Best exercises for weight loss in the gym

[ACoverIsNotTheBook]

Currently going to the gym 3-4 times a week. I spend about 45minutes to an hour there but I don’t think I’m doing it right 🙈
I am very unfit and overweight so am building myself up slowly but at the moment I do 3*15 minutes of cardio (stair master/cross trainer/cycling and treadmill) and 5-15 minutes fannying about on the weights (leg press etc) I’m not quite confident enough to give the free weights a go yet but just hoping some people with more experience can say if this sounds ok? Or if there’s a better way to go?

What you want is muscle bulk to raise your basal metabolic rate. Cardio, unless you do at least 2-3 hours a day, amounts to very little weight loss. 1000 calories burned equates to 4 ounces of fat.
Keep doing the leg presses, those are your biggest muscle groups. Work on your core, pecs and abs. The real effort is your diet. Good luck.

Ask an instructor or personal trainer to show you how to safely do deadlifts, squats (lots of variations), benchpress, lunges. Lots of big compound movements.
And monitor what you eat!

Thank you! I’m really not up to the free weight section of my gym yet and can never find an instructor available when I’m there but I know I need to build on the weights, I actually really enjoy the leg presses and can lift a decent weight there but am a bit afraid of the other machines lol
I think I’ll try and give 30 mins cardio and 30 mins weights a go and see how I get on? Is it the best think to concentrate on legs one day then upper body the next?

Hi OP - congrats on getting yourself to the gym, I hope you're already starting to feel the benefits.

You've several options, and there's no need to rush to the free weights until you feel comfortable, and you've been given some guidance on how to use them properly to avoid injury!

As you're fairly new to the gym, I'd start off doing three full body weights sessions a week. Something along the lines of:

10 min cardio warm up
Four sets of 12 on the following:
Leg press OR leg curl and hamstring curl
Lat pulldown OR sit down row OR back fly
Chest press OR chest fly
Shoulder press
20 mins of cardio

You could alternate the machines each time - so one day your leg exercises could be leg press, your chest chest press, the next the curls and the flies etc.

Try to space out your sessions. If you're going on a fourth day, you could do a full cardio session as you've been doing, or do some abs, body weight exercises, biceps and triceps alongside the cardio too.

The most important thing is to find what works for you, and what you enjoy.

Good luck!

Gyms are really intimidating. I’m a personal trainer and still find a new gym scary to go into.

The only thing that will help you lose weight is being in a calorie deficit. Be careful that you aren’t eating back the calories (as women we are pre programmed to do just that, and move less subconsciously after doing cardio so that we hold onto body fat)

Is it an option for you to do classes? I find them great and work much harder.

Less cardio and more weights is key. Maybe book a one off PT session for them to show you?

But weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise. So your diet needs to be good.