Treadmills are one of the most popular forms of indoor workout to lose weight. However, if you’re serious about losing weight on a treadmill, let us inform you, just walking on it regularly won’t help you. Therefore, you should follow some proper steps.
If you have bought a treadmill recently or plan to purchase one to lose weight, this article is perfect for you. Here we will discuss how to lose weight on a treadmill in a month. That’s because if you target for a month at first, you’re likely to stay motivated for a long time.
However, we’ve explained five different procedures for your convenience. In the end, we’ll also share some tips to make your workout sessions more efficient.
How Much Weight You Can Lose in A Month
With regular workouts on a treadmill, you can lose a significant amount of weight in a month. However, there isn’t any specific number that we can tell you to answer this question. That’s because the amount you’ll depend on your intensity of the workout, as well as duration and frequency. Besides, your nutrition takeout is also an essential factor.
According to Mayo Clinic, you need to burn 3500 to 7000 calories to lose one to two pounds of weight. So, if you burn 500 to 1000 calories daily, you can lose 4 to 8 pounds in a month.
However, a treadmill is a great tool to burn calories. And if you run, you’ll likely lose more weight rather than walking. A study by Harvard Health Publishing shows that if a 185-pound person runs at five mph, he will end up burning 336 calories in 30 minutes.
Similarly, if he runs at 7.5 mph for 30 minutes, he will burn 525 calories. And if the speed rises to 10 mph, the burning amount reaches 671 calories.
Although losing one to two pounds per week is an aggressive approach, it’s a safe option. However, you need to maintain your consumption of calories too. You can track your calorie takeout using different online apps. Besides, to track your progress, modern treadmills offer lots of built-in features.
Is 30 minutes of exercise on the treadmill helpful to burn enough calories
How to Lose Weight on a Treadmill in a Month
There are multiple ways to lose fat on a treadmill. Nonetheless, which option you choose entirely depends on your target and comfort.
Though in this article, our focus is on treadmill workout, for better results, plan your daily meal too. That’s because if you don’t eat healthily, all your workouts will go in vain. However, the following are some treadmill weight loss plan you can try for a month and beyond:
1. HIIT
HIIT stands for High-intensity interval training. In recent years, it has been one of the most popular fat-burning exercises. However, HIIT consists of a mix of high-intensity exercise and rest. And it allows you to burn a decent amount of calories in a short time.
During HIIT, you’ll do an intense period of exercise with your maximum ability. After that, you’ll be taking a short rest. And this will repeat several times. However, the idea behind HIIT is to avoid continuous workouts for a long time. Besides, it increases the efficiency of the workout.
Although there are multiple variants of HIIT, we’ve divided it into two parts. They are beginner and intermediate to advanced.
If you haven’t done any exercise before or have never done HIIT, then go for the beginner option. On the other hand, if you have previous HIIT experience, you should go for the second option if your body allows it.
For beginners, the following is a simple treadmill workout plan:
- Do a 2-3 minutes brisk walk for warm-up.
- Walk at 3-4 mph for 1 minute.
- Jog at 5-7 mph for 1 minute.
- Run at 7-9 mph for 1 minute.
- Repeat the walk-jog-run process three to four times.
- Finally, cool down with 1 minute of a brisk walk.
The cycle will take around 15 minutes to complete. After that, take a rest for a few minutes. In the first few days, you wouldn’t want to repeat the cycle.
However, once you’re comfortable with the workout, do this at least twice. That means a total of 30 minutes of HIIT. After 10 to 15 days, go for the intermediate workout plan.
For intermediate to advanced people, the following is a process of doing treadmill HIIT plan:
- Warm-up with some light exercises on the floor or walk at two mph for 3 to 4 minutes on a treadmill.
- Now start with running at 8 to 9 mph for 1 minute.
- Then slow down and run at 4 to 5 mph for 1 minute.
- Again speed up and go down and repeat this 5 to 10 times.
- Finally, cool down with a slow walk for 2 minutes.
Doing HIIT regularly will bring you excellent results. However, don’t perform it every day. That’s because doing an intense workout every day will hurt your body. Therefore, five days a week is an ideal choice.
