Which Workout is Best for Weight Loss: The Secret Revealed

‍

Learning the best workout for weight loss could be all it takes to slim down and be who you want to be.

But what is that? Should you be running, or cycling, or swimming? How many calories do those even burn per minute?

No, what you need is to start with something else. The best workout for weight loss is a good diet. The best exercise is sitting down with your grocery list and making a change you can stick with!

You can line up every workout ever developed and none of them stack up to changing your diet, for weight loss and burning fat.

You can do any workout you want and – if your diet is correct – you’ll lose weight. People have lost weight with every kind of workout for hundreds of years, but only one diet has worked: the calorie deficit. Monitoring your calorie intake is essential for tracking your progress and achieving your weight loss goals.

This means that you can and should focus on what you eat before you worry about what exercise you take. But it also means you’re free to choose whatever form of exercise you want - and we’re going to look at which burns the most calories, and what else they offer you.

Let’s look at what you can do to get more weight loss from your diet, and then the best and most popular workouts for fat loss…

‍

Introduction to Weight Loss

Losing weight is more than just a numbers game—it's a journey that has helped thousand of people when they need encouragement and real results in their life. Achieving a healthy weight isn't just about seeing a lower number on the scale; it's about improving your overall well-being and body composition which has brought to light how many people are affected by poor health habits. Exercise is a powerful tool in your weight loss efforts, especially when paired with a balanced diet that has attracted men and women from all walks of life. Incorporating high intensity interval training (HIIT), strength training, and aerobic exercise into your routine can help you burn calories, build muscle mass, and boost your metabolic rate which has forced people to start focusing on what really works. These are some of the best exercises for weight loss because they not only help you lose weight, but also improve your body's ability to burn calories even at rest - ranging from beginners that have never worked out in their life to the person that has some knowledge of fitness. By focusing on sustainable weight loss through a combination of exercise and a balanced diet, you'll set yourself up for long-term success and a healthier lifestyle because we set goals and we achieve them together like a partnership.

Understanding Body Fat

Body fat is something that gets misunderstood by many people, but it's a important part of your body and your health overall. While it helps as a energy storage and plays a role in hormone control and insulin working right, carrying too much body fat—especially around the belly area—can make your risk higher for chronic diseases like heart problems, diabetes, and some cancers. The key to healthy weight loss is not just losing the weight, but specifically getting rid of body fat while keeping or building your lean muscle. Regular exercise, including strength training, HIIT, and cardio workouts, helps burn the calories and supports muscle growth, which helps improve your body composition overall. When you pair these exercises with a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle choices it can help you achieve weight loss that lasts, improve how your insulin works, and lower your risk of chronic diseases that affect so many people. Remember, the goal isn't just to lose weight, but to create a healthier, stronger body that helps you move better in life.

Fat Loss and Weight Loss: What’s the Difference?

It's real easy to get confused with weight loss and fat loss, but understanding this difference can make a big impact on your results that we are working towards together. Weight loss simply means a reduction in your total body weight, which can include water, muscle, and body fat - this has brought to light many misconceptions I see with clients from all walks of life. Fat loss, however, specifically targets the reduction of body fat, which is what most people are really after when they start a weight loss journey with me. The best way we achieve fat loss is through a combination of strength training, aerobic exercise, and a balanced diet that has helped thousands of people since I started coaching. This approach helps you preserve lean muscle mass, improve your body composition, and avoid the common pitfall of losing muscle along with fat that many people has experienced. By focusing on fat loss rather than just the number on the scale, you'll not only look leaner but also feel stronger and healthier - and that's what we are committed to achieve together. We set our sights on building muscle mass and reducing body fat for lasting, meaningful results because I don't leave anyone behind when it comes to reaching their goals.

Caloric deficit: the science of burning fat

The deciding factor in whether you lose or gain weight is calorie balance: are you eating more, or fewer, calories than you need?

