Behind every successful and sustainable weight loss plan is a well-constructed exercise and nutrition plan. A well-rounded program should involve strength training, cardio, and flexibility, to build muscle, burn fat, and enhance function.
In this article, we discuss the best workout plans for women to lose weight. We cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced plans and tips to stay consistent for incredible results.
Best Exercises for Fat Loss and Toning
Many different forms of exercise can contribute to fat loss and toning. While many think it is a simple slimming down and reduction of body fat, the truth is there must be lean muscle mass beneath that unwanted fatty tissue to provide a lean, toned look.
Furthermore, nutrition is essential during the process. Here you must enter a calorie deficit, which is when you consume fewer calories than your daily resting energy expenditure.
Accompanied by this is the prioritizing of protein intake, with studies recommending 1.4–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for active individuals. This increases to as much as 2.3–3.1 g/kg/day for individuals in a calorie deficit to maintain lean muscle.
When this is combined with regular exercises such as resistance training, high-intensity training, and steady-state cardio, we truly maximize fat-burning potential.
Below, we discuss the types of exercise that can be used to improve fat loss.
Full-Body Strength Exercises for Weight Loss
Resistance training is a powerful tool for building lean muscle mass and increasing energy expenditure. Resistance training be performed using compound and isolation exercises. Evidence shows that compound exercises utilize multiple joints and muscle groups, which allows us to target more muscles, and lift heavier loads, resulting in growth and energy expenditure.
Meanwhile, isolation exercises target single joints and muscle groups, which can help increase energy expenditure and help develop and tone specific muscle groups. The combination of compound and isolation exercises increases total work volume, improving results.
The incredible thing about resistance training is it can increase our metabolism post-workout. Studies show that resistance training sessions even as short as 11 minutes can increase energy expenditure for 24 hours post workouts.
Therefore, performing resistance training alongside correct nutrition can create a larger calorie deficit, leading to better fat loss and weight management.
HIIT Workouts to Burn Calories Fast
A great way to boost your fat-burning potential is through high-intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT is performing exercise at high intensity for short bursts for repetitive intervals.
A 2020 study explored the energy expenditure of high-intensity functional training where 20 participants' energy expenditure was assessed for 20 regular 45-minute sessions, consisting of a 5-minute warm-up, 35-minute workout, and 5-minute cool down.
The results showed participant's max heart rate was approximately 80%, with an average energy expenditure of approximately 485 kcal per session. This highlights its effectiveness for burning energy which in turn contributes to the calorie deficit for fat loss.
Meanwhile, further research shows that HIIT is also incredible for improving exercise capacity, and metabolic health. This is bolstered by further sources indicating benefits including lowering the risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, colon cancer, and the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Low-Impact Workouts for Joint-Friendly Fat Loss
Low-impact exercise is an excellent way to increase energy expenditure without placing additional stress on the body.
Low-impact exercises such as walking, rowing, cycling, swimming, and using the elliptical can dramatically reduce the impact on joints, increasing accessibility to individuals with joint pain and injuries.
These forms of exercise performed as steady-state cardio have also been shown to be to HIIT training just at a longer duration, making them accessible and great for fat loss.
Best Workout Plans for Women to Lose Weight
The best workout plan for women to lose weight consists of strength training, cardio, and low-impact exercise, alongside a nutrient diet. Below we display the best plans for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Each plan contains workout schedules, strength training recommendations, and tips to help you burn fat and lose weight.
Training Recommendations For Better Results
We preface this program with recommendations for selecting the correct weight and intensity.
- Warm-up — Start each session with a quick warm-up of light cardio followed by dynamic stretches. Research shows that performing a warm-up increases body temperature, and blood flow, and prepares the nervous system can improve performance.
- Progressively Overload — Sources indicate that progressively overloading by increasing sets, repetitions, resistance, and intensity increases growth.
- Choose The Correct Weight — Select a weight that you believe will be challenging to perform for the final repetitions of your last set. Once you feel like those final repetitions are no longer a challenge, increase resistance to the next weight increment.
- Focus on Technique — Perform each exercise through their entire range of motion (ROM) and focus on contracting the target muscle. Research shows that performing exercise through full ROM may improve strength, speed, power, muscle size, and body composition. Meanwhile, further studies reveal that contracting target muscle can increase mind-muscle connection, enhancing results.
Load Recommendation
Here is a list of evidence-based load recommendations to highlight how different resistance and repetition ranges can be used for specific goals based on one repetition maximum (1RM), which is the maximum amount of weight one can lift with the correct technique.
