Beginners gym routine?

OK Take a deep breath.

First a couple general comments:

1. No machines (or any sort of exercise) will target belly fat. Fat loss happens gradually all over, and you can't force your body to spot reduce fat.

2. Secondly there is no 'best' exercise for weight loss. Exercise can burn a few extra calories, and of course is good for overall health. But weight loss is primarily a function of getting your diet in order.


So that out of the way, what sort of equipment does your gym have? Is it all weight machines, or does it have free weights too? Most of the solid beginning weight lifting programs use free weights (barbells with plates, dumbbells, etc), although if you don't have that equipment available, you could try to re-create the routine using the available machines.

Have you considered meeting with a trainer at your gym to learn how to lift properly?

For fat loss, unfortunately, you really have to tighten up your diet.

There's a couple things to help though - and it depends on what your end goals are so take all things into consideration here. One would be if you really just want to lose the weight and are not looking to really improve LBM then cardio is the way to go. It burns way more calories for use today, figuratively. Doing cardio for an hour (or whatever) will burn more calories right away than doing weights. So you can actually eat more and still be in a deficit. If you're looking to increase LBM (which will change the aesthetics of your body; if you hear people talking about re-comp this is usually what they're talking about) then you should be lifting, and perhaps lifting heavy with something like a strong lifts 5 x 5 program.

You can't spot reduce, unfortunately. So you really have to make overall better choices and you will probably start to see a difference. Now that being said, sometimes people lose faster in one area or one area is bigger than others so you it looks like you're losing more there but you're really losing overall in that case.

Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat - I started at 340lbs and down to 255lbs, and I've learned a lot of information in the process Good Luck

ETA: for me personally, and I don't know that this works for everyone, I've found best results with running 3 days/week and doing crossfit/bootcamp style 2 - 3 days/week and then heavy/olympic lifting on the other day. I work out 6 days/week so some weeks I do 3 days of cross fit and some times only 2. It works for me, again may not work for everyone Just some food for thought when designing your routine.

Years ago I popped for a personal trainer for awile. I sure found it very helpful. He taught me how to properly use equipment and a basic routine. Interestingly, he told me then I needed to eat more protein. Flash forward...dieting now I found I wasn't eating enough protein.

Are you a Pinterest member? I'd definitely suggest typing in 'beginner workouts' or something similiar. There are a lot of articles and routines available for you! :] Otherwise, a simple google search will bring the same results!

If you are a member of a gym, a trainer or member of staff will be happy to design a bespoke plan for you (Some charge, some don't).

Congratulations on getting started. Good luck!

Some great advice posted already, just to add my 2 pence worth:

Diet trumps everything you can do in the gym (certainly in terms of fat loss), so you've got to get that right first.

As for workout frequency, intensity, and duration, I would look for something that is sustainable for you in the long term i.e. don't commit to 6 days a week if you know life will get in the way and make it impossible. (the same rule applies to diet).

I think doing two or three one-hour gym sessions a week (30 minutes cardio, 30 minutes weights) will give you a good bang for your buck.

A lot of people will insist you need to do more - and if you want to reach your full potential you probably do - but a lot of us don't mind not reaching our full potential if it gives us more time for other interests.