By boosting the number of calories you burn, many different kinds of physical exercise can be helpful for those who are trying to lose weight. It’s possible that your age, diet, and beginning weight will all play a role in the amount of weight loss you might anticipate experiencing.
Exercising is one of the most popular tactics used by people who are attempting to lose weight. Dieting is another one of the most prevalent strategies. It is one of the most important factors in weight loss since it causes calories to be burned.
A better mood, stronger bones, and a lower chance of numerous chronic illnesses are just a few of the many advantages that come along with regular exercise (2, 3, 4 Trusted Source). Exercise also helps you lose weight, which is just one of its many benefits.
Here is a list of the eight most effective workouts for losing weight.
Walking
Walking is a great weight reduction workout for a reason.
Beginners may exercise without equipment or stress. It’s also low-impact.
Harvard Health reports that a 155-pound (70-kg) individual walking at 4 mph (6.4 km/h) burns 175 calories in 30 minutes (5).
Walking 50–70 minutes three times a week for 12 weeks decreased body fat and waist circumference by 1.5% and 1.1 inches (2.8 cm), respectively, in 20 obese women (6Trusted Source).
Walking into your everyday routine is simple. Walk during lunch, use the stairs at work, or walk your dog to get additional steps.
Start by walking 30 minutes 3–4 times a week. As you get fitter, you can walk more.
Summary
Beginning exercisers should walk. It’s easy, portable, and low-impact. Try walking more.
Run or jog
Running and jogging burn fat.
Running is quicker than jogging, which is usually between 4 and 6 mph (6.4–9.7 km/h).
Harvard Health estimates that a 155-pound (70-kg) individual burns 288 calories every 30 minutes of jogging at 5 mph (8 km/h) or 360 calories at 6 mph (9.7 km/h) (5).
Jogging and running also burn visceral fat, or abdominal fat, according to research. This fat surrounds your organs and is linked to chronic disorders including heart disease and diabetes (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).
Jogging and running are terrific, easy-to-do activities. Start by jogging 20–30 minutes 3–4 times a week.
If jogging or running outside hurts your joints, try grass. Many treadmills offer padding, which may reduce joint stress.
Summary
Jogging and running are easy weight-loss workouts. They lower visceral fat, which is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic disorders.
Cycling
Cycling boosts fitness and weight loss.
Many gyms and fitness facilities include stationary bikes for indoor cycling.
Harvard Health estimates that a 155-pound (70 kg) individual burns 252 calories on a stationary bike at a moderate speed or 288 calories riding a bicycle at 12–13.9 mph (19–22.4 km/h) (5).
Cycling helps you lose weight and improves your fitness, insulin sensitivity, and risk of heart disease, cancer, and mortality (10, 11).
Cycling is good for beginners and athletes. It’s also low-impact and non-weight-bearing.
Summary
Cycling suits all fitness levels. Regular cycling improves insulin sensitivity and reduces chronic disease risk.
Weight training
Weight-loss enthusiasts like weight training.
Weight exercise burns 108 calories every 30 minutes for a 155-pound individual (5).
Weight exercise can increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR) through building strength and muscle (12Trusted Source).
One 6-month research found that 11 minutes of strength-based activities three times a week increased metabolic rate by 7.4%. In this study, that increase burned 125 calories per day (13Trusted Source).
In another research, 24 weeks of weight training increased men’s metabolic rate by 9%, burning 140 extra calories each day. Women’s metabolic rate rose about 4%, or 50 calories per day (14Trusted Source).
Weight-training burns calories longer than cardiovascular activity (15Trusted Source).
Summary
Burning calories during and after weight exercise can help you lose weight. Muscle mass increases resting metabolic rate.
Interval training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves brief bursts of intensive activity followed by rest intervals.
HIIT workouts burn numerous calories in 10–30 minutes.
HIIT burnt 25–30% more calories per minute than weight training, cycling, and treadmill running in a 9-man research (16Trusted Source).