Understanding calorie deficit starts with calorie maintenance. Your TDEE is an estimate of the number of calories you use on a daily basis. Your starting weight plays a significant role in determining your calorie needs and how much weight you can expect to lose over time.

If you eat fewer calories than your maintenance, you’ll lose weight – such as with fat loss. If you eat more calories than your maintenance, you’ll gain weight – which is typically either fat or muscle, depending on your lifestyle.

TDEE

Getting a good idea of your TDEE using a TDEE calculator online can help you understand your needs. 

This is only an estimate, but it's a great starting point for taking control of your diet. It gives you a target to aim for, it's flexible to changes in weight or exercise, and it's a good piece of accountability if you've struggled with dieting in the past.

TDEE lets you start making changes and gives you a measure for calorie deficit, which is the key to fat loss.

Calorie deficit

Calorie deficit is what we call it when you consistently eat fewer calories – on average – than your maintenance

For practical reasons, this is usually day by day, but also applies to weeks and months. Weekly averages, in particular, are a good place to look for calorie deficit as a way of balancing out the ‘highs and lows’ of weekly eating.

Any calorie deficit is likely to lead to fat loss and weight loss. This is because your body can’t magic up energy out of nowhere. It has to produce energy for things like movement and organ maintenance from food.

Calorie deficit is about energy and isn’t healthy or unhealthy by itself. Losing excess weight is healthy, but just eating less isn’t the best way to control health. To do that, you should also consider what you’re eating – and how that impacts changes to your body. Losing weight too quickly through a large calorie deficit can also cause muscle loss, which is undesirable for long-term health and body composition.

Common myth: the best way to lose weight isn’t just to eat less – calorie deficits are only good up until a point. You need to remain fuelled for your daily activities. Your body needs calories, and the best way to lose weight is patiently - not by starving yourself!

Macronutrients and weight loss

Macronutrients are the 3 main types of compounds in food that provide energy: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Choosing the right balance of macronutrients can help boost metabolism and support sustainable weight loss.

Proteins: The Most Important Macronutrient

Proteins are the building blocks your body needs to make and repair tissues. Carbs are ‘fast' energy and fats are ‘slow' energy, as well as crucial for hormonal health.

Protein is the most important macronutrient for weight loss. It's essential – you're literally made out of proteins that need replacing – and it also has a strong metabolic effect. Protein-rich foods are typically filling, great for your health, and make weight loss much easier. 

Common myth: protein isn't just for getting jacked like a bodybuilder. It's the most important macronutrient and high protein diets also improve fat loss, reduce injury risks, and keep us metabolically healthy!

Carbohydrates: Fuel Workouts

are an important part of your daily energy levels. Weight loss is easier when you focus on ‘slower' carbs like wholegrains and vegetables. These fill you up more, help regulate health (like broccoli), and keep you energized for longer.

Common myth: carbs aren't bad for you and they don't make you fat – but they are pretty moreish. Carbs aren't unhealthy, we just tend to eat too many of the wrong ones, or they fill a ‘comfort eating' role that is dangerous for our physical and mental health!

Fats Don't Make You Fat

Fats are important for health, but they're also calorie dense.

This means you need fewer of them in total and each choice of fats will be important. They contain more than 200% more calories per gram than carbs or protein. This makes it essential to focus on fat quality – getting them from fatty fish, avocados, olives, coconut oil, and other healthy sources.

Common myth: dietary fats don't make you fat. Your body will only store them if you're in a calorie surplus, otherwise they're used up as fuel!

Sustainability over intensity

To lose weight, you need to be consistent. You can’t lose 20lbs this week no matter what you do.

This means that sustainability is key, not intensity. You don’t need to go cold turkey on every food you enjoy, and you don’t need to spend 25 hours in the gym this week. You just need to make good changes that you could see yourself sticking to for at least 6-12 months.

Why live on chicken salads when you could just make your diet a bit healthier, reduce some portion sizes, and still achieve your goals?

