3 Simple But Effective Treadmill Workouts For Weight Loss

• Adjust the settings: Familiarise yourself with the treadmill's controls to adjust speed and incline according to your fitness level and workout goal.

• Locate the emergency stop button: Your treadmill should come with an emergency stop button function (usually a clip) that you should tie to your wrist. If you were to fall off or lose balance, the clip is pulled and the treadmill belt instantly stops, minimising serious injury.

• Start slowly: Begin with a gentle warm-up at a comfortable pace to gradually increase your heart rate and loosen your muscles.

• Maintain proper form: Stand upright with your head up, shoulders back, and core engaged. Avoid leaning on the handrails excessively, as this can affect your posture and reduce the effectiveness of your workout.

• Cool down: Finish your workout with a gradual cool-down period to lower your heart rate and prevent muscle soreness.

• Making changes to the foods you eat: This involves adopting a healthier diet by reducing high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and focusing on nutrient-dense options like fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. This can create a calorie deficit whilst still enjoying a filling, well-rounded diet.

• Increasing your activity levels: Try to incorporate more physical activity into your daily routines. This might include structured exercise sessions and non-exercise activities like taking the stairs instead of the lift or even getting up to walk more throughout the day.

• Combining both of the above: The best results come from combining a healthy diet with regular exercise. If you're able to do both consistently, you should see results faster.

• Increase your vegetable intake: Leafy greens, peppers, broccoli, carrots and tomatoes are all great options as they're low in calories but high in nutrients, fibre, and water content.

• Choose high quality carb sources: Focus on whole grain options like whole wheat bread, brown rice, quinoa, and oats, which provide complex carbohydrates and fibre to keep energy levels up. Legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and black beans, as well as starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and butternut squash, are also great sources of carbs.

• Get plenty of lean protein: Chicken, fish, lean cuts of beef or pork, tofu and eggs are among the best forms of lean proteins. These protein-rich foods help support muscle growth and repair and help with weight loss, as they have a lower calorie density compared to fatty meats or processed protein sources.

• Aim for 2+ litres of water: Try to make it a habit to carry a water bottle with you to ensure you stay hydrated. You could also try drinking water before meals to help control appetite and prevent overeating. As a general rule, aim to drink at least 2 litres (around 8 cups) of water per day.

1. Beginner: Incline Walk For 15-20 Minutes

   • New to exercise? Keep it simple and start with 15-20 minutes 1-3 times a week. As your fitness levels improve you can look to increase the duration or frequency of your workouts.
   • Set a moderately steep incline (8-10) and a pace similar to if you were running late to work (4-5 km/h)
   • Try to avoid holding the handrails if possible, but if needed, lean forward to maximise the incline's benefits

2. Intermediate: 200m Incline Jog x4

   • Jog at a quick pace with a moderate incline (5-7) and a speed between 9-11 km/h
   • Once you've reached 200m, reduce the speed and incline and recover for 1-3 minutes
   • Repeat this for a total of 4 times
   • Time how long it takes to reach 200m and work on increasing your pace over time

3. Advanced: 30 Second Sprint Intervals x10

   • This workout involves jumping on and off the treadmill using the handrails. If you've never tried this before, practice at a lower speed until you are confident with the technique
   • Sprint at a pace over 15 km/h for 30 seconds
   • After the sprint, jump off the treadmill belt and rest on the sides for 30 seconds
   • Repeat 10 times
   • As your fitness improves, progress by increasing the speed or reducing the rest periods

• Increasing the intensity of your workout each week by adding an incline (try these incline treadmill workouts) or increasing the speed. Known as progressive overload, this will keep your workouts challenging and burning calories as your fitness increases

• Increasing the length of time you're using the treadmill

• Taking fewer rests in between intervals if you're using an interval-based workout

• Mixing up your workouts to include High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts, like these treadmill HIIT workouts