How Often Should You Workout To Lose Weight?

So you want to get in better shape, and you want it yesterday.

You know you need to start going to the gym and working out, but you have no idea where to start. You’re probably wondering “How often should I workout to lose weight?” “Should I workout every day?” “Maybe it would be better to do cardio instead of weights..?“

Don’t worry, as a personal trainer and nutrition coach, I’ve got you covered.

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll know exactly what workouts you should be doing and how often you should workout to lose weight.

Working out isn’t just about burning calories

Before we start, let’s get something important out of the way. Working out is about more than just burning calories. It’s true that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This is called a calorie deficit. Take a look at how calorie cycling can help you reach your overall calorie deficit goals, while still offering some flexibility to your weekly diet.

Workouts do burn calories, and burning more calories can help you be in a calorie deficit. 

However, lifting weights and doing cardio probably don’t burn as many calories as you might think. It’s also really hard to track how many calories you burn from your workouts, which is why I don’t even recommend trying. 

In a review paper looking at exercise and weight loss, the authors had this to say:

“From the present literature, caloric restriction appears to have a more profound and consistent effect on weight loss compared to exercise training alone” (1)

Meaning, you’ll see much better weight loss results by getting your nutrition in check!

So why workout then?

The workouts you do are to help you build strength and keep your muscle as you lose weight. As you lose weight, you want to keep as much muscle as possible for two very important reasons.

First, keeping muscle as you lose weight is going to make you look better. If you lose too much muscle, you’ll end up looking skinny-fat instead of toned or ripped. Doing strength training workouts signals to your body that you need to keep muscle while you’re in a calorie deficit.

Second, having more muscle is going to help you burn more calories at a lower body weight. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, which means that it burns more calories at rest than fat does. It’s not a huge amount, but it does add up if you have a lot of muscle (2). 

Keeping your muscle will also allow you to have a more active lifestyle, which will help you burn more calories at a lower body weight.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way..

How often should you strength train?

Strength training is going to be your number one priority, which is why I put it first.

When it comes to strength training to lose weight, gain muscle or both, more isn’t always better.

Listen, I know you want results fast. 

Trust me, I want fast results for my clients too. 

You might be thinking that doing as many workouts as possible per week is going to get you there faster, but that’s not the case..

The reason is you need to be able to put enough intensity into your workouts to see results.

If you try to workout every day, you’re simply not going to be able to recover enough to consistently workout with enough intensity to see results. You don’t actually make progress in the gym, you make progress while you’re resting.

Check out the chart below. 

When you strength train, you cause damage to your muscle cells (3). This damage is good, and it’s an important part of the strength training process. In the days following a workout, your body starts a cascade of events to heal the muscle cells and build them back stronger than before. 

An important part of the recovery process is muscle protein synthesis. Muscle protein synthesis is the creation of new muscle proteins. After a strength training workout, muscle protein synthesis is elevated for about 48 hours (4).

It’s during this recovery period where muscle protein synthesis is elevated that you actually get stronger and build muscle. This is why strength training every day is probably a bad idea for you and your goals. If you’re not resting enough in between workouts, you can’t adapt and get stronger!

How long should you rest between workouts?

A good rule of thumb is allowing 48-72 hours between strength training workouts involving the same muscle groups. 

It’s also a good idea to train each muscle group twice per week. That means that if you want to see the best results when it comes to strength training, you should probably ditch the bodybuilding split routine where you train a muscle group only one time per week.

Training each muscle group twice per week is going to allow you to better spread out the amount of training volume, or total amount of work you do, over the week. If you’re only training a muscle group once per week, you’re not going to be able to give it as much effort as if you spread it out over 2 days.

Keeping all this in mind, most people are going to see the best results from strength training 3-4 times per week.

Strength training 3-4 days per week will allow plenty of time to recover between workouts, and allow you to push each workout enough to see results. It’s also going to allow you to have some freedom in your schedule and shift workouts around if you need to.

Occasionally, I’d recommend as little as 2 days per week or as many as 5 days per week.

How to set up your strength training routine

Below you’ll find the benefits, drawbacks and the way I would recommend setting up 2, 3, 4 and 5 day a week strength training routines.

