The Best Workouts for Women’s Weight Loss

Key Points:

  • No one wants to waste time at the gym, so discover the best weight loss workouts for women and hit them hard.

  • Many workouts help women meet weight loss goals, such as high-intensity interval training, yoga, cardio, pilates, and weight training.

  • Each woman must find the workouts she enjoys and can stick with to see results.

Time is short: If you want to lose weight, you understand you must eat right and move more. However, the best weight loss workouts for women are the only workouts you want. There's no use wasting any time on exercise that won't aid you in reaching your goals.

Mind + Body Deputy Editor of Eat This, Not That! Alexa Mellardo says, "When you're spending precious time at the gym, it's important to make your routine count. If you're trying to go down a size or two, there are specific workouts you should be doing to make it happen."

Which workouts line up with your weight loss goals? Which are you able to commit to and carry out?

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

High-intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is what it sounds like — an intense type of training that has you working hard on exercises for a bit and then resting for a little while before you start again. Women's HIIT exercises burn calories and set your body up to continue the burn after training finishes for the day.

Whom Does HIIT Help?

If you have good cardiovascular health, only want to improve it, and are in decent physical condition, handling HIIT is an option to consider. You sweat, feel out of breath, and face exercises you may have never seen before. You don't want boredom with your workout; women's HIIT exercises ensure that never happens.

HIIT workout class

Strength Training

It's important for people of any age to engage in strength training, especially as your metabolism slows. You burn more calories when you use weights and resistance bands to build muscle, even when your body is resting. Strength training allows you to turn fat into muscle and increase your metabolism.

Why Strength Training for Weight Loss?

Strength training for weight loss is an excellent fit for people who don't have the necessary mobility for other workouts. It also pairs well with cardio exercises as it allows you to build muscle, which helps you to keep weight off once you lose it.

Strength training with dumbbells

Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardio workouts for women are the most critical exercises for weight loss. They include anything that gets your heart pumping, like running, biking, swimming, dancing, kickboxing, and hiking. When your heart works harder, you burn calories, improve your overall health, and get your endorphins flowing. You feel better after any cardio workouts for women.

What Cardio Works for You?

The best weight loss workouts are ones you enjoy, so you're able to commit to the workout and stick with it. If you don't like swimming, don't choose it for your cardio exercises. Instead, hike in nature and explore the trails in your local park. If aren't sure which fitness and weight loss option is your best choice, try a few and see what you enjoy the most. You don't have to pick just one if you like several.

Woman on stationary bike

Pilates

Pilates for weight loss serves those who don't like or can't handle high-impact exercises. Instead, these low-impact movements strengthen the core and improve flexibility. They tone the body and are an excellent answer to those who want to lose weight in certain areas, like through the midsection.

What Are Pilates Workouts?

Pilates are mind-body exercises that supplement other cardio workouts to build muscle. You focus on specific muscles and move from one to another to strengthen your entire body through one workout. Pilates for weight loss helps you to tone areas of your body that might carry excess weight.

Pilates exercise

Yoga

Yoga, like pilates, increases strength and flexibility. Yoga for weight loss allows you to access a new sense of mindfulness, which carries over to how you see and deal with food and nutrition. When you decide to try yoga for weight loss, the poses and breathing combine to allow you a full-body workout that includes your mind.

Yoga for Beginners

Don't worry about the fact that you've never tried yoga before. Everyone is a beginner at first. Look up poses at home and try a few simple things before you take a class to learn more. Some easy yoga poses — like the child's pose, the tree pose, and the downward-facing dog — are options to do at home or even between items on your to-do list at work. When traveling, performing yoga in a hotel room is easy, so there's never a good reason to miss a session.

Woman doing yoga

Effective Weight Loss Exercises

It's hard for women to understand what fitness and weight loss methods work for their bodies. What worked for you years ago may not work this time around. Your body continues to change, and your metabolism shifts as years pass.

Suitable Exercises for Each Body Type

If you're not exercising at all, effective weight loss exercises are just about anything on the above list. Even going for a walk becomes one of women's fat-burning workouts. Start slow with something you enjoy and work up to more challenging exercises.

On the other hand, if you do work out, you need to find a new way to push your body into the best weight loss workouts. If you're a runner, add weight training. If you enjoy yoga, try pilates as well. Women's fat-burning workouts are plentiful, but you must find what fits your body's needs.

Weight Loss Tips for Women

There are right ways to lose weight and wrong ways, and you want to avoid those wrong ways. Some of the wrong ways include starving yourself, taking fad diet pills, or over-exercising. As long as you avoid the wrong ways, there are many "right ways" to lose weight.

Have Patience With Yourself

One of the best weight loss tips for women is to have patience with yourself. Once you find a nutrition plan and decide on one of the best weight loss workouts, it takes time for everything to come together in your body and to see changes.

Woman doing workout

Don't quit your new plan after a week passes if you don't lose weight. Your body is adjusting; sometimes, it holds onto your weight when it sees change.

That is why choosing a weight loss plan you feel you're able to stick with is so important. Change won't happen overnight. If you take a picture of yourself now, stick to your nutrition and workout plan, and then take another picture a few months later, the change is evident.

Get Support

Losing weight isn't easy and you may make excuses to yourself if you go at it alone. Instead, get the support you need to have accountability in your nutrition and exercise plan. Grab a friend and commit to the workouts several times a week. Keep a food journal and exchange it with a family member or nutritionist.

If you aren't able to remain accountable to yourself, having someone on your side for support helps you stay the course to lose weight and reach your goals.

Looking for more tips on staying fit and working out? Subscribe to Fit&Fab for tons of articles on running, working out, and thriving.

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