A 12-week weight training workout program is the best way to get started. Within that three months time as long as you are sticking to your workout plan and eating healthily, you will make a huge change in your body.
Most people make the mistake of assuming that weight training is only for bodybuilders, people who want to gain a huge amount of muscle and look like Arnold Schwartzeneggar. This is actually not the case at all and in fact weight lifting is one of the best fat burning workouts today. It helps you burn body fat and gain lean muscle mass, and quickly at that.
Weight training also helps by increasing your energy levels, raising your metabolism and improving your body strength overall. If you want to simply get toned rather than built, just be sure to use smaller weights and do more repetitions rather than heavier weights with fewer repetitions. The larger weights you use the more you are working out your muscles and the larger they will get in turn.
To get started with weight training you need to choose your weights. Again, be cautious with the amount of weight you are using. There are free weights sold at most fitness supply stores and entire weight rooms set up in gyms.
Each day the workout should change a bit. So for instance on Monday you would do 5 sets of 5 reps of squats, 5 sets of 5 reps of dead lifts, 5 sets of 10 reps of leg raises and 3 sets of 10 reps of incline sit-ups.
The next day would include 5 sets of 5 reps of incline barbell bench press, 5 sets of 8 reps of seated dumbbell shoulder press, 5 sets of 10 reps of bicep cable burls, 5 sets of 10 reps of tricep push downs, followed by 3 sets of 10 reps of bent over dumbbell lateral raises.
Then you would repeat the workout on Monday for Wednesday, the one for Tuesday on Thursday and so on. Do not forget to allow your body to rest. Many people, especially novice exercisers, think that the best idea is to work out every day for as long as they can. This will just end up tiring you out. For effective fat burning exercises you must give your body at least a day or two of rest each week. This allows the muscles time to heal and ensures you will be as strong and awake as you need to be for your next workout.
It takes time and patience to see results. If you are not consistent you will not be prospering. Stick to your diet and make sure you are getting in at least three weight training fat burning workouts each week. This will get you toned and trim and once you are at that point it will be so much easier. People often give up after the first month because they are not seeing results but it usually takes at least six weeks to see a big change.