Home workouts for weight loss are an easy option for busy individuals, beginners watching their budget, or anyone who prefers the convenience and freedom of working out at home without losing results. Whether you’re stuck inside, short on time, or are just not a huge fan of crowded gyms, good news— you don’t need to go to the gym or spend money on fancy equipment or a personal trainer to burn fat and get fit.
The right bodyweight workouts will help you eliminate calories, kick off your metabolism, and tone your body, all from the comfort of your own home.
This guide provides you with 5 workouts that will help you lose weight at home.
These workouts require no equipment, are beginner friendly, and have evidence behind them to ensure they elicit fat loss from your own body weight.
Best of all, these no-equipment fat loss exercises are short, intense, and if you can stay consistent, they get results. Whether you’re looking to lose some belly fat, tone those arms, or even just get moving again, these bodyweight workouts are your ticket to results.
So, pull out your mat, clear some space and get ready to change your body with simple, yet effective home workouts that will only cost you your time and effort. Let’s get started!
Why Home Workouts for Weight Loss Work?
Home workouts for weight loss aren’t just a fad, they’re an efficient and science-based way to build lean muscle and burn fat. It’s definitely not necessary to get expensive gym memberships or brand new equipment to get great results.
In fact, using your own body weight as resistance, you can efficiently raise your heart rate, activate more muscle groups and burn fat without equipment.
For deep information about the advantages of home workouts for weight loss, I recommend you to checkout Harvard Health
By far one of the best things about home workouts for weight loss is the ability to remain compliant. Without a gym commute or machines to manage, you can find a routine that works for you.Bodyweight exercises can be combined together in short circuits, which makes them ideal for busy people.
They also raise your heart-rate, and emphasize doing compound movements so you are getting both cardiovascular and strength training at the same time.
Exercises you do without equipment are good too, because you can easily gauge your level of skill or fitness. You can start slow, and as you increase your strength and endurance, you can increase the intensity of the exercise.
Working out in the comfort of your own space takes away the intimidation factor; there may also be distractions in a gym, but none are found at home.
In summary, when done correctly and consistently, weight loss home workouts are not just convenient, they are very effective.
Tips to Maximize Home Workouts for Weight Loss Without Equipment
In order to fully benefit from your at-home, weight-loss workouts, you will need more than motivation, you must have a little bit of planning as well. These fat-burning, no-equipment exercises need to be performed in conjunction with consistency, form/training, and planning for better physical results.
Prior to an exercise session, always perform a quick warm-up to prepare your muscles for movement, working to reduce potential injury.
A few examples of warm-up activities and exercises that can be performed in this capacity include: jumping jacks, arm circles, and jogging in place. The form you maintain throughout each exercise is important to this process.
Establish specific goals and monitor your performance. You can target fat loss, conditioning, or muscle tone, but, to be more effective at burning calories, use circuits or timed intervals to structure your workout.
And for your workouts, combine cardio-based movements (burpees, mountain climbers) and strength-based movements (squats, planks), which can keep your heart rate up and your muscles working hard.
Remember to stay hydrated, sleep enough, and nourish your body with science backed fat-burning foods.
These little tips will help make your body-weight sessions more than just a workout – they will help you see the effects!
5 Proven No-Equipment Fat Loss Workouts
1. Jumping Jacks – The Classic Calorie Crusher
Jumping Jacks are one of the easiest and best home workouts for fat loss. This classic movement gets your heart pumping quickly and can burn calories and build endurance without the use of any equipment.
To perform jumping jacks, you should stand tall with your feet together and arms by your sides. Jump your feet out and raise your arms overhead while bringing your feet back to the starting position. . Repeat this movement quickly for 30 to 60 seconds per set.
Jumping jacks are a powerful exercise because they work your entire body – legs, arms, and core and elevate your heart rate.
As a no equipment fat burn exercise, jumping jacks are great to use to warm up with or to emphasize high intensity in a bodyweight workout circuit.
For beginners I recommend starting out slow and concentrating on being consistent.
For those of you who are more advanced, you can increase speed or increase duration of the movement. Jumping jacks are also great for developing your coordination and agility.
All together this makes them an excellent overall activity for burning fat in your home.Adding jumping jacks to your daily bodyweight workouts are an excellent way of burning fat and revving up your metabolism.
In just minutes a day, jumping jacks can add a significant amount of volume to your home workouts for fat loss.
2. Mountain Climbers – High-Intensity Core Shredder
Mountain climbers are a staple exercise in any home workout for weight loss. This high-energy full-body movement is both cardio-based and a core exercise to strengthen the octopuses and inhalation.
Begin by getting into a plank position with your hands below your shoulders. With a tight core, drive one knee towards your chest then quickly switch legs whilst keeping it quick knee-to-chest pace. Continue to drive forward as if you were running horizontally. Your round should take about 30–45 seconds.
As a bodyweight fat loss exercise, mountain climbers raise your heart rate almost immediately while targeting multiple muscle groups, including your abs, shoulders, and legs.
They will also help improve coordination and stability, which is excellent for overall fitness. You can add stoppage at the bottom, push-up position, or just incorporate them in your daily bodyweight workouts for amazing fat loss results.
These exercises demand high intensity combined with a short duration and post-exercise excess energy-expenditure afterburn (EPOC) makes mountain climbers an excellent weight-loss exercise.
