Gym Routine to Lose Weight in Eight Weeks

Hitting the gym regularly can help you lose a significant amount of weight in eight weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests a safe weight loss is up to 2 pounds weekly. Therefore, boosting your calorie expenditure at the gym can help you safely lose up to 16 pounds in eight weeks.

  1. Exercise Duration

    • Increasing your exercise duration – especially cardiovascular exercise – at the gym can help you achieve weight-loss success. A 2009 review published in “The Ochsner Journal” suggests working out 250 to 300 minutes each week at a moderate intensity for maximum weight-loss results. Use gym machines, such as treadmills, elliptical trainers, stair-stepping machines, rowing machines or stationary bikes. Swimming is also an excellent calorie-burning cardiovascular workout, if your gym is equipped with a pool.

    Resistance Training

    • Adding resistance training to your weight-loss gym routine can help you burn fat, according to a 2009 review published in “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise” – which means you may lose extra inches during weight loss. However, authors of this review suggest that resistance training doesn’t directly enhance weight loss. One reason is because muscle is denser, and weighs more, than body fat. Resistance train at least two times each week, recommends the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, and work all of your major muscle groups. These include your hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, glutes, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps muscles.

    Calories Burned

    • Burning 500 extra calories a day will help you lose about 1 pound weekly, while expending 1,000 additional calories daily can help you shed 2 pounds per week in eight weeks if your calorie intake remains constant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Harvard Health Publications reports that a 155-pound person burns 446 calories per hour using a stair-stepping machine and 520 calories in an hour biking on a stationary bike at a moderate pace or participating in an aerobics class. The same individual burns 632 calories using a rowing machine for 60 minutes, 670 calories on an elliptical machine and 706 calories per hour using a ski machine. If the same 155-person jogs on a treadmill at 6 miles per hour or swims the breaststroke, she’ll burn 744 calories in an hour.

    Importance of Rest

    • Getting plenty of rest and sleeping well at night will help aid in your weight-loss efforts. Stay home from the gym at least one day each week to let your body recover from working out. Sleep more than seven hours nightly to increase your chance at weight-loss success, according to a study published in 2012 in the journal “Obesity.” One reason for this is that sleep deprivation increases ghrelin, a hunger-promoting hormone, reports a review published in 2008 in “Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.”