Patience and realistic expectations get you further than short-term enthusiasm. Don’t worry about perfection from day one – just focus on making small changes as often as possible and making sure that they stick.

Successful weight loss comes from changes you live with month on month. You should improve your staple meals, your exercise habits, and your sleep schedule. The key to lasting results is to maintain consistency in your exercise and dietary habits. Focus on slowly improving these day by day and you’ll see excellent weight loss along the way.

Most effective calorie-burning workouts

Every workout will burn calories – even some non-exercise activities you enjoy doing. Choosing the right weight loss exercise routine can make a significant difference in your results. An effective workout is one that not only burns calories but also fits your preferences and lifestyle. Regular physical activity, in any form, supports weight loss and overall health. The question is how many calories does each type of exercise burn? What is the best workout for weight loss?

We’re going to look at some of the best weight loss workouts, and some of the most popular. We’ll also look at why some are better or worse than others, and how you decide which is best for you.

Remember: the amount of each exercise you perform, and the intensity you perform it at, will contribute. These are just average calorie burning estimates and they might not apply perfectly. You may also prefer x or y type of exercise – and that’s okay, preferences are a good reason to choose!

Running: how many calories does running burn?

Running burns roughly 600-700 calories per hour, roughly 10-12 per minute, or 100 per mile.

Running is the most efficient form of ‘cardio’: middle intensity exercise that you can perform for longer to burn more calories. As a form of cardiovascular exercise, running is particularly effective at burning belly fat, which is associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Reducing belly fat through cardiovascular exercise like running can significantly improve your overall health. That’s why it’s the poster-child of weight loss workouts!

Running is quite demanding compared to alternatives, however, as it can be high-impact on the joints, and you need to build up your mileage patiently. These make running a great choice, but also an investment. You have to get good at running to get the best effects.

If you like running – and take it at the right speed – it’s one of the best weight loss workouts.

Swimming: how many calories does swimming burn?

Swimming burns up to 600 calories per hour, or 10 per minute. This is based on a competent swimmer burning laps for an hour, which is pretty rare! Swimming can burn around 9 to 11.6 calories per minute depending on body weight, making it a versatile option for individuals of varying fitness levels.

Swimming is great because it’s a low-impact form of exercise, which makes it a great option for those with knee or hip discomfort and joint pain. Swimming at a moderate pace allows for effective calorie burning while minimizing stress on the joints, making it ideal for individuals experiencing joint pain. It also uses more of the upper body muscles than other forms of cardio, hence the ‘swimmer’s physique’. This can help build the shoulders, arms, and lats while you burn calories.

Swimming – or at least aqua jogging – is a great choice for strengthening the body and losing weight without hurting the joints. This can be a perfect choice after an injury or in older age.

Cycling: how many calories does cycling burn?

Cycling burns 450 calories per hour, or 7.5 per minute, on average. The range is around 300-600 per hour, depending on how fast you’re going. Cycling can burn approximately 6.4 to 8.2 calories per minute depending on body weight, offering a scalable workout for different individuals.

Cycling is great for burning lots of calories while keeping the knees and hips healthy. It has less impact on these joints than running or HIIT, though slightly more than swimming.

Cycling can actively strengthen the lower body, is accessible, and can be done either on a stationary bike or a road bike. If you cycle regularly, you not only improve your overall fitness but also enhance your body's ability to regulate blood sugar, as regular cycling improves insulin sensitivity. It’s a great way to burn calories and can obviously be a good way to add more exercise to your day as a form of transport for shorter distances.

HIIT: how many calories does HIIT burn?

HIIT workouts are a form of intense exercise that use short bursts of high effort to maximize calorie burn and improve fitness. HIIT can burn up to 900 calories per hour, or 15 per minute. However, you can’t sustain HIIT for an hour. More realistically, HIIT burns around 250-450 calories in 20-30 minutes, which is a more realistic HIIT session. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) can burn 25-30% more calories per minute than other types of exercises, making it an efficient choice for weight loss.

