15 Minute Fat Blasting Workout

Losing fat can seem like a huge commitment, especially if you're used to long, drawn-out workouts. All you really need, however, for an effective fat-blasting workout is 15 minutes. This may not seem like much, but with the right intensity levels you can burn calories, raise your metabolism and kick-start your fat-burning progress.

  1. First Five Minutes

    • Start your workout with a body-weight circuit. This acts as a bridge between your warmup and the heavier work to come. San Francisco-based personal trainer Chris Hitchko recommends a circuit consisting of 10 burpees, 30 seconds of mountain climbers, 10 vertical jumps, maximum pushups and maximum pullups, repeated three times. This type of training is high-intensity, so boosts your metabolism and post-training calorie burn, notes Hitchko.

    Second Five Minutes

    • Move on to strength work for the middle five minutes. Building more muscle through strength training means your body has to burn more calories on a day to day basis, which in turn helps fat loss. Pick three multi-joint moves: one lower-body, one upper-body push and one upper-body pull. A barbell squat, dumbbell row and bench press are examples. Perform six to eight back-to-back repetitions for each, rest for 60 seconds, then go again.

    Last Five Minutes

    • Cardio is important for fat burning, but you don't have time for steady jogs or long-distance cardio, so ramp up the intensity. Trainer Charlotte Andersen of the "Shape" magazine website recommends Tabata training, in which you perform a cardio exercise as hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds and repeat eight times. This works well on any cardio machine such as the stationary bike or rower. You can also sprint outside or perform cardio drills such as jumping jacks, jumping rope, kettlebell swings or medicine ball slams.

    Considerations

    • Spend five minutes warming up with light cardio and some stretching or dynamic movements and five minutes post-workout on stretching. Aim to do a little more each workout, whether that's increasing your reps, using heavier weights in the strength portion, or picking a different machine for your cardio, to make things more challenging. Remember that no matter how hard you train, you won't lose fat without also following a calorie-controlled diet.