Whether you’re seeking professional advice or simply want to follow this guide, all you need is a set of dumbbells and a CAROL Bike to execute this plan seamlessly in your own space.
Types of training in your weight-loss program
Your fat-burning exercise program should include:
- Strength Training: Boosts metabolism and enhances muscle endurance.
- Interval Training: HIIT methods, like REHIT, provide rapid calorie burns.
- Conditioning: Focuses on cardiovascular power and uses various muscles.
- Low-Intensity Cardio: Ideal for recovery days, it ensures consistent calorie burn.
A balanced cross-training schedule helps you to develop different physical abilities such as strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity. It prevents the common problem of reaching a weight-loss plateau. When you repeat the same type of training for a prolonged period of time, your body becomes more efficient at performing this exercise and expends less energy. After a while, you may notice that you don’t burn fat as efficiently as in the beginning. Alternating physical activities activates different energy systems and muscle groups so that your body never gets used to the same routine.
Cross-training allows you to work out every day without overtraining and make the most of your time burning fat faster.
Strength training
Strength exercises are an important part of the fat-burning plan because they ensure that you burn calories without losing muscles and improve your overall body composition. Lean muscle mass increases your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories you burn at rest) and the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC — the number of calories burnt when your body restores its metabolism after training). Increased muscular strength enhances your endurance, helping you perform more intense and longer home workouts.
HIIT
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) provides a massive metabolic boost during and immediately after your workout. During the short bouts of exercise performed at maximum intensity, your body stacks an “oxygen debt” that leads to an increased EPOC effect, helping you burn more fat after the training.
HIIT is known to be one of the most efficient types of training to drive significant fat-burning results. A study on the impact of exercise intensity on body fat and skeletal muscle metabolism showed that despite its lower energy cost, the HIIT program induced a more pronounced reduction in body fat compared to endurance training.
Conditioning
Body conditioning is a heart-pumping full-body workout that activates the entire body and uses multiple major muscle groups. It often involves resistance and bodyweight exercises that make it look similar to a strength workout. The difference is that during conditioning your goal is to improve your cardiovascular power, not strength.
By activating all muscles that you may not use during your usual training, you increase your body’s endurance, get better progress, and continue to achieve your fat-burning goals.
Low-intensity cardio
Low-intensity cardio is a great exercise for active recovery that can be performed right after more intense strength and interval training sessions. It allows you to slightly increase overall calorie burn and make the most of your resting days without overtraining.
To achieve optimal weight loss results, you will need to perform at least 4 workouts a week leaving 2 days for active rest and 1 day for complete rest. Allow 1 day of rest between high-intensity interval training to give your body enough time to recover. A low-intensity cardio session can be considered an active recovery.
A balanced cross-training schedule is important as it helps prevent the common problem of reaching a weight-loss plateau.
Example of a 4-week exercise workout plan to lose weight
Week 1
Day 1. Strength workout (30 mins)
This full-body workout is an energizing way to start the week. It includes a set of exercises for the lower body, upper body, and core muscles.
Lower body exercises:
- 10x Squat jumps
- 10x Deadlifts
- 10x Alternating lunges
- 10x Mountain climbers
- 10x Step ups
- Rest 1 min
Core exercises:
- Plank 1 min
- 10x Walkouts
- 10x Jumping jacks
- 5x Burpees
- 5x Bear crawls
- Rest 1 min
Upper body exercises:
- 10x Push ups
- 10x Dumbbell bench press
- 10x Russian twists
- 10x Diagonal arm kicks
- 10x Crab walks
- Rest 1 min
Every workout should include a 5-minute warmup and a 10-minute cooldown. You can increase the number of reps for each exercise as you progress.
Day 2. REHIT (5 mins) or Fat Burn ride on CAROL Bike
Reduced Exertion HIIT (REHIT) is the next-level HIIT workout. It was developed by scientists as the shortest, most effective way to exercise. REHIT gives you superior health and fitness benefits compared to regular exercise—in 90% less time. It is based on research that has shown that 2×20-second all-out sprints are enough to deplete up to 30% of the body’s glycogen stores and trigger metabolic changes that increase calorie afterburn.
The training consists of a short warmup, 2×20-second all-out sprints, 1-3-min recovery time, and a 3-min cooldown. In just 5 minutes, REHIT burns 2x more calories per minute than a regular treadmill run. 66% of calories are burned after the training. It is recommended to do at least 2-3 REHIT sessions per week to achieve visible weight-loss results.
CAROL Bike is the only bike fully optimized for REHIT— making it easy, effective, and safe. Its AI automatically tailors resistance levels so that you hit your personal maximal capacity during each ride.
Alternatively, CAROL Bike’s Fat burn ride is a high-intensity protocol designed to trigger a massive calorie burn during your workout and after. Fat burn ride consists of 60×8-second sprints and lasts between 17-25 minutes.
According to studies, this type of training has the longest and greatest EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) compared to moderate-intensity treadmill exercise, vigorous-intensity treadmill exercise. EPOC duration was more than 2.5 times greater than following vigorous-intensity treadmill exercise (72.1 min) and more than 3.5 times greater than following moderate-intensity treadmill exercise (45.2 min). EPOC leads to 72% of calories being burned after the Fat burn ride. If fat loss is your main objective, you can prioritize this workout in your training schedule.
