Womens and mens bodies are not the same and when it comes to working out and fat loss, things are also a little different. Specifically workout plans for women should be different than a mans. In general, men carry more muscle than women and women have a bit more fat. These are things that need to be taken in to account when designing your workout, regardless of your goals.
In reality we are all human and what works for men will also work for women, to a point. The main thing is that women and mens workout goals are generally different and they are usually looking for different results. Women sometimes have a distorted view of themselves and thanks to the media, try to lose fat and attain an unrealistic look for their body. This is a shame and there are countless women who worry everyday about what they look like and how they can improve their bodies. Men are no different and will do close to anything, including taking illegal and dangerous drugs, to get massive arms and a huge chest.
I am all for getting in to great shape and improving ourselves, I just think we all need to know that having a great looking body doesn't always mean that we a have a healthy body. I think that people incorrectly use the words heath and fitness in the same context. Being in shape with a very low bodyfat level does neccessarily mean that you are healthy. Theoretically you could eat nothing for weeks and drink can after can of diet soft drinks and lose tons of weight. Is this healthy though? Of course not. There is a balance that you should strive for that includes eating healthy and exercising, but not going to the extreme with either.
Ok, back to the workout plan.
The best workout plans for women all have these two things included in them:
1) Resistance Training
2) Interval Cardio
For best results you should train three times a week for about an hour and limit your calories enough to cause a caloric deficit.
Resistance Training
Resistance training can be done in a gym or at home. If you do not wish to go to a gym or would rather not exercise around some of the steroid popping gym rats, then just workout at home. There is a common stereo type for gyms that everyone there is in great shape and slams weights around all day grunting and screaming. If you have never been to a gym, I think that you will be very surprised to see that most people there are just normal people trying to get in shape. There are few people at most of the gyms that I have lifted in that actually look like they are in great shape or could pose in a fitness magazine. So don't be intimidated and try one out, I think you will like it once you start to make a few new friends.
Resistance training can involve light dumbells, stability balls, resistance bands, or what I feel may be the best type, bodyweight exercises. Bodyweight exercises are great and do not require any extra equipment. In fact, if you do train at home, you will need very little if you are going to concentrate on bodyweight exercises. If you are thinking that you can't get in to great shape with just bodyweight exercises, I think you will change your mind if you really give them a try. I have seen some brutal workouts done by some of the most elite special forces such as U.S. Navy Seals, that only involve bodyweight exercises and are done in the middle of the woods! Believe me, this type of training can be as intense as you want it to be.
The more lean muscle mass that you have, the more calories you will burn. This is one of the reasons that men can sometimes lose fat a little easier than women. Not always, but if you have a muscular man and an overweight woman both go on a diet, and all things being the same according to their size, such as calories and amount of exercise, the man with the muscle is going to lose more fat than the woman. This is one of the reasons that resistance training will help you to lose fat if you do it right. You need to have a progressive overload or progressive resistance each time you train. Do not go in to the gym and do the same weights and reps that you did the last workout. You need some kind of progress, whether it is another rep, more weight, or even a shorter rest period. If you do this, your body will grow stronger so it can handle the workload. This will increase your muscle mass, which will require more energy to maintain the new muscle that was built. This increases your metabolism and you burn more fat and calories all day long! The other part of this equation is interval cardio.
Interval Cardio
Interval cardio is going to be a little different than what most do and is going to be a lot more effective. It also is not going to take as long so you can get in and out and back to your life. In fact, you are only going to do interval training for around 15 minutes or less.
Here is an example of what interval training on a stationary bike will look like. You can do this type of training on a treadmill or any other type of cardio machine, it is just a little easier to adjust the speeds up and down on a bike. I am going to use a scale of 1-10 with one being very low intensity and ten being that you are pedaling as fast as possible.
-Warm up at a slow pace for around 2 or 3 minutes at about a 3 or so.
-Speed up to a 6 for 30 secs
-Go back down to around a 4 for 1 minute
-Speed up to around a 9 for 30 secs
-Go back down to 4 for 1 minute
-Speed back up to 9 for 30 secs
-Keep alternating between the two until you reach around 12 or 13 minutes
-Go down to 4 and slowly decrease the speed down to a 3 or less over the last 2 minutes as a cool down.
If you workout three times a week, you should be able to do the entire workout in around 45 minutes to an hour. 30 minutes for the resistance and 15 minutes for the cardio. As to what types of resistance training to do, there are many different types of exercises and many different workouts. If you are new or are seeing little results with your training, I would start out with bodyweight exercises. Of course there are many different schools of thought on workout plans for women, but in my opinion if you follow along with this, you will see incredible results.
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