Attention all men! Are you trying to lose weight? If so, you’ll want to listen up. You may think you have a solid fitness routine on deck to kickstart your fat-burning journey. However, we spoke with experts and learned the exercises men should avoid for weight loss—and what to focus on instead.
The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll torch. In fact, a 2018 study observed more than 2,000 overweight, pre-diabetic men and women who consumed a diet of 810 calories each day for two months. The data shows that men lost 16% more weight than women.
That said, optimizing your workout routine is crucial, as some exercises are less beneficial at burning calories than others. “As a personal trainer, I’m well aware of what it takes to create meaningful, sustainable weight loss,” explains Jake Dickson, CPT-NASM, and a clinical athlete certified weightlifting coach for BarBend. “One important—but often overlooked—factor of creating weight change is exercise selection. All gym exercises burn calories, but if your goal is to lose body fat, you’ll want to choose moves that rev up your metabolic engine.”
Now, let’s explore the exercises men should avoid for weight loss.
Ab Machine Workouts
First and foremost, ab machine workouts are not as productive for building a six-pack as you may think. Mike Bohl, MD, MPH, ALM, explains, “While it’s true the machines can help strengthen the rectus abdominis—the muscle that forms the six-pack—having a six-pack has more to do with the amount of subcutaneous fat that covers the muscle rather than the size of the muscle.”
It’s still essential to perform core workouts for balance, spine stabilization, and good posture, but when it comes to torching calories and eliminating belly fat, ab machine work alone is not going to do the job.
Hip Abductor and Adductor Exercises
Performing exercises for the hip abductors and adductors is not the best use of your gym time. “These exercises work the muscles in a relatively limited range of motion and likely are not burning enough calories to make them worth it,” Dr. Bohl points out.
Posture-Focused Exercises Like Yoga and Pilates
Dr. Bohl explains that yoga and Pilates are awesome for boosting mental well-being, balance, and flexibility, but they’re not as beneficial for dropping weight fast as other workouts. “These exercises burn a relatively lower number of calories for the amount of time they take up,” Dr. Bohl shares.
Michael Betts, director at TRAINFITNESS, agrees that yoga is chock-full of mental and physical benefits, but but you may want to skip it for weight loss. “While some styles like Power Yoga can burn more calories, most types of yoga especially Hatha or restorative yoga don’t burn calories at the same rate as more intense exercises,” Betts tells us. “This lower calorie expenditure makes yoga not as effective as a primary weight-loss tool.”
Moderate-Intensity to Vigorous-Intensity Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic workouts like tennis, running, jogging, and swimming are excellent ways to improve your heart rate, kick up your cardiovascular wellness, and burn calories. However, Dr. Bohl notes that even though a complete workout routine—including one targeting weight loss—must include some aerobic exercise, performing aerobic exercise at an intense level by itself can negatively affect body composition.
“If you just do intense cardio and don’t incorporate strength training into your routine, you can lose muscle mass. In the long run, this slows down your metabolism because simply having more muscle mass is an effective way to burn more calories throughout the day,” says Dr. Bohl.
Single-Motion Exercises That Target Small Muscle Groups
Any exercise that costs you more time than you have to dedicate should be re-evaluated. When trying to lose weight, consider what any particular exercise you do will “cost” you. What does that mean? Dr. Bohl brings up an interesting perspective.
Your gym time is precious—and limited. A weight-loss goal means your time must be used wisely. Case and point? Including exercises that involve a single motion that targets small muscle groups can be productive in building those particular muscles, but may not be the best way to drop weight.
For instance, bicep curls improve arm strength, and calf raises are a wise choice to boost leg strength. But Dr. Bohl explains that neither of these exercises will torch as many calories or be as efficient at losing weight as full-body exercises.
Spot Reduction Exercises
Spot reduction exercises essentially target fat loss in specific areas of the body, such as the thighs or abs, and Betts dubs them “generally ineffective.”
He explains, “Doing crunches won’t necessarily result [in] abdominal fat loss; fat tends to decrease across the body not in a single targeted area. Spot reduction exercises also have low energy expenditure compared to full-body or high-intensity workouts, which are more effective for overall fat loss.”
TJ Mentus, certified personal trainer at Garage Gym Reviews, agrees you shouldn’t waste time on crunches. He says, “As popular as crunches are, they are not an efficient exercise for losing weight. It’s a very small movement that requires a lot of reps in order to be effective while also not burning many calories.”
Calf Raises
When you head to the gym, you may notice many people doing calf raises in hopes of achieving toned calves. However, Mark Edwards, Precision Nutrition Level 1 nutrition coach, CrossFit mobility trainer & L2 at Minimalist Nutrition + Fitness, cautions against them.
“The calf raise works, at best, two muscles of the lower leg, the gastrocnemius and the soleus,” Edwards says. “The metabolic effect is so little as to be inconsequential.”
Planks
Planks are all well and good, but not for men who want to slim down, according to Dickson. “While the plank will do a fantastic job teaching you how to brace your core, the lack of motion means it doesn’t burn very many calories,” he explains. “And, to show off your abs, you need to develop them in the first place—planks are subpar for muscle growth because they don’t take your abs through their full range of motion.”
Leg Extensions
Leg extensions are excellent if you want to train your quads, but they don’t offer much “bang for your buck” when it comes to weight loss, Mentus explains.
He tells us, “Isolation exercises, especially on machines, just work one specific area and do not burn as many calories or build muscle overall as compound movements. A good compound movement that will work the quads and be more beneficial for weight loss would be weighted step-ups.”
What Exercises Should Men Do for Weight Loss?
For the most efficient use of time, Dr. Bohl recommends concentrating on workouts that simultaneously activate several muscle groups, specifically large ones. A great example is your legs.
“Many closed-chain exercises are great at targeting more than one area of the body. Closed-chain exercises are typically done against a stationary object (like the ground or a bar) and can be weighted or just rely on body weight. Good closed-chain exercises that can burn calories and lead to noticeable weight loss include pushups, squats, pull-ups, and lunges,” says Dr. Bohl.
In addition, Betts recommends performing total-body exercises to achieve the best results. “Full-body exercises engage larger muscle groups and create a calorie deficit through a balanced diet and comprehensive fitness plan,” he says. “[This route is] generally more effective for weight loss.”
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