It depends heavily on the type of exercise you’re using, the intensity of that exercise, and your experience with it.

HIIT workouts are easy to customize because they’re just about doing intense exercise, then resting or lowering the intensity, then repeating the cycle. They can use any simple exercise, where you’re just focusing on trying hard.

This makes HIIT options popular because you can also build any other athletic traits you want. You could use strength training HIIT to build more muscle, you could add in power exercise to build power, or you could go all-cardio for maximum fat loss and endurance gains.

HIIT does take some preparation. You shouldn’t perform HIIT with exercises unless you’re very confident with them. High intensity and fatigue can make them more challenging and it’s easy to mess up more-complex exercises.

Keep it simple, focus on really pushing pace, and you’ll be able to burn calories and build performance at the same time.

Strength training: how many calories does strength training burn?

Strength training burns 250-350 calories per hour, or around 4-5 calories per minute, on average. This is lower than others, but it also boosts your resting energy expenditure while recovering – and has other benefits.

Strength training is the best way to improve the end result of weight loss.

While it may not burn as many calories per minute as running, it builds muscle mass. Classic strength training exercises such as weight lifting and other forms of weight training are highly effective for muscle building, as they target multiple muscle groups at once for comprehensive fitness benefits. This is an important way of changing how you look (if you’re training to improve your physique) – but also makes you stronger and more injury-resilient.

Building muscle mass isn’t just for vanity. Remember that, instead of just looking good on the beach, muscles are there to move your joints. They stabilize them and help you move, keeping you pain-free for longer and becoming even more important as you age.

Crucially, muscle mass is one of the biggest factors in your calorie maintenance levels! Muscular people have a higher calorie maintenance and can eat more while losing weight, and their metabolisms are more resilient because of this higher ‘basal metabolic rate’.

Strength training helps you build muscle and lose fat, so consider adding 1-2 sessions per week to your existing weight loss ‘cardio’.

Efficiency: HIIT for more burn-per-minute

Efficiency and preferences are two factors that you need to consider when it comes to workouts for weight loss. You want to make sure that any exercise you choose:

1. They are exercises you enjoy – or tolerate – enough to keep doing them, and
2. They fit your schedule and offer the results you want in the time you have free

These are important. A weight loss routine doesn’t work if it can’t fit into your life and you have to give it up after 1 week because you’re exhausted. Equally, if you hate the exercise you’re doing, then it’s not as good as one you’d enjoy – even if it burns a few more calories per hour!

HIIT is time-efficient exercise because you’re trying really hard for a short amount of time. This can also make it a demanding exercise choice. Perhaps you’d rather be on the recumbent bike for a relaxed time. That will take longer to burn as many calories, but maybe you have the time, and that suits you better.

This balancing act is a personal one. Only you can and should make that decision. It’s important to find a lifestyle – as well as a diet – that is sustainable. The ultimate goal should be sustainable fat loss, achieved through a combination of effective exercise and healthy habits that you can maintain long-term. You can use this free online consultation if you feel like you need more guidance, and want a personalised HIIT option.

HIIT also burns calories after exercise, during recovery (EPOC), at a higher rate than other forms of exercise.

Staying Motivated and Consistent

Consistency is what has helped thousand of people that Coach Lou has worked with over the years when it comes to successful weight loss. Staying motivated can be challenging, but Coach Lou helps everyone set realistic goals and tracking your progress together makes a big difference for everyone that has came to the program. Tracking progress through a journal or fitness app can help maintain motivation during weight loss efforts. Coach Lou celebrates your small victories along the way with you—because they add up and everyone deserves encouragement! Finding a workout buddy or joining a fitness community like Coach Lou's has provided extra support and accountability for many people, making your exercise routine more enjoyable when you have others around you. To keep things fresh and avoid plateaus, Coach Lou helps mix up your workouts with different exercises for weight loss, such as HIIT, strength training, or brisk walking depending on what each person needs. Remember, weight loss is a journey we take together, not something you have to do alone. By maintaining consistency and staying motivated with the help of Coach Lou and others in the program, you'll overcome obstacles and build habits that lead to a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle that Coach Lou is passionate about helping you achieve.