Day 3. Zone-based free ride
On active recovery days, you should opt for low-intensity workouts that increase blood flow, enrich the blood with oxygen, and help wash out the lactic acid from the muscles. A good workout is typically done at around 40-50% of your maximum heart rate and can be sustained for longer periods of time. You can pick any non-strenuous exercise of your choice such as 30-minute jogging, walking, cycling, or swimming for active rest.
CAROL Bike offers you several types of Zone 2 training. These low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS) sessions work perfectly for active recovery:
- Zone-Based Free Ride keeps you automatically in a specific training zone.
- Constant Power Free Ride allows you to select a target power as the bike automatically adjusts resistance to keep your power output at that level.
- Regular Free Ride lets you directly control resistance levels.
You can perform LISS cycling training for 30-90 minutes.
Day 4. Conditioning
Take a 30-second rest after each exercise:
- 10x Bench press
- 10x Push ups
- 10x Biceps curl with dumbbells (both sides)
- Cycling sprint on CAROL Bike (20 seconds)
- 10x Plank jacks
- 10x Crunches
- 10x High knees
- Cycling sprint on CAROL Bike (20 seconds)
- 10x Step ups
- 10x Dumbbells squats
- 10x Reverse lunges (both sides)
- 10x Triceps overhead extension (both sides)
- 10x Jump lunges
- 10x Push ups
- 10x Bear crawls
Day 5. Active rest: Walking (30 mins)
Day 6. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Repeat the REHIT or Fat Burn session performed earlier in the week.
Day 7. Complete rest
Allow 1 day per week for complete rest to avoid overtraining.
REHIT on CAROL Bike gives you superior health and fitness benefits compared to regular exercise—in 90% less time.
Week 2
Day 1. Upper-body strength workout (30 mins)
This week, you can split your strength session into 2 parts, focusing specifically on your upper and lower body. Take a 30-second rest after completing each exercise.
- 3×10 Dumbbell overhead press
- 3×10 Dumbbell bench press
- 3×10 Chest press
- 3×10 Biceps curl
- 3×10 Overhead triceps extension
- 10x Shoulder-tap planks
- 10x Inchworms
Day 2. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 3. Low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS) (30 mins)
You can opt for a Zone-based free ride on CAROL Bike or do a 30-minute session of any other low-intensity cardio activity.
Day 4. Lower-body strength workout (30 mins)
Perform a 30-minute lower-body strength workout:
- 10x Good mornings
- 3×10 Reverse lunges
- 3×10 Split squats
- 3×10 Step to squats
- 3×10 Side lunges
- 10x Squat jumps
- 10x Glute bridges
- 10 Side-lying leg raises on each side
- 3×10 Mountain climbers
- 3×10 Thigh openers
Day 5. Active rest: Yoga session (30 mins)
Go through the following sequence staying in each asana (pose) for 6-10 breaths:
Warmup:
- Child’s pose
- 1 min – Cat/Cow Pose
Main sequence:
- Forward bend from the standing position
- Plank position
- Cobra pose
- Downward facing dog
- Three-legged dog with right leg up
- Low Warrior 1 (right leg forward)
- Half prayer twist to the right
- Warrior 2
- Triangle pose
- Plank position
- Cobra pose
- Downward facing dog
- Repeat the same asanas on the left side
- Plank position
- Cobra pose
- Downward facing dog
- Chair pose
- Tree pose (both sides)
- Pigeon pose
- Shavasana
Day 6. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 7. Complete rest
CAROL burns over twice as many calories, minute-per-minute vs. traditional exercise, largely thanks to afterburn.
Week 3
Day 1. Strength workout
Repeat the strength workout from Week 1.
Day 2. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 3. LISS (30 mins)
Day 4. Conditioning
Repeat conditioning training from Week 1. You can increase the number of repetitions if the workout starts to feel too easy.
Day 5. Active rest: Swimming (30-45 mins)
Day 6. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 7. Complete rest
Week 4
Day 1. upper-body Strength workout
Repeat the strength workout from Week 2.
Day 2. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 3. LISS (30 mins)
Day 4. Lower-body strength workout
Repeat the strength workout from Week 2.
Day 5. Active rest: Stretching (30 mins)
Go through a 30-minute stretching sequence:
3 mins – Head rolls
3 mins – Shoulder stretch
3 mins – Deep squats
2 mins – Pigeon pose (each side)
3 mins – Hip flexor stretch
2 mins – Head to knee bend (each side)
2 mins – Wide-angle seated forward bend
2 mins – Bow pose
2 mins – Thread the needle (each side)
2 mins – Half Lord of the Fishes Pose (each side)
Day 6. REHIT or Fat Burn ride
Day 7. Complete rest
This 4-week home workout plan is a great place to start if you want to lose weight at home. Remember that CDC recommends losing no more than 2 pounds or 1 kilogram per week. It is safe to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day. To support weight loss in the long term, you will need to make an exercise regime and healthy eating habits part of your daily routine.
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