It’s possible to lose weight or gain muscle without access to dumbbells, barbells, and expensive cardio machines. At-home workouts can be a highly effective means to reach your fitness goals. It’s not possible to target belly fat, but the exercises that generally burn the most fat include cardio and high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week. This includes biking, jogging, running, swimming, or walking. It’s also important to do two days of strength training per week.
At-Home Workouts To Lose Weight
Some workouts you can do at home to lose weight include:
- Cardio
- Dancing
- HIIT
- Strength training
- Yoga
You don’t have to invest a fortune, but you’ll need some basics to get the most out of your at-home workout. Feel free to equip your home gym with hand weights, resistance bands, and a yoga mat. You may also invest in a treadmill, boxing bag, or stationary bike.
Keep in mind that weight loss is complicated. It takes much more than adding a few more steps or exercises to your routine. The most significant factor in losing weight is maintaining a calorie deficit, mainly from how much food you eat.
That said, exercise can work to supplement a weight loss goal. Here are some of the best workouts you can do from home that can help, according to experts.
1. Cardio
Cardio workouts increase your heart rate and burn calories, which aids in weight loss. These workouts can include biking, jogging, running, swimming, or walking.
The CDC advises 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week, which is 30 minutes per day, five days per week. You can measure the intensity of your workouts by using the talk test. Moderate-intensity cardio usually allows you to talk but not sing.
Cardio workouts can improve cardiovascular and lung health, in addition to weight loss. These workouts also help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
2. Dancing
Dancing—be it in the form of ballroom dancing or trendy TikTok routines—has the potential to contribute to weight loss. Dancing is a form of aerobic exercise that helps support weight management.
Dancing can also increase joint mobility and spinal flexibility, which helps prevent injury. These factors also ensure you’re limber enough to execute living room burpees and jump squats confidently.
Perhaps the most critical benefit of all is that dancing is fun. It has an energizing component that can make you look forward to exercising.
3. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT is a workout that can give you a slightly sharper edge than others. You alternate between short, intense bursts of energy followed by less intense or completely restful periods. Your heart rate goes up any time you’re doing a hard burst of activity with a shorter recovery.
Heart rate is a physiological change that directly impacts metabolism. You’re still burning calories as your body works to this variable back down for the next few hours.
The best part of all? No equipment (or abundance of space) is required, making it a perfect at-home workout.
4. Strength Training
Strength training won’t burn many calories at the moment, but it’ll help increase muscle mass. Muscle mass can affect your resting metabolic rate, or how many calories your body can burn at rest. The more calories you burn at rest, the easier it can be to maintain or potentially lose weight.
You’ll need weight or resistance to strength train, but it certainly doesn’t need to be in the form of dumbbells. You can use anything with mass—including your body—to build muscle. It’s the muscle fatigue, rather than actual weighted equipment, that builds strength. You’ll see gains if you take whatever exercise you’re doing to the point of muscle fatigue.
Try out gallons of bleach as weights if you don’t have access to kettlebells or dumbbells while doing front squats. Any object, be it gallons of bleach or a suitcase filled with books, will likely fatigue you after 12 to 15 reps.
5. Yoga
It’s possible to get your heart rate going during yoga flows. A direct tie between yoga and weight loss is murky, but it might help you execute other exercises that maximize calorie burns more efficiently. Strengthening and stretching are beneficial for weight loss because they’ll make your body stronger and more limber.
One of the top-rated yoga apps, Yoga for Beginners, is also one of the most economical. You can choose from beginner-friendly flows and yoga targeted toward specific body parts, like the back and abs.
Benefits
Working out at home offers many benefits. There’s no monthly fee, no commute, and no waiting for equipment or class waitlists. At-home workouts are flexible, and you can do them virtually any time of day to fit your schedule.
Most studies on the effectiveness of fitness regimens have occurred in fitness facilities or laboratories with specialized equipment. Some evidence suggests that at-home workouts can be highly effective, especially when combined with healthy eating.
Just remember to use proper form and alignment when starting an at-home workout routine. Taking adequate safety measures to avoid workout injuries is essential. A full-length mirror can help you spot your form so you can make sure you’re completing moves correctly.
A Quick Review
These five exercises—cardio, dancing, HIIT, strength training, and yoga—can all help you lose weight at home. At-home workouts can be a highly effective means to reach your fitness and weight loss goals. You can lose weight without the expense and inconvenience of a gym with the right equipment and the right approach.
