Exercise Plan for Obese Beginners at Home with PDF

Obese people often find the gym intimidating, making getting in shape even more difficult. Starting a fitness journey at home can make the process easier.

Home workouts, like the one we have here, make sense for overweight people. Getting to a workout can be as convenient as the garage or living room, readily available, with no one to judge. As Dorothy said, there’s no place like home.

Our workout plan offers easy-to-learn routines and exercises for obese beginners at the comfort of their own home. It alternates traditional bodyweight and weight training exercises and cardio into a plan that will deliver results and keep you encouraged with your progress.

Jump to the workout plan now!

Alternatively, you can download the free PDF version of the program using the link below:

Workout Plan In a Nutshell

What Defines Obesity?

Body dysmorphia is a thing. Dysmorphia is seeing a flaw in your body that others can’t or that is not there at all.

Social media and ideal body standards lead to individuals thinking they’re too skinny, or horribly overweight. Or maybe that their arms are larger or smaller than they are in reality.

It’s perception.

Body positivity has made this worse. Particularly among women, obesity is being hailed as healthy and beautiful to sell products and virtue signal.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it’s possible for heavier people to be thought beautiful, although historically speaking, severe obesity has never been considered attractive.

At times in history, a rounder more corpulent look was a sign of wealth. These people didn’t have to work and had enough money for food… sometimes lots of it. Check out Titian’s painting “Venus of Urbino” for reference.

More recently, a lean athletic body has become a sign of wealth. Fit people have the time and money to get in shape and stay in shape through their leisure activities. They are also often better-educated and know how to eat healthy.

Clinical obesity has never been nor will ever be healthy. A host of dangerous and deadly comorbidities stem from obesity. Big pharma seems to have an answer for all of these and pills that help people get by with obesity are big business. But that’s far from optimum.

So, back to the question: how does a person know if they’re clinically obese?

Let’s look at the clinical definitions, body fat percentage and BMI (Body Mass Index).

Personally, I prefer the percentage measures. BMI’s weakness is that a heavily muscled-yet lean person can be classified as obese.

Quantifiable Definitions for Obesity

Body Fat Percentage

Normal, Healthy:

• Men: 6-24% body fat
• Women: 16-30% body fat

Overweight:

• For men: 25-30% body fat
• For women: 31-39% body fat

Obese:

• For men: < 30% body fat
• For women: < 40% body fat

Body Mass Index

Underweight:

• BMI > 18.5 kg/m²

Normal:

• BMI 18.5–24.9 kg/m²

Overweight:

• BMI 25–29.9 kg/m²

Obesity (Class I):

• BMI 30–34.9 kg/m²

Obesity (Class II):

• BMI 35–39.9 kg/m²

Obesity (Class III – Severe obesity):

• BMI <= 40 kg/m²

The latest available data show that 42% of adults are obese. 10% are severely obese.

What To Expect From This Workout Plan

There’s great news. Obese beginners can expect quick results.

With attention to nutrition, obese exercisers can expect to lose body fat. 

Energy levels will likely also improve, which in turn helps with motivation to continue working out.

Finally, expect to practice foundational exercises that are in the exercise portfolios of every experienced gym goer. They can be done for a lifetime.

Now…

The not-so-great news is that hunger will increase. This is where discipline comes in.

Workout Plan Overview

Our home workout exercise for obese beginners combines resistance with low intensity and high intensity interval cardio-respiratory training to accomplish the objectives of building energy-thirsty muscle and boosting metabolism.

Both resistance and cardiopulmonary exercise are important for increasing energy levels that obese people often lack, and overall health improvement.

Outlined below are the modes of training you will be applying.

Resistance Training

Pushing and pulling against resistance builds muscle. Adding muscle pays big dividends for health, wellness, and appearance.

Lean muscle creates a more aesthetic physique and requires more energy. The healthy food you eat is used by the body to support the muscle you build. It creates a positive spiral. Muscle looks better and burns energy in a rested state.

Low Impact Steady State Cardio

Low Intensity Steady State (LISS) cardio includes activities like walking and cycling performed for longer intervals. Walking at a steady pace on flat or rolling terrain for an hour would be an example of LISS.

This type of cardio burns stored fat.

High Intensity Interval Training

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) combines short bursts of harder work with longer periods of lower intensity work. An example would be riding an exercise bike alternating periods of comfortable steady pace and shorter periods of strenuous sprints.