If you want to increase the plateau of difficulty, you can add a resistance tempo progression to strengthen either the proliferation, integration, or combination movement. Mountain climbers are an excellent time-efficient bodyweight exercise which get you moving horizontally while building frustratingly high heart rate conditioning.
Think of it as an added piece of goodness to your home workout for fat loss.
3. Bodyweight Squats – Build Strength and Burn Fat
Squats are an essential part of effective bodyweight workouts, and are also regarded as one of the top home workouts for weight loss. Squats build strength in your lower body, activating your core and increasing your metabolism.
When performing the bodyweight squat, begin with the feet shoulder-width apart and toes slightly out, while looking straight ahead. Lower your body as if you are sitting down in a chair.
Always keep your chest up, and don’t let your knees travel over your toes when lowering into a squat.
Push off the ground through your heels to return standing.
Complete 12–15 squats for 3 sets. Squats are incredibly effective at burning calories because you’re using large muscle groups, namely the glutes, hamstrings and quads. You are not only toning muscles, but burning more calories, both of which are really important for equipment-free fat-loss exercises.
Increase fat loss during squats by either performing jump squats, or doing pulse squats at the bottom position.
You can also combine squats into a circuit with very little rest in between sets.
Performing bodyweight squats regularly enables you to lose weight through direct weight loss and other benefits such as balance, posture, and joint health.
If you’re looking for an easy way to lose weight and gain strength without equipment, squats are one of the best ways you can exercise in your home workout for weight loss.
4. Planks – Core Strength Meets Fat Burn
Planks aren’t just a hold; they are one of the most undervalued at-home workouts for losing weight and, especially, fat around your belly and building a strong core.
To do a plank, you will want to start in a forearm plank with your elbows lined up underneath your shoulders, back flat, and engaging your core. Finally, hold that for 30 to 60 seconds, remembering to keep your body in a straight line from your head to your heels (do not let your hips sag or rise).
Even though planks are a stationary exercise, they are very effective as a no-equipment fat loss exercise. Although you are not moving (which usually means you won’t burn as many calories), you are actually working many muscle groups at the same time when you hold this position, including: abs, shoulders, back, glutes, and of course, your legs.
By engaging these muscle groups in one move, you end up burning a lot more calories than you thought for a stationary position.
You can also liven up your bodyweight workouts by adding some variation to your workout, like: side plank, plank taps, or plank-to-pushup.
All of these plank stables start to get your heart rate up and add to an increased potential for fat loss.Planks are particularly good for improving posture and reducing the chance of injury since you will be strengthening your stabilizing muscles and making them more effective.
With their versatility, planks can be performed just about anywhere, which makes them ideal for anyone wanting to develop a source of the consistency factor for their at-home workout for weight loss routine.
5. Burpees – The Ultimate Fat Burning Workout
Burpees are often everyone’s worst nightmare, but when it comes to effective home workouts for weight loss, they’re no joke.
Burpees are powerful, explosive movements that engage nearly all of the muscles in the body while providing a fantastic intense cardio burn.
To begin, stand up, then squat and place your hands on the floor. Jump your feet back to a plank, add a push up (optional), then jump your feet back and leap straight up into the air.
Repeat as quickly as you can for 30 seconds to a minute.
Burpees are one of the best no-equipment fat loss exercises because they combine strength, endurance, and cardio into one very painful yet very effective movement.
Burpees are especially good for really spiking your heart rate, which increases fat oxidation and calorie burn.Beginners can eliminate the push up, or slow the pace down, while advanced users can add a tuck jump, or push them out in timed intervals as part of bodyweight workouts.
Like I said, they are tough, but no other exercise produces results in the same amount of time.
To get you started, commit to doing burpees 2-3 times a week, and they will help you torch fat, improve your endurance and tone your entire body.
When used regularly, burpees will become the secret ingredient to your home workout for weight loss goals-no gym, no excuses.
Common Mistakes in Home Workouts for Weight Loss
There are many reasons why people fail to realize progress from home workout programs for fat loss.
One common mistake is skipping the warm-up or cool-down. This can lead to a greater chance of injury, and no one wants to get sidelined because of an avoidable injury.
Another mistake is performing no-equipment fat loss exercises in poor form. Doing so limits the effectiveness of the workout, because of the restriction of movement that will occur. Also, doing no equipment exercises in poor form creates a potential for strain on muscles that might be injured because of incorrect movement.
Inconsistency is another killer. If bodyweight workouts are only done once or twice a week, there is no chance, real fat burning progress will take place.
By ignoring nutrition you are ruining your overall progress and fat loss journey.
And lastly, if you perform the same exercise routine everyday you will plateau. It is best to always switch up your home workout routine to keep your body challenged and continue to burn fat.
Conclusion
You don’t have to have gym memberships or fancy equipment to lose weight.
The right bodyweight workouts can help you lose weight, develop strength, change your body, and it does not require any equipment.
Bodyweight exercises such as jumping jacks, mountain climbers, squats, planks, and burpees are some examples that will have you working up a sweat.
The beauty of bodyweight exercises is anyone can do them, regardless of their current fitness level.
If you are consistent, use proper form, and eat healthy, whether that means meal prepping or using intermittent fasting for weight loss, you will lose weight.
So remember, the most important thing is starting.
You can turn your living room into your personal fitness studio, and your body will be your only piece of equipment.
So, are you going to start your journey towards a healthier you? Which of these workouts will you try first? Please let us know in the comments!