Keep in mind that none of them are better or worse than one another. They all work, it just depends on your goals and how much time you have.

When deciding how often you’re going to strength train, the most important factor is consistency. It’s better to strength train 3 days a week consistently than switch back and forth between a 3 day and 4 day routine.

Strength training 2 days a week

If you’re older, have an extremely busy schedule or you’re just trying to maintain the strength and muscle you already have, strength training 2 days per week can be a good option. I’ve had a lot of personal training clients get amazing results training only 2 days per week. 

What are the benefits of training 2 days a week? The biggest benefit of strength training twice per week is it’s going to save you time. You can get stronger and build muscle training twice per week, as long as you set up your workouts the right way. 

The other reason you might want to only strength train 2 days per week is if you’re not interested in adding a lot of muscle or getting super strong. Not everybody loves going to the gym, which I completely understand. If that’s you, strength training 2 days per week is the bare minimum you should do for your overall health.

Are there any drawbacks to strength training 2 days a week? When you only have 2 days per week to strength train, you’re going to be limited in how much work you can do. I wouldn’t be expecting to enter into any bodybuilding shows training twice per week! 

Your workouts might also get pretty long if you’re only training 2 days per week. A good way to cut down on the amount of time you spend in the gym is to use supersets in your training.

A superset is where you pair exercises together that use different muscle groups without resting until you’ve completed both exercises.

An example of a strength training superset might look like this:

1A) Dumbbell bench press 

3 sets of 10 reps

1B) Dumbbell Romanian deadlift

3 sets of 12 reps

*Rest 2 minutes between sets

You would do a set of dumbbell bench presses, then do a set of dumbbell RDL’s, and then take a 2 minute rest. You would complete that for 3 total sets before moving on to the next exercise in your program.

This is a good pairing if time is an issue because you can get double the amount of work done in the same time you would do one exercise. The drawback is that you probably won’t get as strong as if you did each exercise on it’s own:

1) Dumbbell bench press 

3  sets of 10 reps

*Rest 2 minutes between sets

2) Dumbbell Romanian deadlift

 3 sets of 12 reps

*Rest 2 minutes between sets

Neither scenario is better or worse than the other, it just depends on your goals and what you want to achieve.

How do you set up a 2 day a week strength training program? When strength training 2 days per week, you’ll want to do 2 full body strength workouts. You still want to hit each major muscle group twice per week to see the best results. As a personal trainer in NJ I offer custom workout plans to my clients so that they can make the most out of their time.

I would recommend alternating between 2 full body workouts. Make sure you’re taking at least a day of rest between each strength training session, if not more! Doing full body workouts back to back is going to limit how well you can recover.

Strength training 3 days a week

Now we’re talking! 

Most clients I work with train 3 days a week, and for good reason. Strength training 3 days a week gives you a lot more options when it comes to creating your workout program. 

What are the benefits of training 3 days a week? When strength training 3 days a week, you can add more volume to your week while still allowing plenty of time to recover between workouts. 

If your goal is to build muscle, you can spread out your volume more than if you were just training 2 days a week. This will let you push each exercise harder and let you progressively get stronger.

With 3 days of strength training, you can also give a little more attention to things you want to improve. Let’s say you want to increase your chin-up strength. You can add more exercises and movements that will help, which will get you to your goal faster.

Are there any drawbacks to strength training 3 days a week? Besides the extra time commitment, the only real drawback is if you need to train multiple days in a row. Your recovery between workouts will suffer if you aren’t careful about how you spread out your workouts. This is pretty easy to fix, as long as you set up your routine the right way.

How do you set up a 3 day a week strength training program? For beginners, doing 3 full body strength workouts per week is a great way to get results fast. The reason is that you’ll be getting a lot of frequency. Lifting weights is a skill, and the more often you practice a skill, the better you’ll get at it. When doing 3 full body workouts, I would alternate between an “A” workout and a “B” workout. Each workout would include different exercises, but hit the same muscle groups. 

