Trust me, I know you have a million things to do and sometimes going to the gym isn’t even in your top five, especially when it takes 2 hours round trip. Having said that, the pounds don’t just fall off on their own. In fact, it gets more and more difficult as the years go by. Our resting metabolism (that is, the calories we burn at rest) decreases by up to 5% every decade. In other words, if we don’t start making time to go to the gym, we’ll be 10 pounds heavier every decade.

Being a personal trainer and a mom myself, I cringe every time I look and someone has been huffing and puffing on the treadmill for 45 or even 60 minutes and still hasn’t lifted the weights. If weight loss is the goal, this is not the most efficient weight loss workout.

The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you put in your belly, right? The mom in me is always looking for the fastest way to get there. The secret is in our metabolism. The faster our metabolism, the more calories we will burn, even when we are sleeping. Yes, some of that is genetics. Don’t let that be your excuse.

There are two ways we can speed up our metabolism and make it work in our favor when it comes to exercise.

First of all, the old belief that cardiovascular exercise is the key to losing weight is a myth. Strength training is the most effective way to burn fat. Yes, cardio burns 2 more calories per minute than strength training; however, unlike steady-paced cardio, your body continues to burn calories for hours after a strength-training session. Essentially, this leads to a higher number of calories burned overall. Added bonuses; the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn throughout the day, even when you’re just sitting there. It sounds too good to be true? It’s a fact that every pound of muscle requires 30 calories a day to sustain. Grease only requires 2. You do the math!

The second piece of the puzzle is related to the first, as it revolves around the idea of ​​”After Burn”. After exercise, the body works to restore itself to its pre-workout state (delivering oxygen, nutrients, etc.). This requires more energy (ie calories). However, research has shown that the “after burn” lasts longer for different types of exercises. You guessed it. Strength training speeds up our metabolism much longer than any other type of training. However, there is a twist. The best workout for weight loss is strength training, circuit style!

Performing strength training exercises with no rest between exercises will give you the most bang for your buck…and save you a lot of time. More specifically, combine a set of 4-6 exercises. Go from one to another without rest. Only after you’ve done all 4-6 moves, rest and hydrate for a minute. Then move on to the next set of 4-6 exercises. By circuit training, you’re essentially combining cardio and strength training because your heart rate will stay elevated throughout the entire workout. Research shows that your metabolism can stay elevated for up to 48 hours after a session like that. Added bonus, it should only take you 45 minutes tops.

“When done correctly, circuit training builds lean muscle and improves aerobic fitness simultaneously, making it nothing short of the most effective fat-burning workout,” according to Jillian Micheals of The BIGGEST LOSER.

If you’re feeling more motivated… add 15 to 20 minutes of interval cardio (again, better than steady-paced cardio, but shouldn’t be done on consecutive days) to round out your workout. In and out in about an hour! You can’t beat that!

sample circuit

• Dumbbell chest press on a stability ball
• 10-20 push-ups
• Walking lunges (15 each leg)
• 10 jump squats
• Abdominal planks (30-45 sec)
• Mt. Climbers or Jump Rope (30 sec)

Interval Cardio Workout Example

• Warm up for 2 minutes at a 4 on a scale of (1-10 RPE)
• Increase your pace to around 7-8 for 30 seconds
• Recover by 4-5 for 60 to 90 seconds
• Repeat 6-8 times