What exercise burns the most fat in 30 minutes?

"The most effective workout you should be doing to burn the most calories in 20 to 30 minutes is a strength circuit with a cardio burst mixed in," he said. "The idea is to elevate your heart rate and keep it elevated throughout the entire workout."

insider.com - How to Burn the Most Calories in a 30-Minute Workout for Fat Loss

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When you have a demanding job and work long hours, fitting exercise into your day is incredibly challenging. However, you can get a decent workout with just 20 to 30 minutes — it's best to do a strength circuit with some cardio bursts, according to Ngo Okafor, a renowned trainer. But as a fellow personal trainer, Alice Liveing, pointed out, hammering your body with more intense exercise is sometimes the worst thing you can do if you're already stressed. You can also squeeze more movement into your daily life outside of formal workouts by exercise-snacking and increasing your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT.

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Dear Rachel,

I'm living in the city working long days — often 10 to 12 hours — and am usually totally drained of energy afterward, but I know getting at least some exercise in will help me manage the stress. However, if I put in a full gym session after an already long day, I don't get home until late into the evening, which stresses me out even more!

What's the most effective workout I should be doing to burn the most calories if I can only squeeze in 20 or 30 minutes a day?

— Stressed City Worker

Dear Stressed,

This is quite the pickle — and a common one too.

So many of us worry about how we can fit workouts into our busy lives to help us destress, but that in turn stresses us out more. But at the end of the day (which in your case is pretty late), you have to take a 360-degree approach to your health and accept that exercise, while incredibly beneficial to both our bodies and our minds, is only one aspect of well-being. For example, if you're barely getting six hours of sleep a night and exhausted as it is, cutting that time short to wake up early and hit the gym is not a healthy decision.

Squeeze activity into your day without trying

That said, there are ways you can squeeze in activity that will do you just as much good as formal gym sessions. It's all about upping your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. Essentially, this is all the movement you do in your daily life — so walking to the bus stop, cooking, and cleaning, for example.

If you can increase your NEAT, you'll be surprised at the effect. Can you walk some of your commute? Take the stairs instead of the lift? Or go over to a colleague's desk instead of emailing them?

Research from 2018 found that NEAT could significantly affect the number of calories you burn in a day and that increasing NEAT could play a hugely beneficial role in lowering obesity rates. You could also try what's known as exercise-snacking. This means doing little bits of exercise over the course of the day — think 10 air squats every time you go to the bathroom, or lunges while you wait for the kettle to boil. Honestly, it adds up to more than you think.

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You can do a decent workout in 20 to 30 minutes

First up, that you're prioritizing 20 to 30 minutes of your incredibly long day for exercise is commendable, so bravo. And take comfort in the fact that you don't need to spend an hour in the gym to get a good workout. If you train smart, you can do a lot in 20 minutes.

Ngo Okafor is a renowned personal trainer. Ngo Okafor

Ngo Okafor, a two-time Golden Gloves boxing champion and renowned celebrity trainer, told Insider how to maximize your limited gym time. "The most effective workout you should be doing to burn the most calories in 20 to 30 minutes is a strength circuit with a cardio burst mixed in," he said. "The idea is to elevate your heart rate and keep it elevated throughout the entire workout."

Lift weights to raise your basal metabolic rate

Okafor, whose past clients include Jennifer Lopez, Naomi Campbell, and Julia Roberts, explained that while solely doing cardio will burn calories in the moment, it doesn't give you much afterburn. But this is not the case for resistance training. "Although weight/strength training does not burn as many calories as a purely cardio workout while it is being performed, it burns calories over an extended period of time," Okafor said. "It does so because muscle tissue is broken down during strength training and requires energy to rebuild. The process of rebuilding muscle tissue burns calories throughout the day. "Combining the two training modalities increases the calorie burn, both during the performance of the workout and throughout the day." Essentially, with strength training, you'll increase your basal metabolic rate and thus burn more calories simply by existing, which is a win if you're keen to get leaner.

Mix cardio and weights for the best results in a short time

Strength training will boost your basal metabolic rate. Ngo Okafor

Okafor recommended the following sample workout you can do in 20 to 30 minutes: Warm-up: five minutes on a cardio machine (with a goal of burning 10 calories per minute) Workout: Body-weight squats — 20 reps Body-weight stationary lunges — 20 reps on each leg Deadlifts — 20 reps Crunches — 20 reps Leg lifts — 20 reps A three-minute cardio burst on a stationary bike: three rounds of 30 seconds of slow pedaling followed by 30 seconds of fast pedaling You should try to do the whole circuit three times, using weights that become challenging on the final few reps.

Know when your body needs to rest

Just because you can squeeze in a half-hour workout at the end of the day doesn't always mean you should. "Exercise is a stress on the body, and if you're already burning the candle at both ends, it might not be the best idea to then add the pressure of having to work out every day into the mix," said Alice Liveing, a personal trainer. It's a case of learning to listen to your body's needs and knowing when rest is the healthier option. If it takes all the mental strength you can muster to get yourself to the gym, you probably shouldn't be going — and you're definitely not doing the right workout if you're dreading it that much.

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Alice Liveing stresses the importance of rest. Alice Liveing

"While, of course, it depends on what your goals are (perhaps strength, endurance, fat loss), the best workout you can do is one that you enjoy and therefore are likely to want to commit to after a long day," Liveing told Insider. Liveing suggested that, even though you want to burn calories, you should avoid hammering your body with high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, and take a step back to think about "how you can support your busy lifestyle with a consistent exercise routine." She continued: "My best advice to maintain strength and stay healthy would be to aim for a combination of resistance training and some form of conditioning training, while also trying to maintain good activity levels throughout the day. "I'd combine weighted exercise, like squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls, with some low-skill conditioning to finish on, something like the assault bike or sled push/pulls." Don't worry about not being able to work out as much as you feel you should Most important, however, is not to beat yourself up for not being in the gym seven hours a week.

You have a demanding job and lifestyle; it's not easy.

Try to switch your mindset from stressing out about not having done as much as you feel like you should have to praising yourself for the little things you have achieved at the end of the day, like hitting a 10,000-step goal, drinking two liters of water, or finding five minutes to meditate. Focus on the bigger picture of overall health, and do what you can, but be kind to yourself. Simply by putting the effort in, you're doing brilliantly.

Wishing you well,

Rachel

As Insider's senior lifestyle reporter and a self-described fitness fanatic, Rachel Hosie is fully immersed in the wellness scene and is here to answer all your burning questions. Whether you're struggling to find the motivation to go for a run, confused about light versus heavy weights, or unsure whether you should be worried about how much sugar is in a mango, Rachel is here to give you the no-nonsense answers and advice you need, with strictly no fad diets in sight. Rachel has a wealth of experience covering fitness, nutrition, and wellness, and she has the hottest experts at her fingertips — she regularly speaks to some of the world's most knowledgeable and renowned personal trainers, dietitians, and coaches, ensuring she's always up to date with the latest science-backed facts you need to know to live your happiest and healthiest life. Have a question? Ask Rachel at workingitout@insider.com or fill out this anonymous form. All questions will be published anonymously.