Right now I am going to give you the best workout to burn calories.
I’m going to lay out what exercises you should be spending your time on and what may not be so important. I’ll teach you how to spike your metabolism to burn calories all throughout the day. I’ll tell you the biggest secrets when it comes to what is the best workout to burn calories.
Incredibly kind of me right? I do ask one thing from you in return.
Keep your eyes peeled to your screen.
Don’t look away if your house is on fire or if your child painted a fun new decoration on the wall!
Do we have a deal? Cool, now let’s dive in.
The Best Workout To Burn Calories
If you just stumbled across here, welcome. My name is Eric, but just call me E.
My main goal is to get my arms as big as my sarcasm.
As you may be able to sense there, I tease.. kind of. A large part of my childhood was sculpted from this sensation I wanted to be ripped. I wanted to look like the body builders on the fitness magazines or now instagram.
Yet that quickly turned for me the more I realized this fitness thing wasn’t about me. It was about helping the others around me through my passion.
Take Katie from Virginia for example. 
She joined my online coaching program and immediately started to change her body. She is incredibly disciplined, has the heart of a saint, follows my guidelines like an army general, and always gives 110%.
My client Giselle has been in my online coaching program for over 9 months and boy does she give me a run for my money.
All jokes aside, she is fiery, she takes jabs at me to keep me on my toes, and makes my “job” fun.
Melissa is a mom of two, business owner, and certified bad a**. She has lost 100 lbs, has a powerful personality to her, and will NOT be stopped short of her goals.
I show you these stories not to impress, but to make you realize these people are just like you. Using the same guidelines I am going to talk about here for the best workout to burn calories you too can shed unwanted body fat and take control of your fitness journey.
If you want to see more client success stories, head HERE.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
What Exercises Burn The Most Calories?
Most fitness marketers will try to sell you on this theory that you can burn 500-1000 calories in one hour of exercise.
The problem is this is simply untrue no matter what your apple watch or fit bit tells you.
Why would they lie to you?
Stick with me because I am about to explain something that is going to make you look at me like I have 3 heads.
The problem with the calorie trackers you wear on your wrist is that they vastly overestimate your calories burned. In other words they are dirty rotten liars.
Studies show calorie trackers over estimate your calorie burn by up to 50%.
When you think you burned 500 calories you really only burned 250 on a good day.
If you don’t believe me check out this Stanford medicine study.
Crazy right? I am only telling you this because I care about you and want you to see the results you deserve.
Let me introduce you to my online coaching client, Alison.
Alison was vey much in the mindset of cardio was the best workout to burn calories and lifting weights was not going to help in her journey.
I thoroughly explained to her that lifting weights was going to increase her metabolism over time and actually have her burn MORE calories doing nothing. Whereas cardio will only burn calories in that moment you do it and then it is done-zo.
As she does with everything in her life she tackled my directions head on and as you can see changed her physique. She now actually has more time on her hands because she is not doing hours of cardio.
Wait. So What Does This Mean?
Well this means that the best workout to burn calories may not be about the number of calories burned after all.
I am going to guess that in short you want the best workout to burn calories to help aid in your weight loss journey. You want to lose weight and look a certain way.
Let me paint a picture for you.
Now that you know that the calorie burn trackers are 50% over estimated imagine you spend 1.5 to 2 hours burning 500-800 calories.
That is a long time right?
Now imagine you eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. How long did it take you to eat that?
Wait what? What does americas favorite sandwich have to do with this?
If it takes you 1.5 hours to burn 500 calories but only 10 minutes to eat 500 calories, you tell me what is wrong here.
Your quest to find high calorie burning workouts to make you lose weight faster is never going to work.
The math simply will not make sense. You will never be able to burn off the calories you eat from a poor diet.
If you want help with your diet, feel free to head HERE for my FREE diet guide for weight loss.
So.. Then What Is The Best Workout To Burn Calories?
Weight Lifting
Now that I have shattered what your previous thoughts were about exercise let me provide you a new way of looking at it.
