts include running, swimming, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and cycling.
These workouts are typically low-impact and work well for people with knee or lower back injuries. They also help to build leg power output, increase muscle endurance of the legs and arms (shoulders and chest), and boost cardiovascular health.
Each person has a different fitness level and will experience an exercise at a different intensity. As a result, the total amount of calories burned during a cardio session depends on several factors, including how much you weigh and how intense the workout is.
If you’re looking to maximize your calorie burn, try to find exercises that require short bursts of movement followed by rest. These workouts are HIIT exercises, including jump rope, jumping jacks, medicine ball slams, and mountain climbers. They can be done anywhere and don’t require any special equipment. Just warm up with light jogging or walking and dynamic stretches.
Strength Training for Metabolism
The metabolism is your body’s energy processing system and is responsible for turning food into fuel for your cells. High or normal metabolism helps support weight loss and reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
Lifting weights and building muscle increase your metabolism in three significant ways. First, the muscles burn more calories than fat, even at rest. Second, when the muscles work to repair themselves after a strength training workout, they burn more calories. And third, the metabolism continues to burn more calories after a strength training session for several hours.
To maximize calorie burn, focus on multi-joint movements like squats and rows with some isolated, single-joint exercises (like dumbbell curls or biceps extensions) mixed in. The goal is to complete a workout, targeting all major muscle groups each time.
As for intensity, take most sets to muscular failure or close to it, or a Rated Perceived Exertion of about 9 or 10. You can add a metabolic finisher at the end of each strength session to spike your heart rate for additional calorie burning.
Fun Routines for Weight Loss
You’ll likely stick with a workout routine if you enjoy working out. This can help you stay motivated; regular exercise can lead to long-term weight loss.
The current guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services suggest adults perform 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. Alternating steady-state cardio sessions with interval-based training like HIIT is an effective way to achieve this.
HIIT alternates short bursts of intense activity with low-intensity recovery periods. This type of cardio burns calories while boosting your metabolism and teaching your body to burn fat as fuel. It also improves cardiovascular health and reduces visceral fat linked to heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
Try a HIIT-based workout that includes squats, lunges, and plank. The squats and lunges work the lower body, while the plank targets your core. This combination is an effective full-body movement that’s easier on your joints than isolated exercises like sit-ups and bicep curls.
Joint-Friendly Workouts
Getting your heart rate up is good, but it’s not so great when your joints start to ache. That doesn’t mean you can’t workout or lose weight, though – exercise is the best way to alleviate pain from conditions like arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, plus it helps keep joints flexible and strong.
Low-impact exercises are easier on the joints but increase your heart rate and burn calories. Try walking, elliptical training, swimming, planks, cycling, tai chi, yoga, or light strength training.
If you’re a gym member offering free weights and machines, ask a trainer to recommend a joint-friendly lifting routine. These lifts help prevent muscle imbalances that can lead to injury over time by limiting the load you place on the joint. They’ll also provide a good amount of mechanical tension (think: muscular damage) to stimulate muscle growth. Aim for one to two sets of five to 15 repetitions. Rest for 30 to 60 seconds between each set.
Yoga and Pilates for Toning
Whether you prefer yoga, Pilates, or barre, these workout methods can help you build strength and tone muscles without giving your body that bulky look. Unlike cardio exercises that can leave you tired and sore, yoga and Pilates involve gentle movements with a focus on proper breathing.
These exercise methods emphasize diaphragmatic breathing patterns, reducing stress and anxiety. In addition, they encourage you to breathe deeply into your belly, which can improve sleep and help you deal with depression and fatigue.
These workout methods can also improve posture and balance and boost core strength. They can even help you manage weight by reducing stress and improving blood pressure.
Although Pilates is more intense than yoga, it’s ideal for people of all fitness levels and can be used with other exercise programs or as a recovery workout. It’s particularly beneficial for pregnant women, postpartum women, and those recovering from injuries. It’s recommended that you perform Pilates 3-5 times per week.