What is The Best Workout “Split” for Losing Weight?

A common question I get from people looking to lose fat is “What is the best workout split for losing weight?”.

First things first, for those who don’t know what a “split” is, it is how you break down or split up your workouts.

A split could be upper body and lower body (where 1 workout consists of upper body and the next consists of lower body). It could be individual muscle splits – ie. chest/back/shoulders/lower and core/arms – where each day represents a single muscle group. Or it could be a mixture of the two: for example a three day split with chest and arms/shoulders and back/lower and core.

You may also decide to go with no split at all, and perform full body workouts each time you are in the gym.

OK, so what is the best split if you are looking to lose weight?

Well, like most answers, there isn’t really a “best” split. You can be effective with losing weight with any type of workout split as long as you performing the right types of workouts.

I will say that I would never recommend doing a single body part split for anyone whose main goal is to lose weight. That type of split is more for anyone looking to build muscle.

Splitting your workouts into a three day split (like I gave an example of above) could work for losing weight, but it would be my second to last choice.

So I guess the “best” splits would either be upper body/lower body or just the full body workouts.

The best workout split for women looking to lose weight would probably be the full body workouts, with cardio work done on non-lifting days (more on that in a second).

For men looking to lose fat I would recommend the upper body/lower body split, as this will do a better job at helping you add a bit of muscle while shedding that fat (something most men will want when their fat is gone).

OK so back to women and their full body/cardio workout splits. Here is an example of what your schedule should look like.

Monday – Full Body Workout (Weights)
Tuesday – High Intensity Cardio
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Full Body Workout
Friday – High Intensity Cardio
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Light cardio, Yoga, Just be active

If you can’t make it to the gym the 4 or 5 times per week you could split up your workouts into full body with cardio done afterwards:

Monday – Full Body Workout/High Intensity Cardio
Tuesday – Rest
Wednesday – Full Body Workout/High Intensity Cardio
Thursday – Rest
Friday – Full Body Workout/High Intensity Cardio
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Rest

The first weekly schedule will give you better weight loss results, but the second would work as well (just not as rapid of fat loss most likely). But please remember that all fat loss is started with your diet, and exercise is secondary.

Tip – When you are performing your full body or upper/lower split workouts make sure you are using compound exercises, which use a lot of muscle groups at once. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, chin ups/lat pull downs are good to start with. And advanced variations (ie. squat with shoulder press, deadlift with row, etc) are great to add in later.

Losing weight won’t depend on which workout split you chose, but more so the exercises you perform and the amount you push your body outside of what it is used to. Eat healthy, workout hard and smart, and good luck with your weight loss!