HIIT burns more calories in less time.
HIIT burns abdominal fat, which is linked to several chronic conditions (17, 18).
Adding HIIT to your workout is simple. Just pick an exercise like running, jumping, or riding and your workout and rest times.
For instance, cycle strongly for 30 seconds and then slowly for 1–2 minutes on a bike. 10–30 minutes.
Summary
Interval training helps you lose weight with different workouts. Interval exercise burns calories faster.
Swimming
Swimming burns calories and tones.
Harvard Health estimates that 155-pound (70-kg) swimmers expend 216 calories each half-hour (5).
Swimming seems to impact calorie burn. Breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle consumed the most calories for competitive swimmers (19Trusted Source).
Swimming 60 minutes three times a week for 12 weeks in 24 middle-aged women decreased body fat, increased flexibility, and lowered heart disease risk factors such high total cholesterol and blood triglycerides (20Trusted Source).
Swimming’s gentle impact reduces joint stress. It’s ideal for injured or joint-painful persons.
Summary
Swimming is a low-impact weight-loss workout.
Yoga
Yoga is a popular stress-relieving practice.
It burns a lot of calories and has various health advantages that can help you lose weight.
Harvard Health estimates that 155-pound (70-kg) yoga practitioners burn 144 calories per 30 minutes (5).
Two 90-minute yoga sessions per week reduced waist circumference by 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in a 12-week study of 60 obese women (21Trusted Source).
Yoga improved mental and physical health.
Yoga reduces stress and teaches awareness. (22Reliable Source).
Yoga is practiced anyplace. Many online lessons allow you to learn at home.
Summary
Yoga helps you lose weight and can be done anywhere.
Pilates
Beginners can lose weight using Pilates.
According to an American Council on Exercise research, a 140-pound (64 kg) individual would burn 108 calories in a 30-minute beginner’s Pilates session and 168 in an expert class (23).
Pilates burns less calories than cardiovascular workouts like jogging, yet many people love it and persist with it.
An 8-week research in 37 middle-aged women revealed that 90 minutes of Pilates three times a week significantly decreased waist, stomach, and hip circumference compared to a control group that performed no exercise (24Trusted Source).
Pilates improves strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, and lower back discomfort (25Trusted Source, 26Trusted Source).
Include Pilates in your weekly regimen to check it out. Pilates is available at numerous gyms and at home.
Combine Pilates with weight training, cardio, or a nutritious diet to increase weight reduction.
How much weight loss is realistic?
Exercise weight loss depends on numerous things.
These are:
- Starting weight: High-weight people have greater baseline metabolic rates. Basic life-sustaining functions consume this many calories. High BMRs burn more calories during rest and activity (27Trusted Source).
- Age: Older adults have more fat than muscle, which lowers BMR. Lower BMRs make weight loss harder (28Trusted Source).
- Gender: Women have a higher fat-to-muscle ratio than males, which affects BMR. Even with the same calorie intake, males lose weight faster than women (29).
- Diet: Burning more calories than you ingest causes weight reduction. Weight loss requires a calorie deficit (30Trusted Source).
- Sleep: Lack of sleep slows weight loss and increases cravings for high-calorie meals (31Trusted Source, 32Trusted Source).
- Health issues Depression and hypothyroidism hinder weight loss (33Trusted Source).
- Genetics Obese persons may be genetically predisposed to weight reduction (34Trusted Source).
- Most individuals want to lose weight rapidly, but doctors recommend shedding 1–2 pounds (0.5–1.36 kg), or 1% of your body weight, every week (35Trusted Source).
Rapid weight loss can harm health. It can cause muscle loss, gallstones, thirst, exhaustion, starvation, migraines, irritability, constipation, hair loss, and irregular periods (36Trusted Source, 37).
Fast weight loss increases the risk of regaining it (37).
Weight reduction is not a linear process, and you may lose weight faster at initially.