This type of cardio accesses the glycolytic energy system, burning available glucose (blood sugars).

Equipment You’ll Need

To do this workout correctly, you’ll need some equipment. Not much. All of it is space efficient, so you won’t need a lot of surplus square footage for storage.

Plan to invest about $1000 US to outfit your home gym. If you add the dumbbells, expect to spend about $1400. It will be a worthwhile and lasting investment.

Resistance Bands

Resistance Bands are terrific for at-home fitness set-ups. They’re portable, and don’t consume a lot of space. I pack them in my suitcase when I travel.

For obese persons who want to start their fitness journeys at home, bands are great. Eventually, you’ll want to add weights to your portfolio, but for starters, these are great.

They are also joint-friendly… something obese people will need to consider.

Suspension Training System

Suspension trainers, like TRX Training’s TRX Home 2 system, empower the user to do dozens of exercises utilizing their body’s weight.

Depending on how the body is positioned in relation to the anchor point of the device, resistance can be increased or reduced.

Like bands, suspension trainers don’t take up a lot of room, store easily, and are portable.

Adjustable Dumbbells

I’ve written the workout plan using exercises that can be done with dumbbells or resistance bands. A good set of adjustable dumbbells will run you about $400 US. If you’re serious about getting in better shape, they’re a good implement to have around.

For some subtle muscle science reasons, dumbbells are a better tool for building muscle size and strength. For beginners and people who simply need to start getting into shape, either is fine, and bands are easier on the joints, as previously mentioned.

Exercise bike

I selected exercise cycling as the cardio of choice for this workout plan.

Exercise bikes are excellent home fitness devices, and depending on the degree of obesity, walking and running can damage knees, hips, and ankles, especially in the severely obese population.

I like the Rogue Echo Bike because it combines the ability to perform low impact exercise and involves both the arms and legs. An added plus is that the speed is rider-governed. If you want to speed up, pedal or row harder.

The wheel turns as fast as arms and legs propel it. And of course, the really cool thing is that–well, it’s cool. The wheel generates a breeze for the rider.

The Echo Bike tops competitors in my opinion because of the upper body involvement. The rider can shift the workload from legs to arms and back again as desired.

So, once the legs get tired, the arms can take over. You can do arms-only for a while, then legs, then both, and so forth. Lots of options, which add interest and fun.

The bike costs about $895 US (at the time of this writing).

Workout Plan Structure

The program is a 6-Day per week plan, in an Upper body-Lower Body alternating format. It runs for 12 weeks. Here is what the weekly structure looks like:

Workload progresses in 4-week increments. The number of sets of resistance training increases as does the time on the exercise bike. You’ll go from doing 2 sets of each exercise, to 3, and then 4 per exercise per workout.

A suggested Rating of Perceived Exertion is included. RPE provides a reliable gauge of exercise intensity.

Days 1, 3, and 5 have shorter periods of cardio of higher intensity work. Days 2, 4, and 6 have longer, less-intense cardio sessions. Cardio session lengths increase as the program moves along.

Day 7 is a rest day. It is not a cheat meal day. If you want to ride your exercise bike for a while at an RPE of 4 or 5, go for it.

The Workout Plan for Obese Beginners at Home

Application Notes

1. Be Conscious of Nutrition

You can’t escape it.

Obese people must change how they eat: the types of foods, portion size, frequency.

Sometimes there are underlying reasons behind a fattening diet. But it’s the wrong foods or over-eating that causes obesity.

Nutrition programming is outside my scope of practice; however, I can offer some “do’s” and “dont’s” that–if followed–will help you lose fat.

I know this from personal experience. Not going to joke around. This can be hard at first.

Again for emphasis: you cannot exercise long enough or hard enough to lose fat if you’re consuming highly processed foods and sugar in all its forms.

2. Apply Progressive Overload

Obese individuals, like all others, can get progressively stronger by applying the adaptive stress technique called Progressive Overload.

The concept is simple and is proven beyond argument. Perform an exercise for a specified number of reps or time for a specific “load”, and when it’s possible to exceed that, increase the time, reps, or load.

This can be done for weights or for cardio. Distance runners have trained like this for years. For example, run five files in 30 minutes, and once that’s accomplished, go for 6 miles in 30.

