A workout plan to lose weight and build muscle has three components: diet, aerobic exercise and strength training. To reduce body fat, you need to burn more calories than you take in. Aerobics, such as running or bicycling, will burn calories, but adding muscle requires some sort of resistance activity, working with weights or exercise machines. Changing the way you eat and alternating exercises will eliminate fat and add muscle.
Make Your Own Plan
Develop your own plan tailored to your schedule and your needs. A good routine has some exercise every day, but alternate aerobic and resistance training, such as weight training Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with walking or running Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You can walk, jog, bicycle or swim every day, but always allow at least one day of rest between weight workouts.
Improve your diet by cutting down on sugars, fats and starchy foods. Add more green vegetables and raw foods and replace sodas and similar drinks with water. Eliminate between-meal snacks and reduce the portions at meals. Cut down on restaurant meals, which tend to have large portions and be heavy on salt and starches.
Start some regular aerobic exercise, brisk walking, jogging, running, bicycling, swimming or any activity that increases your heart and breathing rate. Start slowly, but build up to exercising at least 30 minutes at a time. The body does not begin burning stored fat until about 20 minutes of activity, so the longer you work out, the more fat you will burn.
Use some type of resistance training three days a week. Use free weights such as barbells or dumbbells, exercise bands or machines like a universal weight trainer. Alternate exercises for arms and legs and work in routines to build core muscles, in the abdomen and back. You can do calisthenics, like situps and pushups, but the more resistance you incorporate the more muscle you will gain. Use weight or resistance that makes muscles work but allows 10 repetitions of each exercise without undue fatigue.
Don't put too much emphasis on the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you can add strength and decrease your body size but possibly not reduce your total poundage. The more fat and excess weight you have, however, the more important the scale is. Aerobics are best at burning calories. A 160-pound person will use from 600 to more than 800 calories an hour running but only 365 an hour with weight training.
- Mayo Clinic: Weight Loss
- Bodybuilding: 2 Week Training Schedule To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle
- Centers for Disease Control: Growing Stronger
- Mayo Clinic: Exercise for Weight Loss
- Mayo Clinic: Strength Training
- Fitness.gov: Exercise and Weight Control
- New York Times: Exercise = Weight Loss, Except When It Doesn’t
- National Institutes of Health: Balance Food and Activity
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