The Best Workout Schedule to Lose Weight for Women

Working out increases a woman’s weight-loss success. Women naturally have a slower metabolism than men and therefore typically have a more difficult time cutting pounds. Combined with healthy eating habits, an aggressive workout schedule can significantly increase weight loss. A comprehensive weight- loss program for women involves both cardiovascular exercise and weight training 1.

Goal

The goal of the workout schedule is to maximize the number of calories you burn. To lose body fat, you must burn more calories than you consume through food and drinks. Therefore, you need to burn a significant number of calories while you’re working out and also increase the rate at which you burn calories while you’re at rest.

Schedule

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The best weight-loss workout schedule for women is an aggressive and frequent routine. Cardiovascular workouts need to be completed six days a week. Weight training should be completed twice a week on nonconsecutive days. One day each week should be a rest and recovery day.

Cardiovascular Exercise

Each of your six cardiovascular workout sessions per week should be 30 to 60 minutes long. The longer you work out, the more calories you’ll burn, therefore maximizing your weight loss. Some exercises are better than others. Running, in-line skating and jumping rope are three of the best calorie-burning exercises. According to MayoClinic.com, a 160-lb. woman can burn more than 900 calories with an hour of running.

It’s important that you choose activities you enjoy so that you’re more likely to be consistent. Use an online exercise calorie calculator to see which of your favorite exercises is most effective.

Weight Training

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Regular weight training results in an increase in lean muscle mass. This is particularly important to women, who naturally have a lower amount of muscle. While women lack the hormones necessary to gain significant muscle, regular weight training will increase muscle size. Muscle tissue requires fuel in the form of calories to maintain structure and function. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolism is, meaning you burn more calories even when you’re at rest.

Complete two sets of eight to 12 repetitions of chest presses, lat pulldowns, shoulder presses, bicep curls, tricep extensions, squats, leg curls, leg extensions, calf raises and abdominal crunches.

Additional Tools

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on the same day every week. This will make you more accountable and more likely to be consistent with your workouts. In addition to your scheduled workouts, try to take short walks throughout your day. Breaking up hours of sitting with a 10- to 15-minute walk will not only burn calories during the walk but also raise your metabolism over the next few hours.