A proper diet is essential for losing weight, but it may not be enough to induce the changes you need. For this reason, you need a well-designed workout plan. But not just any workout plan will help you burn fat and drop inches off your waist--you need a plan specifically designed to help you lose weight fast.
Ultimate Circuit Workout
As professional figure competitor and fitness expert Alissa Carpio explains, a circuit that includes both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training can help you lose fat. She explains that this method is "a super way to maximize training into a minimum amount of time." To make the most of your session, use compound exercises, which employ more than one muscle group and burn more calories. For a fat-burning circuit, perform three minutes of each exercise--treadmill jogging, dumbbell lunges, incline chest press, seated row, stationary bicycle, barbell bench press, leg extension and chin-ups. Repeat this circuit as many times as desired with two minutes of rest between circuits.
High Intensity Interval Pyramid Workout
High intensity interval training, or HIIT, is beneficial for two reasons. First, it keeps things interesting by varying the tempo constantly, so you're likely to exercise longer and burn more calories. Second, as a study from the journal Metabolism indicates, HIIT induces more fat burning than steady endurance training. However, jumping right into long intervals can be off-putting. A graded approach can help you ease into the exercise. A HIIT pyramid workout would consist of 30 seconds of normal speed, followed by 30 seconds of sprinting. Next, move up to 35 seconds of each. Keep increasing the duration by five seconds until you reach 90 seconds of each, and then reverse the increment. If you need to shorten the session, shoot for a lower number, such as 60.
Compound Weight-lifting Workout
You might think that weight training is only good for putting on weight, but it can help you lose weight as well. As figure competitor Brigitte Brodski explains, performing compound exercises stimulates the release of fat-burning hormones. A study from the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that performing a workout with heavy weights and fewer repetitions caused significantly higher post-exercise calorie burning than the same workout with lighter weights and more repetitions. A fat-burning weight training workout would feature four sets of six repetitions for the following exercises: squats, lat-pulldown, deadlift, bench press, dumbbell lunge, barbell row, military press and leg press.
References
- Body Building: 5 Unbeatable Forms of Cardio for Greater Fat-Burning
- Metabolism: Impact of Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism
- Body Building: 5 Full-Time Fat-Blasting Workouts: Weight Training For Fat Loss
- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise: Effects of Resistance Exercise Bouts of Different Intensities But Equal Work on EPOC
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