Deadlifts for Fat Loss: The Ultimate Calorie Burn
True, lasting fat loss isn’t just about the calories you burn during your workout; it’s about turning your body into a more efficient fat-burning machine 24/7. This is where the deadlift truly shines. Intense, heavy compound lifts do more than just build muscle—they fire up your metabolism for hours after you leave the gym through a process called the "afterburn effect." By consistently including deadlifts for fat loss in your routine, you’re fundamentally changing your body composition, building metabolically active muscle that burns more calories even at rest. This article will show you how to use this powerful lift to supercharge your metabolism.
Key Takeaways
Embrace Full-Body Effort for Maximum Burn: The deadlift's fat-loss power comes from using your entire body in one move. This massive muscle recruitment burns more calories during your workout and activates the "afterburn effect," helping you burn fat long after you've left the gym.
Focus on Strength to Shed Fat: The most effective strategy for fat loss is to lift heavy enough to build muscle. Aim for 3-5 sets in the 8-10 rep range once or twice a week to build the lean tissue that increases your resting metabolism.
Perfect Your Form Before Adding Weight: Your top priority is mastering the hip-hinge with a flat back to stay safe and get results. Once your technique is solid, consistently challenge yourself by gradually increasing the weight or trying new variations to keep your body adapting and getting leaner.
What is a Deadlift and Why Does It Work?
If you’ve ever picked up a heavy box off the floor, you’ve done a version of a deadlift. At its core, a deadlift is a fundamental movement where you lift a weight from the floor, stand up straight with it, and then lower it back down with control. It’s one of the most effective exercises you can do because it’s a compound movement, meaning it works multiple muscle groups across your entire body in a single lift.
Unlike exercises that isolate one small muscle, the deadlift recruits your legs, glutes, core, and back all at once. This full-body engagement is what makes it such a powerhouse for building functional strength and burning serious calories. Think of it as the ultimate full-body workout packed into one efficient move. It teaches your body to work as a single, powerful unit, which translates directly into real-world strength and a more capable you. At Armourbody, we build our workouts around powerful, effective movements like this to help you get stronger and leaner, faster.
The Muscles You'll Work
When we say the deadlift is a full-body exercise, we mean it. The reason it’s so effective is that it demands a massive team effort from your muscles. The main drivers of the lift, or prime movers, are your glutes and hamstrings, which power the hip extension to lift the weight. Your back muscles, especially the lats, work hard to keep the bar close to your body and stabilize your spine.
But the work doesn't stop there. A whole crew of supporting muscles jumps in to assist and stabilize the movement. Your quads help extend your knees, your core and obliques brace your torso to protect your spine, and your traps and forearms work to hold onto the bar. This incredible muscular recruitment is why deadlifts are so beneficial for building total-body strength and torching fat.
Breaking Down the Basic Movement
Nailing the form is key to getting all the benefits of a deadlift while staying safe. To start, you’ll stand with your feet about hip-width apart, with the middle of your feet under the barbell. Hinge at your hips and bend your knees to grip the bar just outside your shins, making sure to keep your back flat—no rounding.
To lift the weight, think about pushing the floor away with your feet as you drive your hips forward and stand up tall. Keep the bar close to your body the entire time. To lower the weight, you’ll simply reverse the motion. Proper deadlift form means you first push your hips back until the bar passes your knees, then you can bend your knees to lower it the rest of the way to the floor. It’s a simple movement, but getting the details right is what makes it so powerful.
How Deadlifts Torch Fat
When you think about fat loss, your mind might jump straight to cardio. But what if I told you one of the most powerful tools for burning fat is picking up a heavy barbell? The deadlift is more than just a strength-builder; it’s a full-body metabolic furnace. Its effectiveness comes from a powerful combination of high-intensity effort, massive muscle recruitment, and a hormonal response that encourages your body to shed fat long after you’ve left the gym.
Unlike exercises that isolate a single muscle, deadlifts demand a coordinated effort from your entire body, turning every rep into a significant calorie-burning event. This isn't just about the work you do in the moment. The real advantage lies in how deadlifts change your body's chemistry and metabolism, creating lasting effects that support a leaner physique. Let's break down exactly how this powerhouse lift helps you reach your fat loss goals.