FAQ: Important Questions and Myth-Busting 

There are lots of ways to exercise – and lots of questions about them. Let’s take a look at the most common questions and most important myths around the best weight loss workouts, and how you should plan your routine.

FAQ

How much weight can I expect to lose with exercise?
How much weight you lose with exercise depends on several factors, including your starting weight, diet, exercise intensity, and consistency. Healthy, gradual weight loss is recommended—typically 0.5 to 2 pounds per week. Rapid weight loss is not sustainable and can be unhealthy.

What are the benefits of exercise for obese women?
Exercise offers significant benefits for obese women, including weight loss, reduction in waist circumference, improved cardiovascular health, and better overall well-being. Activities like yoga and walking are effective and accessible options.

What is mat pilates and why is it popular?
Mat pilates is a beginner-friendly form of Pilates that can be practiced almost anywhere with minimal equipment, such as a mat. It is accessible for all fitness levels and helps improve flexibility, stability, and body awareness, making it a great starting point for many individuals. Pilates focuses on core strength and flexibility, and while it may burn fewer calories than cardio, it can still contribute to weight loss when combined with other exercises.

Do I need special equipment to start exercising?
Many effective workouts, such as mat pilates and bodyweight exercises, require minimal equipment. This makes it easy to start exercising at home or in any setting.

How important is proper form in bodyweight exercises?
Proper form is crucial when performing bodyweight exercises. It ensures the exercises are effective and helps prevent injury. Always focus on technique and body awareness during your workouts.

Is it better to eat less or exercise more for weight loss?

It's better to eat slightly less for weight loss: eating 200 fewer calories per day is easy, but that's the same as around 20 minutes of running. Most people would rather avoid a chocolate bar than burn it off.

You shouldn't restrict yourself too hard, but exercise is definitely a harder time than reducing food intake.

What is the best workout for weight loss?

There is no best workout for weight loss, but HIIT and high intensity running have the highest calorie burn per hour. That's not the same as being the best, though.

The best workout for weight loss is whichever one you find most rewarding, and which fits your schedule. That's because consistency is the best way to lose weight, and you're going to burn more calories over the long run if you're invested in getting better and pushing yourself.

Choosing the right exercise for you is about finding what you enjoy – as long as you approach it with enough intensity. You're not going to lose weight by playing darts, but you should choose your favorite exercise – such as choosing swimming over running, e.g.

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

Most people should eat at a calorie deficit of 300-800 calories. The idea is simple: if you have more mass (taller, higher fat mass, or more muscular), you can afford a higher deficit!

 should err towards the lower end, and bigger people can use larger deficits. The average person should use around a 500 calorie deficit, depending on lifestyle.

This is enough to consistently lose a pound per week of fat, without drastically depleting energy levels. You can feel good and move well on this calorie deficit, while still getting closer to your goals.

Excessive calorie deficits are going to tank your energy levels and ruin your experience. On the other end, calorie deficits below 300 can be disheartening as you won't see yourself changing as quickly, which can make your goals feel ‘out of reach'.

Conclusion

Weight loss is about lifestyle – not just picking the right workout based on the number of calories burned. Sure, you want to burn calories, but you also need to look at what you're going to try hardest with, what fits your life, and which workouts you will stick with forever.

Finding a type of workout, exercise, or activity you love and invest in emotionally makes weight loss much easier. If you're an optimiser, then go for whatever has the highest calorie burn – probably HIIT or high-intensity running.

However, the real focus for most people should be on workouts and diets that fit their long-term plans. No workout is more effective than years of building momentum, eating well, and finding fulfillment in your workout choices. Find what suits you and, as long as it burns calories and you can get better at it over time, the diet will do the rest!

By Liam Rodgers

‍