Nevertheless, HIIT has been proved to be more efficient in fat burning than other moderate workout plans. That is because, in HIIT, you’ll lose calories during the workout and after finishing your running. This process is known as EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
2. Fat Burning Heart-rate
Fat-burning heart rate refers to a rate when you burn most calories per minute. Therefore, you lose more weight. So, you can calculate your fat-burning heart rate and utilize your workout to lose fat more efficiently.
However, to find your fat-burning heart rate first, you need to calculate your maximum rate. This indicates the maximum number of times your heart can beat in a minute. Nonetheless, your heart beats at a higher rate only when you do some intense work.
The easiest way to find your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. For example, if your age is 30, your maximum heart rate will be (220-30) = 190. And usually, the fat-burning heart rate is 70% of your maximum heart rate. Therefore, in this case, the fat-burning rate will be (190×0.70)=133.
This rate will help you know when to put in the most effort during the workout to burn more calories. Follow the process below to have a more efficient workout session:
- First, wear a heart rate monitor on your wrist or chest to track the rate.
- Now walk at 2 to 3 mph for 3 minutes to warm up.
- Slowly increase the speed until you reach your fat-burning heart rate.
- Then run at 8 to 10 mph for 15-30 minutes at that rate.
- Again slow down and walk at 2 mph for 5 minutes to finish the session.
Though we calculated 70% of the maximum heart rate as a fat-burning rate, the exact result varies. For some people, it’s 60% & for some, it’s 80%. However, it depends on sex, weight, fitness, and some other factors.
Nonetheless, you can go to a physician or hire a personal trainer to perfectly determine the rate. Moreover, they’ll help you to make you a proper treadmill workout plan to lose weight.
3. Sprint Workout
To make your workout more challenging, you can go for a sprint workout. However, it has some risk of injuries due to its high intensity. Therefore, if you’re not so fit or new to exercising, our recommendation will be your go lighter at first, then try a sprint.
Nonetheless, during your sprint workout session, set the incline of the treadmill to low. This will help you to avoid injuries. Besides, you’ll have a comfortable experience too.
The process of sprint workout involves a minute of high-intensity running followed by a minute of walk. However, follow the steps below for best results:
- Start with warming up your legs and body with a light walk at 2mph for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Then walk at a moderate speed of 3 to 4 mph for 1 minute.
- After that, run at 8 to 10 mph for 1 minute.
- Then again, walk at 3 to 4 mph for 1 minute and repeat the process 10-15 times.
- Slow down and take a light jog to finish your workout session.
The workout is quite intense. Therefore, before starting this, ensure that your body is ready. However, do this 4 to 5 times a week for the best results. After a month, you’ll lose a significant amount of weight.
4. Incline Workout
Running on an incline is another great way to make your treadmill workout challenging. Besides, this will force you to work harder. Therefore, you can expect to lose a great deal of fat within a month.
Moreover, an incline workout activates more muscle than other workouts. And it helps you to build lean muscle. Nonetheless, more muscle workout allows you to burn more calories.
However, make sure that your treadmill has an adjustable incline option. That’s because, in this method, you’ll do your workout on different inclines. You can check our article on the best treadmill for walking to find out the best one with an incline option.
Nonetheless, the following is a simple process of doing an incline workout:
- First, do a warm-up session for 5 minutes with 2 to 3 mph speed. During this time, set the treadmill incline to flat.
- Now set the incline to 1% and continue to jog at 4 to 6 mph for one minute.
- Then continuously increase the incline by 1% each minute. And do this until you reach 9 to 10 percent of incline.
- After that, decrease the incline by 1% after every one minute. And continue to do it until you reach 0% or flat.
- Finally, finish the session with walking at 2 to 3 mph for 5 minutes.
The incline workout session will take around 25 to 30 minutes. However, this is enough for one session. Therefore, you don’t need to repeat the process. And again, 4 to 5 times a week for a month will give you excellent output.
However, 4 to 6 mph is an average speed for an incline workout. So, you also can increase your speed if you have the ability. Besides, if you want to make the session easier, you can increase the incline by 0.5% every time. And follow the same procedure.
