The Best Types of Exercise for Weight Loss

Resistance Training, Cardio, Circuit Training and Daily Movement: How to Combine All Four

Before we look at the best types of exercise for weight loss, here's the most important thing I can tell you: nutrition and being in a calorie deficit will determine whether exercise works for you. You can do all the training you want. But if you're consuming more calories than your body is burning, weight loss will be extremely difficult regardless of how hard you train.

That said, based on my personal experience and over 30 years of training and 14 years of coaching, combining resistance training, cardio and daily movement produces the most impressive and sustainable body transformations. Here's exactly how each one works and how to put them together.

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Resistance training

Keep your muscle, fuel your metabolism and reshape your body.

If you want to lose body fat and maintain muscle, or achieve a lean athletic-looking physique, resistance training is non-negotiable. This is especially true as you get older.

Here's why. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. It requires constant energy to function, burning more calories than fat tissue even at rest. The more muscle you have, the higher your resting energy expenditure. In other words, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn even when you're not exercising.

If you skip resistance training and focus only on cardio, you risk losing muscle alongside fat. This lowers your metabolism over time and makes long-term weight loss and maintenance significantly harder.

The best resistance exercises for fat loss are compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously: squats, deadlifts, bench presses and pull-ups. I'm also a big fan of supersets, where you perform two exercises back to back with little or no rest between them. Pairing opposing muscle groups in supersets is especially effective and time-efficient.

Precision Nutrition: Cardio vs. Weights →

Precision Nutrition: Intense exercise, how to do it and why you should →

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Cardio exercises

Burn more calories and increase your fat loss potential.

Cardio exercises include walking, running, swimming, cycling, skipping rope, rowing, boxing and stair climbing. Including cardio while in a calorie deficit helps you burn more calories and increases your overall fat loss potential. That's because cardio is fuelled primarily by stored body fat.

The two most effective forms of cardio for fat loss are HIIT and LISS. Both have a role.

HIIT: High-intensity interval training

HIIT alternates between short bursts of near-maximum effort and longer periods of lower intensity recovery.

Example using a stationary bike: warm up for 5 minutes, then perform 10 to 30 seconds of near-maximum effort followed by 60 seconds of slow steady-state. Repeat for 5 to 10 intervals. Increase both the intensity and duration as your fitness improves.

HIIT can be done on a stationary bike, treadmill or rower. It can also be done in the park using a skipping rope or combining sprinting with walking intervals.

Start with one HIIT session per week and build to two if needed.

Pros:

• Time-efficient. Burns more calories in less time than LISS

• Can be less boring than LISS due to the variety of effort levels

• Can be muscle-sparing compared to longer steady-state cardio

• May blunt appetite better than longer cardio sessions

Cons:

• Relies more on carbohydrates than body fat for fuel

• The afterburn effect (EPOC) is real but smaller than often claimed

• Requires more recovery time. Should be done after resistance training or on non-training days

• Can be somewhat redundant if you're already doing regular resistance training at high intensity

• Higher injury risk if intensity is not managed properly

Once your fitness base is solid, add HIIT once or twice a week. It burns more calories in less time and is genuinely effective for fat loss. Just don't overdo it. High-intensity work increases appetite and demands proper recovery. More is not always better here.

I enjoy doing HIIT on my mountain bike, riding up hills at a fast pace and then recovering at a slower, steady pace on the flat. On occasions I'll do sprint and walk intervals in the park as I did during my years as a competitive sprinter. But the mountain bike is my preferred HIIT tool because it's low impact.

LISS: Low-intensity steady-state cardio

LISS involves maintaining a constant moderate pace for an extended period. A good intensity is fast enough to carry a conversation without running out of breath. Aim for 15 to 60 minutes of continuous movement, 3 to 5 times per week.

Pros:

• Primarily uses body fat as fuel

• Ideal for beginners or anyone returning to exercise after a break

• Low impact on the joints with minimal injury risk

• Minimises muscle soreness and supports recovery between resistance sessions

• Can be done in a fasted state in the morning

Cons:

• Takes longer per session

• Can feel repetitive. I solve this by walking while listening to a podcast or music

When I want to get lean, I aim for 60 minutes of brisk walking daily. Walking around my city at a brisk pace on most days is genuinely one of my favourite things. For best results, combine HIIT one to two times per week with LISS three to five times per week.

Precision Nutrition: All about cardio →

Precision Nutrition: Clearing up cardio confusion →

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Circuit training

Save time, build muscle and burn calories in the same workout.

If you want a time-efficient workout that builds strength and burns calories simultaneously, circuit training is excellent. It's a method where you move from exercise to exercise with little to no rest, working the whole body in a single session.

Circuit training can be a series of cardio exercises, resistance exercises or a combination of both done one after the other. You can also alternate between a resistance exercise and a cardio exercise for maximum metabolic demand. I'd choose between 3 and 10 exercises per circuit depending on your goals and time available.

Example full-body circuit training workout

This routine can be done at home with minimal equipment. Perform 5 to 10 repetitions of each exercise with little to no rest between exercises. Once the circuit is complete, rest until you regain your breath and repeat. Perform 2 to 5 rounds.

1. Goblet squat
2. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift
3. Push-up
4. Dumbbell bent-over row
5. Dumbbell curl and press
6. Tuck-ups
7. Skipping rope x 30 seconds

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NEAT: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis

Burn calories and lose fat by doing everyday activities.

NEAT is the energy you expend through all the movement in your day that isn't structured exercise. Walking to the train station, taking the stairs, gardening, playing with your kids, washing the car. These daily movements add up to a significant number of calories burned over a week.

NEAT counts as a significant portion of your total daily energy expenditure. The more active you are throughout the day, the more calories you burn. For many people, increasing their daily movement is actually more achievable and more sustainable than adding more structured exercise sessions.

A great way to increase your NEAT is to increase your daily step count. A good initial target is 10,000 steps per day. My wearable tells me I burn around 300 to 400 calories for every 10,000 steps I do. I average over 14,000 steps a day and it's genuinely one of the most impactful habits I have.

Simple ways to move more every day →

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Health should feel like your best life, not a break from it.

Marco ☕

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