The Best Workouts for Losing Weight

Workouts with short rest periods, higher intensities, and ones that use compound movements will give you the best results—provided your nutrition plan is on track. That’s because high intensity interval training increases the body’s ability to oxidize fatty acids—aka burn fat—better than steady-state exercise.

Regardless of whether you’re working out for general fitness or to compete, the sessions printed here will help you obtain your goals. Include them in your weekly program at least once per week.

Keep in mind: Losing more than two pounds per week can sap power and energy, so have an outlook of at least three months to start reaching long-term weight loss goals. And don’t skimp on the strength exercises. When you lose weight, there’s no way to ensure 100 percent of that weight is coming from fat, so you must work to maintain your muscle mass.

Swimming

Warm-up:
200 easy swim
100 kick
100 pull

Drill:
2×50 1-Arm
2×50 Slide Glide

Main Set:
5×100, each one gets faster 6×50, first 25 steady, last 25 tempo
8×25 race pace
Cool-down: 200 easy swim

Biking

Warm-up:
10 minutes easy

Main Set:
7×6 minutes at 8/10 effort (unable to speak),
1 minute rest
Cool-down:
10 minutes easy

Running

Warm-up:
10 minute jog 2x25m butt kicks 2x50m high-knee skips

Main set:
1 miles easy
5×1 mile tempo
1 minute recovery

Cool-down:
1 mile easy