5. Mixing Up Your Routine
Mixing up your workout routine is an excellent idea to have a more challenging and efficient workout. That’s because when you do the same workout every day, your body gets familiar with it. Thus it tends to burn fewer calories after a few weeks of workouts. But if you mix up the routine with a different workout session every day, then this will not happen.
Besides, doing the same workout is stressful for joints in your body, leading to injury. Therefore, if you avoid doing this and try different methods every day, then the chance of injury also reduces. Moreover, in this way, you’ll avoid boredom.
However, we’ve already explained some of the most efficient workout processes. So, here’s a simple workout routine for a week you can try:
- Sunday: Do HIIT treadmill for 25-30 minutes or more if you can.
- Monday: Have a light jogging session to rest your body.
- Tuesday: Go for a treadmill workout at a fat-burning rate.
- Wednesday: Today, try an incline workout.
- Thursday: Again, do a light jog or take a rest.
- Friday: Try doing a sprint workout today.
- Saturday: Choose any of the workout sessions or just do light jogging to avoid working out for 3 days simultaneously.
Continue doing this consistently for at least a month. However, it’s not necessary that you must follow this routine. This is to give you an idea of mixing up sessions. Therefore, you can make your own routine with the workout methods we’ve discussed earlier if you want.
Benefits of Losing Weight on a Treadmill
A treadmill workout is an excellent way to burn fat and lose weight. Besides, working out on a treadmill has some more health benefits too. Click here. These include:
- A treadmill workout is another popular form of doing cardio exercises. That’s because you can exercise at a steady heart rate. Therefore, this helps you raise your rate to a healthy level and improves your heart’s health.
- Moreover, during a treadmill workout, almost all of your muscles get involved. Hence, you also get a full-body workout. As a result, it helps you to attain a good fitness level.
- Besides, treadmill workouts also help you to control the level of blood sugar.
- It boosts your immunity system and significantly improves your energy levels.
- Also increases the level of HDL, which is good cholesterol for your body.
- Working on a treadmill also improves your mental condition. It releases stress and motivates you.
Besides these, treadmill workouts also provide a few more physical and mental health benefits, including improving endurance, having healthy skins, and more.
Tips for Losing Weight on a Treadmill
If you want to lose weight on a treadmill, then just a few workout sessions aren’t enough. Besides, you’ve to maintain discipline. However, the following are some tips to make your workout sessions more efficient and lose a good amount of weight:
- Maintain Consistency: Consistency is a vital factor here. If you workout for two days and then take a rest for 5 days, then you won’t lose weight. Therefore, you must maintain consistency. However, you can follow several strategies to maintain a regular workout. These include joining an accountability group, setting smaller goals, or anything else that motivates you to lose weight.
- Avoid Holding HandRails: When you walk or run outdoors, do you hold anything for support? The answer would be no. Therefore, when you’re working out on a treadmill, avoid holding the rails. That’s because taking support to run will decrease the rate of your calorie burning. However, if you’re a complete beginner, you can hold the rails for the first few days to get yourself familiar with the treadmill. But after that workout without holding rails.
- Proper Nutrition: Consumption of proper nutrition is also essential. If you do a regular workout and eat two or three burgers daily, then instead of losing weight, you may end up gaining weight. Therefore, you should focus on healthy meals. That will help you to lose weight as well as provide other help benefits too.
- Set a Target: Working out aimlessly won’t give you the expected output. Therefore, set a target of how much weight you want to lose in a month. Then divide the goal for every single day. Set a target of calories you want to burn every day. Besides, determine the duration required to lose that amount of calories. However, if you want to go aggressive, burning 700 calories a day on treadmill is a good choice. On the other hand, if you want to go slow, burning 300 to 400 a day is enough.
- Add Light Exercises: After you do your treadmill workout sessions, add some other lightweight exercises too. However, weightlifting is the most common addition to treadmill workouts.
Conclusion
Losing weight is easy if you know how to do it and follow the process with proper discipline. Therefore, we’ve provided you with a complete guide on how to lose weight on a treadmill in a month.
Now all you need to do is to set your target and start working out. However, follow all the instructions carefully to avoid any injuries.
Though you’re starting with a target of continuing for one month only, don’t stop after that. For losing a significant amount of weight, continue beyond one month.
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