In resistance training, perform an exercise for the specified range of reps. Select a weight that can be lifted successfully with good form for the lower range, and once the top end of the rep range can be performed at that weight, increase the weight.

3. Monitor Your Progress

Truly obese individuals should monitor their weight loss, shape at reasonable intervals, and gauge how you’re feeling. Severely obese people should do so with the support of a healthcare professional.

If you’re sticking to the program, you should notice progress soon, within a month or so, provided your eating is in check.

You should begin to feel better, have more energy, and you should notice strength gains.

You may or may not begin to see some difference in your shape. That depends on the degree of obesity, and your commitment to the program.

If you’re obese and a beginner, progress will be noticeable. Use that to your advantage and let it motivate you.

4. Focus on Rep Cadence

How fast you move when resistance training matters, not as much as just doing it…but it does matter.

Rhythmic “pumping” of the weights or bands with isometric holds is a solid way to go.

If “rhythmic pumping cadence” leaves you wondering, a good rule of thumb is 1 second to lift and 2 seconds to return to start.

Using biceps curls as an example, 1 second to raise the weight from a straight arm to shoulder, and then 2 seconds to lower it, and that makes 1 repetition.

5. No Ballistics or Plyometrics

If you’ve been searching for workout programs, you’ve undoubtedly run across at least one that suggests lifting as fast as possible for an entire set. I do not recommend this.

Your joints will not be conditioned to deal with the ballistic stresses this method imposes. And, resistance training is intended to build muscle to (a) stoke your metabolism and (b) shape your body, not to “burn calories”.

Lift weights the right way so that you build muscle that will burn fat when resting.

No matter how hard you work out, the appreciable fat loss will come from changed eating habits. There is no escaping it.

6. Get Necessary Rest

Believe it or not, you will burn energy when you sleep… somewhere between 100 and 120 kCal/hour.

Aim for 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep nightly. This is when you recover and your hard work will have a chance to pay off.

Practice good sleep hygiene to help get to sleep and stay asleep. Cool, very dark room, no electronics at least 1 hour before bed, stop drinking liquids 2 hours before bed.

Rest between sets

Rest a minute or 2 between warm-up sets but more for your harder sets. Your “working” sets will require 2 to 3 minutes rest between. The latest clinical evidence points to 3 minutes being best if you’re going all-out.

However, this guidance is often followed by people who are farther along in their fitness journeys. To maximize the metabolic benefits of the program, aim for 1 to 2 minutes rest between sets, and if you’re not ready to perform the next set as perfectly as the preceding one, take the extra minute to rest so that you can do the set right.

While you’re resting, visualize your next set….in your head, not on your phone. Leave the phone in your bag or locker and concentrate on making some muscle. You won’t find muscle in iOS or Android formats.

If you’re feeling faint or nauseous, stop. If those symptoms are pronounced or don’t subside quickly, contact a healthcare professional.

7. Be patient

Obese people did not get fat in a month and will not lose it in a month. Losing may not take as much time as it took to get that way, but it will take a while.

My Personal Story

I was a fat kid. That was 1973.

By today’s standards, I was on the heavy side of normal. Nevertheless, I was fat.

My pants size was called “husky”…a marketer’s way of saying “fat”.

Being fat didn’t make me less of a person. It did make me not one of the cool kids.

One day at a public swimming pool, a cute girl named Sheri made fun of me. I was humiliated at the time. How I felt about it at the moment was immaterial. She was right. I was fat.

That moment changed my life.

I started working out and running to get in shape. I fell in love with the process: that if I did “x”, “y” would result.

Ever since, the gym has been my happy place. Never once have I treated exercise as punishment. Even when it wasn’t exactly fun, I either learned or accomplished something. Every workout has progressed in some regard.

Today, Sheri would likely be called out for fat shaming and not “celebrating” someone as brave as me.

Trust me, bravery had nothing to do with it. My physique was the result of a lot of sugary drinks, between-meal snack foods, and just sitting around.

Sheri and I later became friends when we worked at the same retail store. I’m sure she had no recollection of making fun of me, and I never once brought it up. Kids can be mean. To this day, I’m grateful she said something. Sometimes we need a jolt.

Let’s encourage healthy habits and find ways to make fitness a rewarding pursuit that’s fun in the process.

If you decide to try this workout plan, I hope you enjoy it and a long, productive fitness journey thereafter.

Download the workout plan PDF below and change you life!