You have to make sure you’re taking at least one day of rest between workouts. Here’s what the first week would look like:

• • Monday- workout “A”
  • Wednesday- workout “B”
  • Friday- workout “A”

The following week would look like this:

• • Monday- workout “B”
  • Wednesday- workout “A”
  • Friday- workout “B”

My favorite way to strength train 3 days a week is a full body workout, an upper body workout and a lower body workout. This gives you a chance to do a little more volume on your upper and lower body days, while still hitting each muscle group 2 times per week. 

This also solves the issue of training on consecutive days. You want to have a day of rest after your full body day, but you can do your upper and lower body days back to back if you need to.

Here’s two ways you can set it up:

• • Monday- full body workout
  • Wednesday- upper body workout
  • Friday- lower body workout

Alternatively, you can set it up like this if you need to two days back to back:

• • Monday- full body workout
  • Wednesday- upper body workout
  • Thursday- lower body workout

Strength training 4 days a week

I personally love strength training 4 days a week. It’s just the right amount of days that I can recover from while still being able to build muscle and get stronger. It also allows you to have a life outside the gym. You can set up your routine so you have the weekends off.

What are the benefits of training 4 days a week? Strength training 4 days a week allows you to spread out your volume and intensity and really focus on a particular goal. 

If your goal is to get stronger or put on muscle as you lose weight, you need to make sure you recover enough in between hard sets at the gym. While I’m a big fan of pairing exercises together in order to save time, you’ll be able to get stronger and build more muscle if you just do one exercise at a time. 

Are there any drawbacks to strength training 4 days a week? Time really starts to become an issue when training 4 days a week. Some people find it hard to get to the gym at all, and 4 days can be a lot to commit to. 

You also really have to be careful about how you spread out your workouts. Trying to do too much on each day can be a quick way to overtrain and burn yourself out. As long as you set up your strength training plan the right way, you should be just fine.

How do you set up a 4 day a week strength training program? The best way to set up a 4 day a week plan is to do 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body workouts per week. I would stay away from doing full body workouts, because they are going to be very hard to recover from. 

Your upper body and lower body workouts should hit the same muscle groups, but you should use different exercises. 

Make sure you’re giving yourself at least 48-72 hours of recovery between workouts that use the same muscle groups.

Here’s an example of how you can set up a 4 day a week workout plan:

• • Monday- upper body workout
  • Tuesday- lower body workout
  • Thursday- upper body workout
  • Friday- lower body workout

Alternatively, you could set it up like this:

• • Monday- upper body workout
  • Wednesday- lower body workout
  • Friday- upper body workout
  • Saturday- lower body workout

Strength training 5 days a week

Strength training 5 times per week can allow you to spread out the volume of training you do over more days, which can lead to better results if you’re looking to build muscle. However, it’s much harder to recover from and you need to be careful about how much volume you do per day.

What are the benefits of training 5 days a week? Strength training 5 days a week is an advanced muscle building routine for people who have been training for a long time. The main benefit is you can add more volume to your routine, which can help build more muscle. 

Are there any drawbacks to strength training 5 days a week? If I’m being honest, I rarely write 5 day a week strength training programs. They can be very difficult to recover from if you aren’t careful. They also won’t lead to better muscle building results than a 4 day a week program unless you’re advanced enough.

You also don’t have much wiggle room when it comes to getting your workouts in. If you miss a workout, you’ll most likely have to wait until the following week. When you’re training 3 or 4 days a week, you have much more room to work with if you need to move your days around.

How do you set up a 5 day a week strength training program? There’s really only one way I would recommend setting up a 5 day a week strength training program. I would recommend doing an upper body workout, a lower body workout, a push workout, another lower body workout, and a pull workout.

To do a push workout you train your pecs, shoulders, and triceps. Examples include:

• • Dumbbell bench presses
  • Shoulder presses
  • Lateral raises
  • Tricep extensions

 A pull workout trains your back and bicep muscles. Some examples are:

• • Chin-ups
  • Dumbbell rows
  • Bicep curls

Here’s how I would set up a 5 day a week strength training workout program:

• • Monday- upper body workout
  • Tuesday- lower body workout
  • Thursday- push workout
  • Friday- lower body workout
  • Saturday- pull workout

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Walking to lose weight

Walking might just be the most underrated form of exercise when it comes to losing weight.