- Strength — Low repetitions with heavy loads, 1–5 at 80–100% of 1RM
- Hypertrophy — Moderate repetition with a moderate load, 8–12 at 60–80% of 1RM
- Endurance — High repetitions with a light load, 15+ repetitions at 60% or less of 1RM
How to Avoid Overtraining and Burnout
Overtraining and burnout are a very real part of the weight loss process. Below is a list of ways to help you avoid burnout to keep you on track for incredible results.
- Prioritize Recovery — Utilize rest days for physical and mental recovery. We recommend performing gentle walks, light stretches, and even a massage. These can help get your muscles and joints moving and help you decompress.
- Deload Week — Deload weeks are weeks where we perform the same workout at 50% resistance at the same intensity with the correct technique. Here muscles, joints, and nervous system a break while consolidating movements. Scheduling deload weeks every four to six weeks will keep your body and mind fresh, allowing you to train for longer.
- Engage in Non-Exercise Activities — Weight loss can be all-consuming which can make it difficult to pull away during rest days. On these days we strongly recommend engaging in hobbies and non-exercise-related activities to remove yourself from the weight loss grind.
Beginner-Friendly Weight Loss Workout Plan
This beginner program is a five-day workout plan, containing three days of resistance training and two low-impact cardio sessions.
Strength training sessions will be full-body routines focused on increasing muscle mass and endurance, while low-impact cardio sessions will be performed for 30 minutes at moderate intensity. These sessions can include a brisk walk (treadmill/outdoors), rowing, cycling, elliptical, or swimming. This will leave two days remaining for rest and recovery.
Weekly Schedule Overview
Strength & Bodyweight Exercises for Beginners
Saturday: Low-Impact Cardio
Intermediate Workout Plan for Fat Loss
The intermediate workout builds on the exercise listed above and increases exercise difficulty, sets, and repetitions. This program contains five days of training.
The strength training routine is a three-day push, pull, and leg split program, utilizing movement patterns to increase muscle, strength, and function. Moreover, splitting routines allows for more time to be spent with each muscle group, increasing training volume which research shows can promote growth.
These sessions are broken up with one HIIT workout, and one low-impact cardio day, allowing for two days of rest.
Weekly Workout Breakdown
Monday: Push Workout
Tuesday: Pull Workout
Friday: Leg Workout
Advanced Workout Plan for Maximum Fat Burn
This advanced workout continues to build on the beginner and intermediate programs, increasing exercise difficulty through greater intensity, and increased training volume. The program is a three-day push, pull, and leg split, alongside two HIIT workouts and a day of low-impact steady-state cardio. This total of six days of training with one day of rest.
Performing two HIIT workouts increasing conditioning and increasing energy expenditure for greater fat loss. Meanwhile, the low-impact steady-state cardio will help increase energy expenditure without adding pressure to joints.
Weekly Workout Breakdown
Monday: Push Workout
Tuesday: Pull Workout
Friday: Leg Workout
Wednesday and Saturday: HIIT Workout
This HIIT workout follows the same format as the intermediate version. Each exercise is to be performed for 20 seconds with a 10-second rest for four to five rounds for a 24-34 minute HIIT workout.
Thursday: Low-Impact Cardio
Common Mistakes Women Make When Trying to Lose Weight with Exercise
There are many components to weight loss and with that comes many pitfalls that can disrupt and derail progress. Below, we highlight common mistakes to avoid to ensure smooth and steady weight loss.
Doing Too Much Cardio and Not Enough Strength Training
Too much cardio and not enough strength training fall back to old belief systems that weight makes women bulky. From what we can see cardio is a great tool for increasing energy expenditure and maintaining a calorie deficit for fat loss, however, when it is prioritized over weight training we are leaving a lot of fat-burning potential on the table.
As mentioned, resistance training can help increase energy expenditure for up to 24 hours after your workout, and performing regularly can lead to a continuous increase in resting energy expenditure.
We strongly recommend prioritizing resistance training and supplementing it with steady-state and HIIT workouts to maximize weight loss.
Not Prioritizing Nutrition
You can’t outrun a bad diet! You’ve likely heard the phrase before, and just know that truer words have never been spoken. Too often people embark on their weight loss journey without adjusting their nutrition.
The problem here is that exercise makes up only a small portion of total daily energy expenditure, with research showing that 60–75% comes at rest, with 15–30% from physical activity.
with the majority coming from our body’s basal metabolic rate.
When nutrition is poor and we are eating more than our daily calorie limit, it can be extremely difficult to burn that through exercise. This makes it incredibly difficult to create the calorie deficit required for weight loss.
