Guide · Weight loss
Weight Loss
Workout Program
How to set up your workouts and your eating to lose fat while keeping your muscle.
- 3 to 4 sessions a week
- Strength and light cardio
When people want to lose weight, many go straight to cardio and skip the weights. That's a shame. Combined with the right eating habits, lifting helps you lose fat without losing too much muscle, and that's what changes your shape.
This guide gives you a sample week of three workouts, the exercises to focus on, guidelines for sets and rest, and the nutrition basics to stick to while you lose weight.
Why weight training helps you lose weight?
A little more burned at rest
At rest, a pound of muscle burns about 6 calories a day, against about 2 for a pound of fat. The gap is small, but it adds up over time.
The after-burn effect
After a hard session, your energy use stays slightly higher for several hours (this is called EPOC). It amounts to tens of calories, not hundreds.
Keeping your muscle
When you eat less than you burn, your body breaks down some muscle too. Lifting heavy limits that loss, so more of the weight you drop comes from fat.
A different shape
Cardio helps you burn calories. Lifting builds your shoulders, back and glutes, and that's what shows once the fat comes off.
Worth knowing: a lifting session burns fewer calories than most people think. Its value while you lose weight is mostly that it keeps your muscle, and with it your strength and your shape.
Discover BenchRep GymTrackerWeight loss program structure
1 Training frequency
3 to 4 weight training sessions a week is enough for most people. It leaves time to recover, which matters even more when you're eating less.
- Beginners: 3 full body sessions
- Intermediate: 4 sessions on an upper/lower split
- Advanced: 4-5 sessions on a push/pull/legs split
2 Exercise types
Build your workouts around compound exercises. They work several muscle groups at once, which saves time and burns a bit more.
Lower body
- • Squat (all variants)
- • Deadlift
- • Lunges
- • Hip thrust
Upper body
- • Bench press
- • Pull-ups / Rows
- • Overhead press
- • Dips
3 Volume and intensity
Guidelines for keeping your muscle while you lose weight:
4 Advanced techniques
If you're short on time, these methods fit the same work into fewer minutes:
-
Supersets
Two exercises back to back with no rest, for example a press and a row.
-
Circuits
3 to 5 exercises in a row with little rest. Your heart rate climbs fast.
-
Drop sets
At the end of a set, drop the weight and keep going for a few more reps. Save it for the last set of an exercise.
In practice
Track your workouts with BenchRep
In BenchRep GymTracker, you log your sets as you go. The app's coach suggests today's weight based on your last session, and the body weight chart shows the trend over several weeks. Available on the App Store and Google Play.
Download, €8.99 onceSample weekly schedule
Monday: full body 1
60 min- • Squat: 4×10
- • Bench press: 4×10
- • Barbell row: 4×10
- • Lunges: 3×12 per leg
- • Overhead press: 3×12
Wednesday: full body 2
60 min- • Deadlift: 4×8
- • Incline press: 4×10
- • Pull-ups: 4 sets of as many reps as you can
- • Hip thrust: 3×12
- • Dips: 3×10
Friday: full body 3
60 min- • Front squat: 4×10
- • Dumbbell press: 4×10
- • Dumbbell row: 4×10
- • Leg press: 3×15
- • Lateral raises: 3×15
On rest days: Tuesday, Thursday and the weekend, 20-30 minutes of walking or easy cycling adds to what you burn without tiring your legs for the next workout.
Nutrition and weight loss
To lose fat, you need to eat a bit less than you burn. Training won't make up for eating too much. A few guidelines:
A moderate deficit, which works out to roughly 0.5-1 lb a week
To help you keep your muscle mass
Don't cut it too low, your body needs it to function
Mistakes to avoid
- Cutting too many calories at once: you lose more muscle and give up sooner
- Eating too little protein (aim for at least 0.7 g per lb of body weight)
- Replacing your lifting sessions with more and more cardio
- Going by the mirror alone, without logging your weight, waist or lifts
Frequently asked questions
Should I do cardio in addition to weight training?
No. With the right eating habits, lifting alone is enough to lose weight. Two or three light cardio sessions a week (walking, cycling) add to what you burn without getting in the way of recovery.
How long before I see results?
People often notice the first changes after 4-6 weeks: clothes a little looser at the waist, more energy. The scale can move slowly at first, especially for beginners, who sometimes gain a little muscle while losing fat. Photos and a waist measurement once a month help you see the difference.
Should I lift heavy or light?
Moderate to heavy: around 70-80% of your 1RM, for 8-12 reps. The aim is to keep your weights close to what you lifted before the diet. If they hold, your muscles have a reason to stay.
Will weight training make me bulky?
Not while you're eating less than you burn: without extra calories, it's very hard to add size. Building muscle takes years, and women build it even more slowly. Getting "too muscular" without trying is very unlikely.
How do I track my progress?
Log every workout, in a notebook or an app. If your weights hold while your body weight drops, you're losing mostly fat. BenchRep GymTracker keeps your workout history, a chart for each exercise and your body weight chart. For waist measurements and photos, use a tape measure and your phone's camera: the app doesn't handle those yet.
Keep your strength while you lose weight
BenchRep GymTracker is available on the App Store and Google Play. You log your workouts and your body weight, and you can see whether your lifts hold while the scale goes down. €8.99 once, no subscription, no account.
- 618 exercises, 602 with a video
- 15 programs included
- Works offline
- No account needed