Shed Pounds, Get Strong

Turn your workout into a calorie-blasting routine.

Don't settle for ho-hum fat burning! Trick your body into melting off more calories with techniques that have science on their side.
No matter if you're new to exercise or an experienced gym-goer, these simple tweaks can help you speed up weight loss, push through plateaus, and get more muscle-toning benefits out of every workout.
Best of all, many of these easy moves work to jumpstart a lagging metabolism so you continue to burn extra calories throughout the day—even while you sleep!

1. Quench with Cool Water

Chill your water pre-workout for a bigger burn.

A fresh-out-of-the-fridge water bottle may energize you for warm-weather exercise, finds a British study. Exercisers who drank refrigerated water (39°F) worked out about 25% longer than those who consumed the same amount of warmer water—and they said their exercise sessions felt easier too.
Whether you're indoors or out, sipping chilled water both before and during exercise may help keep your body temperature down and your energy up for maximum calorie burn.
Stay hydrated during workouts with these 6 water bottle winners.

2. Swing Those Arms

Perfect your walking form.

Turn your walking into a calorie-torching workout by bending your elbows 90 degrees and pumping your arms as you stride. It not only automatically speeds up your pace but helps you burn up to 15% more calories every time you work out.
For proper pumping: Trace an arc from your waist to your chest as you swing. Your thumbs should come close to touching your waistband as your elbow goes backward. Also, make sure to keep elbows in and don't let hands cross past the middle of your chest (in front of your sternum). Too much side-to-side motion drags down your pace.
Walk stronger and longer with tips from walking coaches.

3. Pop in Your Headphones

Fight flagging energy with music.

Working out to your favorite fitness playlist can help you to go up to 20% longer and burn more calories, finds a study from West London's Brunel University. Music blocks fatigue, produces feelings of vigor, and helps you keep pace by synchronizing your movements, says study author Costas Karageorghis, PhD.
For workouts set to music, go to prevention.com/podcasts.

4. Put on Some Weight

Slim down, not bulk up, with a little heavy lifting.

To really rev your calorie burn, it is not about the number of reps, but the size of the weights. Even when exercisers lifted identical volumes (such as 10 pounds 10 times or 20 pounds 5 times), those using the heavier dumbbells burned about 25% more calories when they were finished. "Heavy weights create more protein breakdown in the muscle, so your body has to use more energy to repair and recover--that's how lean muscle tissue is built," says researcher Anthony Caterisano, PhD, of Furman University.
Bonus: Working out with heavy weights even for as few as 3 to 6 reps increased exercisers' sleeping metabolic rate--the number of calories burned overnight--by nearly 8%. That's enough to lose about 5 pounds in a year, even if you did nothing else!
Lose weight and firm your trouble zones with this super-speedy sculpting routine.

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