The best way to lose weight is by creating a calorie deficit with the correct nutrition can allow your basal metabolic rate to do much of the heavy lifting. Consuming fewer calories than your body burns at rest means you will be losing weight by a simple function. From here, the addition of exercise can help provide the additional boost, leading to better results.
Ignoring Recovery
Weight loss is a challenging journey which as mentioned can be all-consuming, leading many to become hyper-fixated on training and adopting the ‘no days off’ mentality. This can lead to feelings of burnout and overtraining which research shows manifests as prolonged soreness, fatigue, disinterest, depressive mood, and poor performance, which can all derail your weight loss campaign.
We recommend taking advantage of rest days by performing recovery sessions and decompressing by engaging in activities outside of exercise and weight loss. These can help keep your mind and body fresh for the following week's training sessions.
Not Tracking Progress or Adjusting Workouts
One of the biggest mistakes you can make during weight loss is not tracking progress and adjusting workouts.
While it can seem time-consuming to monitor calories, macronutrients, lifts, measurements, and weight, it provides real data on your progress. Weight loss is a long journey with many ups and downs, and having evidence of your progress can help spur you on during those low moments and motivate you to continue pursuing your goals.
Before you begin, we recommend recording your weight, and measurements, and taking photos. Continue to take these every four weeks to monitor the changes.
For workouts, record the sets, repetitions, and weight lifted for each exercise. After each training block (e.g. six to eight weeks), review your progress and adjust your workout and exercise accordingly.
Implementing these practices will ensure you are taking measured steps toward your goal, increasing your chances for successful weight loss.
Tips for Staying Consistent and Seeing Results
Now that we have identified the common pitfalls of weight loss, here are our top tips for staying consistent.
Setting Realistic Goals and Tracking Progress
Before you begin your weight loss program, we recommend setting clear goals and tracking your progress. Setting goals provides a road map to your destination, highlighting weight loss goals.
As mentioned, weight loss comes with plenty of highs and lows. During these times clear goals will help keep you focused and help you persevere toward ideal weight. Additionally, having milestones and records of your past achievements can help you reflect on past success, stopping you from throwing in the towel.
Finding Workouts You Enjoy for Long-Term Success
A major key to weight loss success is performing workouts you enjoy. While there are many effective ways to lose weight, performing the ones you dread will likely not last, which can derail you.
Choosing the ones you enjoy will help you remain consistent. Even if it is not the most effective method of losing weight, over a long enough period it will result in great weight loss results, and enhanced overall health.
Creating a Sustainable Routine That Fits Your Lifestyle
Establishing a routine that fits your schedule is essential for weight loss. When you’re just starting and motivation is high it can be tempting to put in place a vigorous six-day-per-week workout schedule. However, if you have limited time in your existing schedule, things can quickly become overwhelming, leading to poor adherence.
The best approach is to create a routine that matches your schedule, even if it's just three days a week. This will help you develop a routine and remain consistent with your training.
Recap of the Best Workout Plans for Women to Lose Weight
There are many methods to lose weight, however, instead of choosing just one, we recommend selecting a handful to help you lose weight can improve your overall health.
A combination of resistance training, HIIT, and low-impact cardio can help increase energy expenditure, increase muscle mass, and strength, and enhance health.
If you are considering trying one of your workouts remember to:
- Set clear goals and track your progress
- Select an enjoyable workout that fits your routine
- Focus on correct nutrition (calorie deficit)
- Capitalize on recovery days (stretching, massage, walking, non-exercise activities)
Weight loss is about the long game where small consistent wins build into long-term success. When these listed elements are combined with a comprehensive training program consisting of resistance training, HIIT, and low-impact cardio, they will help you achieve incredible results.
Sources
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FAQs
What is the best workout plan for women to lose weight?
A balanced plan includes strength training (3-4 days per week), HIIT (2-3 days), and moderate-intensity cardio (1-2 days) to maximize fat loss and muscle toning.
How long should a weight loss workout plan last?
Most effective plans last 6-12 weeks, with progressive intensity increases to ensure continued fat loss and strength improvement.
Should workout plans include both strength and cardio?
Yes! Strength training builds lean muscle, while cardio helps burn extra calories. A mix of both provides the best fat-loss results.
Can home workouts be as effective as gym workouts for weight loss?
Absolutely! Bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, and dumbbells can create an effective home workout plan for losing weight.
How do I choose the right workout plan for my weight loss goals?
Consider your fitness level, time availability, and preferences. Plans combining strength, HIIT, and cardio work best for sustainable fat loss.