When you’re in a calorie deficit, your metabolism tends to slow down. This is completely normal, and it’s your body’s way of preventing you from starving.

Your metabolism is how many calories you burn per day, and it’s made up of four parts:

• • Basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories your body needs to perform basic functions like sleeping, breathing, and keeping your organs functioning is called your basal metabolic rate. You can’t really change your basal metabolic rate, although it will change as you lose weight and as you age.
  • Thermic effect of food is the amount of energy your body requires to digest the food you eat.
  • Exercise associated thermogenesis is the amount of calories you burn from planned exercise like strength training or cardio.
  • Non-exercise associated thermogenesis is the amount of calories you burn by doing unplanned exercise. Non-exercise associated thermogenesis can include things like walking, working, or any movements throughout the day like fidgeting.

When you’re in a calorie deficit, your non-exercise associated thermogenesis, or NEAT, is affected the most. You’re taking in less energy than you previously were, so your body compensates by moving around less. 

If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know what I’m talking about. You’re tired and you generally just don’t feel like moving around very much.

Making sure you hit your step goal for the day is a good way to make sure that you keep your metabolism from dropping when you’re in a calorie deficit.

As a general rule of thumb, shoot for 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day. Studies show that taking between 7,000 and 8,000 steps per day is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (5). 

How often should you do cardio?

Once you’ve gotten your nutrition in check, you’ve found a strength training frequency that you can stick to, you can add in some cardio.

There’s a reason I put it last in this article.. It isn’t nearly as important as everything else!

A calorie deficit is what’s going to make you lose weight.

Strength training is going to help you lose fat, and not muscle.

Walking will help keep your metabolism elevated and your heart healthy.

Adding in some cardio can help to burn some calories, but it won’t make or break your weight loss if everything else isn’t in check first.

When it comes to cardio, you have two options; high intensity interval training, or low intensity steady state cardio.

High intensity interval training

At one time, high intensity interval training, or HIIT for short, was extremely popular.

There was a lot of hype surrounding HIIT. It was thought that HIIT burned way more calories than low intensity steady state (LISS for short) cardio because of its unique “afterburn effect”.

The afterburn effect is also known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC for short. EPOC is the phenomenon where your body burns calories not only while you perform HIIT, but also in the hours following the training session (6).

While this sounds like a clear benefit to HIIT training, the reality is the amount of calories you burn through EPOC is very small (7).

Also, you need to train very hard in order to see the calorie burning effects of HIIT training. Hard enough to want to puke after your workout. To keep up that intensity, your sessions can’t be very long. 

To properly perform a HIIT session, you need to perform an exercise at a very high intensity for 10-30 seconds, followed by a period of rest. Your work to rest ratio should be a minimum of 1:2, so that you can push yourself hard enough! 10-20 minutes is all you need for an effective HIIT session.

When incorporating HIIT training, I would recommend 1-2 sessions per week at most. They can be their own session, or you can perform them at the end of your strength training workouts.

You don’t need to add any HIIT cardio if it’s not your thing. If you would rather do LISS cardio instead, that’s completely fine. 

The research is pretty clear that when it comes to cardio, neither HIIT or LISS is very effective at helping you lose fat if your calories aren’t in check (8).

Low intensity steady state cardio

In contrast to HIIT cardio, LISS is performed at a much lower intensity.

When incorporating LISS workouts, a good place to start is 30 to 60 minutes 2-3 times per week. I would recommend performing it on days that you don’t strength train. So if you strength train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you’d perform your steady state cardio on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Make sure you aren’t pushing the LISS workouts too hard! You should be able to keep the same intensity for the duration of the session. 

Switching up the equipment you use for LISS cardio is also a good idea. Using different pieces of equipment can help prevent overuse injuries. A stationary bike, incline walking, and the elliptical are three good pieces of equipment you can rotate. 

So, how often should you workout to lose weight?

The answer is going to be different for everybody. It depends on how much time you have and what your goals are.

It comes down to picking something that you can realistically do for a long period of time. Losing fat takes time, and you need to be able to stick with whatever plan you decide on long enough to see results.

If you need help putting together a plan, you can apply for coaching to see if we’d be a good fit for each other.

Leave any questions you have below!