When you exercise your focus should be building your body up not tearing it down.
What I mean by that is exercise is centered around getting stronger, building more defined muscles, doing more reps, etc.
You should not be focusing on losing weight with your exercise because that should be done through your diet.
This is done through getting off the treadmill or hopping out of the Zumba class and lifting weights.
The best part is when you make this mental shift you not only get stronger but you lose more fat in the process as well.
Okay enough of me babbling. Let’s talk actual workouts now.
I am going to give you a sample 3x a week workout below but first let me explain what they are made up of.
Compound Exercises
I like to break the workouts up into 3 different parts and the first is centering your workout around full body compound movements.
These should be the first exercises you are doing within any given workout.
For example things like squats, deadlifts, chest presses, shoulder presses, chin ups / pull ups are considered full body compound movements.
You should be prioritizing these within your training because they will give you the best return on your investment, aka your time in the gym.
They require the most total body effort. For example a squat is more than just a lower body movement. A squat requires your core to stabilize you, it requires your back to stabilize you, it requires your brain to tell you not to throw up if you are doing them right.
Kidding… kind of.
Funny enough the best workout to burn calories would actually include a lot of these exercises because they do burn the most calories.
Think about doing a squat versus doing a bicep curl. A squat is a more difficult exercise than a bicep curl you would say yes? I would hope so at least.
These movements should make up the staple of your training and you should be aiming to get stronger on these movements.
Over time you will require more work from your body meaning you will get stronger and build more defined muscles which is exactly what you want.
Accessory Exercises
Next up on the list is going to be accessory movements.
These are going to be exercises like lunges, single leg deadlifts, bent over rows, to name a few.
These come secondary because they still provide a great stimulus to your body to push the strength gains and muscle definition you are looking for.
These should be done after the full body compound exercises.
Isolation Exercises
Last not but last, isolation exercises can come into play.
These would be things like bicep curls, shoulder raises, glute kick backs to name a few.
These exercises are great for getting some extra work in but should not make up the bulk of your training.
3x A Week Workout Plan
Below I am going to lay out a sample program I gave to one of my online coaching clients that made them completely change their physique so I know it can for you as well.
Many fitness professionals told me not to put this out or I would lose all of my business. I call baloney and above all else I want to help you get results.
You can use this workout program for 4, 6, 8 weeks at a time. Likewise for that same period of time you should be looking to increase your strength. This can be through more reps, more weight, better form, to name a few.
Day One
| Day One – Lower Body | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Rest | Notes |
| 1a. Elevated Glute Bridge | 2×10 | Dig heels into bench, hold the squeeze for 3 seconds, feel your butt burning!! | |
| 1b. Lying leg lifts | 2×10 | Use your abs here, slow on the way down | |
| 1c. Plank Lifts | 2×5/ea | Keep the center of your body from moving | |
| 1d. Side Plank | 2×45 sec | 60 | Butt squeezed! |
| 2. DB RDL | 3×8-10 | 90 | Have a slight bend in your knees, brace your core like you are trying to pop a button on your pants, push hips back stay on your heels, right below your knees then back up lock your legs out! |
| 3. Front Foot Elevated Split Squat | 4×8-10 | 75 | Elevate your front foot on a 6” or so surface, have a slight lean forward in your torso, try to hit that back knee on the ground, keep core braced!!!! |
| 4a. Offset Reverse Lunge | 3×10-12/ea | Have slight lean forward in your torso, hit that back knee on the ground SLOWLY | |
| 4b. DB Hamstring Curl | 3×15 | 75 | More reps this go around, burn your hamstrings up!!!! |
| 5a. Curtsy Lunge | 3×8/ea | Keep both hip bones facing forward, feel your butt push you back up | |
| 5b. Single Leg Hip Thruster | 3×10/ea | 90 | Push your heel into the ground and squeeze your butt! |
** I included some videos to certain exercises, feel free to click on them to make sure you are doing them correctly.
** Note: If an exercise says 5a and 5b, that indicates a superset. What this means is do exercise a and then immediately do exercise b with little to no rest in between. Once exercise b is complete, rest for the allotted time.
