Being physically active and getting regular exercise can help promote weight loss. To maximize your weight loss, participate in an aggressive regime consisting of cardiovascular exercise and weight training. Both men and women would see weight loss benefit from incorporating exercise into their regime.
Goal
The goal of an exercise regime meant to promote maximum weight loss is to burn as many overall calories as possible. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume over a period of time. Therefore, maximizing the amount of calories than you burn will help create that caloric deficit necessary to lose weight.
Components
The two components of an effective exercise program meant for weight loss are cardiovascular exercise and weight training. Cardiovascular exercise activities, such as jogging, biking and swimming, burn the most calories per unit of time and therefore make a significant impact on your weight loss success. Weight training doesn't burn a large number of calories while you're working out, but the lean muscle mass that it causes will result in an increase in your overall metabolism. A faster metabolism means you burn more calories at all times, even when you're sleeping.
Schedule
Complete cardiovascular exercise 4 to 6 days per week. Six days is ideal, as the more frequent you exercise, the more overall calories you'll burn. Cardiovascular workouts can be done on back to back days, so fit them in as your schedule permits. Complete weight training 2 days per week. Allow 72 hours of rest in between weight training sessions, so you can either work out on Mondays and Thursdays and Tuesdays and Fridays.
Duration and Volume
Cardiovascular exercise sessions should last 30 to 60 minutes. Sixty minutes is ideal, as you'll burn more calories. If you're unable to complete at least 30 minutes in one continuous session, you can break the workout up into multiple, shorter sessions. For weight training, complete two sets of 8 to 12 repetitions of each chest press, rows, shoulder press, bicep curls, tricep extension, squats, hamstring curls and abdominal crunches.
Intensity
When you're doing your cardiovascular exercise, you want to train within your target heart rate, as you'll maximize not only your calorie burning results, but will see cardiovascular health benefits. This is about 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. To estimate what your target heart rate is, subtract your age from 220 and then multiply that value by 0.70. The weights that you use during weight training must be of appropriate intensity to effectively gain lean muscle. Be sure that the weight you're using for each exercise allows you to complete 8 to 12 repetitions, no more and no less. Make adjustments to the weight you're using if needed.
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