Day Two
| Day Two – Upper Body | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Rest | Notes |
| 1a. Lat stretch on bench | 2×30 seconds | Big breaths here, | |
| 1b. Plank Climb Overs | 2×5/ea arm | Keep body level, just try to walk hands up and over | |
| 1c. Prone T’s | 2×12 | 60 | Thumbs straight up, pinch your shoulder blades together as hard as you can |
| 2. 1.5 Flat Chest Press | 4×8 | 75 | Control here! Keep those shoulder blades squeezed together on the way down |
| 3. Chest Support DB Row | 4×10-12 | 75 | Even though your body is supported, still focus on bracing your core aka trying to pop a button on your pants, push your stomach out. |
| 4a. 1/2 Kneeling 1 Arm Press | 3×8-10/ea | Big thing here, lock your hips out, squeeze your butt, and MAKE SURE you are not leaning side to side… work your core here | |
| 4b. Pause Push Ups | 3xMAX | Pause 2 seconds at the bottom of the push ups, go until failure | |
| 4c. Chest Support Rear Delt Fly | 3×12-15 | 90 | Sternum right above the bench, push your hands out to the side |
| 5a. DB Skullcrusher | 3×12-15 | Bend through your elbows, straighten those arms and feel your triceps | |
| 5b. DB Side Lateral Raise | 3×12-15 | Squeeze your butt, brace your core, push those hands away from your body | |
| 5c. Incline Curl | 3×10-12 | 75 | Keep your shoulders back here |
Day Three
| Day Three Full Body | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Rest | Notes |
| 1a. Butterfly Bridge | 2×10 | Push your feet together hard, extend those hips and squeeze your butt! | |
| 1b. Incline bench Y’s | 2×8 | Be very intentional here, make sure you are moving through your shoulder blades not just your arms | |
| 1c. Plank Pull Through | 2×5/ea | 60 | Keep hips stable, brace your core the entire time during this, take your time. |
| 2. 4-2-1 DB Sumo Deadlift | 3×6 | 75 | Keep your weight on your heels, hinge back through your hips, go 4 seconds on the way down, 2 second pause at the bottom, and 1 second on the way up |
| 3a. Alt Incline DB Press | 3×10-12/ea | 1 Arm at a time here!!! These are going to be tough, but you got this!!! | |
| 3b. Chest Support Elbow Wide Row | 3×10-12 | 90 | Think now about, pulling with your elbows out wide, and pulling your hands towards your chest area |
| 4a. Offset Squat | 3×8/ea | Most important thing here, make sure your core is tight , make sure you are not leaning to the side. Push your knees out as you squat | |
| 4b. 1 arm push press | 3×8/ea | Push HARD | |
| 4c. DB Front Raise | 3×12-15 | 90 | Squeeze your butt so you do not arch your back. Lead the movement with your elbows, stop around eye level, slow on the way down |
| 5a. Single leg rdl | 3×8-10/ea | Hold one dumbbell here, opposite of the leg that is down, work on SLOW, controlled, movement. Feel your hamstring stretch, feel your butt working, that is the most important thing here | |
| 5b. Plank Rows | 3×6/ea | Keep those hips stable, keep elbow close to side as you pull back | |
| 5c. Sit Up knee grab | 3×10 | 90 | Hold the grab for 2 seconds!! |
So, What Is The Best Workout To Burn Calories?
The best workout is one that is centered around increasing your strength.
In addition to one that focuses on increasing how toned your muscles look.
It is one that allows you to fit your workouts into your life rather than the other way around.
Above all the best workout to burn calories is one you can consistently stick to for a long period of time.
To sum up, the best workout is NOT the one that solely focuses on burning a ton of calories to aid in fat loss.
I hope this article was able to provide you with quality information, and now an actionable plan you can go put into place today!
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What are you waiting for? Grab them now!
Talk soon.
-E.