Burn More Calories Per Rep
The secret to the deadlift's calorie-torching power is that it’s one of the ultimate compound exercises. Each time you lift the bar, you’re engaging a huge network of muscles all at once: your glutes, hamstrings, quads, entire back, core, and even your arms and shoulders. Think of it as a total-body team effort.
When so many muscles work together, your body needs a massive amount of energy to fuel the movement. This translates to a much higher calorie burn per rep compared to isolation exercises like bicep curls or leg extensions. You’re simply getting more metabolic bang for your buck with every single lift, making your workout time incredibly efficient for fat loss.
The Afterburn Effect: Keep Burning Calories Post-Workout
This is where the real magic happens. Deadlifts are so demanding that your body doesn't just stop burning calories when you finish your last set. Instead, it kicks into a state known as EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption), or the "afterburn effect." Your body has to work hard to recover—replenishing oxygen, repairing muscle fibers, and returning to its normal resting state.
This recovery process requires energy, meaning you continue to burn extra calories for hours, sometimes even a full day, after your workout is over. The intensity of a heavy deadlift session can create a significant afterburn effect, turning your body into a passive fat-burning machine while you go about the rest of your day.
Fire Up Your Resting Metabolism
Building muscle is one of the best long-term strategies for fat loss, and deadlifts are king when it comes to building functional, full-body strength. Muscle tissue is metabolically active, which means it burns more calories at rest than fat tissue does. The more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) becomes.
By consistently including deadlifts in your routine, you’re not just getting stronger; you’re fundamentally changing your body composition. This increases the number of calories your body burns 24/7, even on your rest days. A faster metabolism makes it easier to lose fat and, just as importantly, to keep it off for good.
Trigger Fat-Burning Hormones
Intense, heavy resistance training does more than just build muscle; it also creates a positive hormonal shift that supports fat loss. Performing heavy compound lifts like the deadlift can naturally increase your body's production of powerful hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH).
Don't worry—this won't make you "bulky." Instead, these hormones play a key role in building lean muscle and encouraging your body to use fat for fuel. By signaling your body to build and repair tissue, they create an internal environment that is primed for shedding fat and building a stronger, leaner physique. It’s a powerful, natural way to support your body composition goals.
Find Your Perfect Deadlift: Key Variations
Not all deadlifts are created equal. Think of the deadlift as a foundational recipe—you can tweak the ingredients to get a slightly different result. By changing your stance, grip, or the equipment you use, you can shift the focus to different muscle groups and find the variation that feels best for your body. Exploring these options is a great way to keep your workouts interesting and target specific muscles, all while working toward your fat-loss goals. Let’s break down four key variations you might see in one of our Armourbody classes.
The Classic: Conventional Deadlifts
This is the deadlift you probably picture in your head. The conventional deadlift is a powerhouse move where you lift a barbell from the floor until you’re standing upright, keeping your back straight. It’s one of the three core powerlifting exercises for a reason: it builds incredible full-body strength. By engaging your back, glutes, hamstrings, and core all at once, this variation becomes a massive calorie-burner. It’s the gold standard for developing raw strength and serves as a fantastic foundation for any fat-loss program. Mastering this classic lift will make you stronger in almost every other exercise you do.
Go Wide: Sumo Deadlifts
If the conventional deadlift feels a bit tough on your lower back, the sumo deadlift might be your new best friend. This variation uses a much wider stance—think sumo wrestler—with your hands gripping the bar inside your legs. This simple change shifts more of the work to your quads, glutes, and hamstrings while reducing some of the strain on your lumbar spine. For many people, this position feels more natural and allows them to lift heavy with great form. It’s an excellent choice for building powerful legs and is just as effective at torching calories as its conventional counterpart.
Focus on Hamstrings: Romanian Deadlifts
Ready to really feel the burn in the back of your legs? Meet the Romanian Deadlift (RDL). Unlike other variations, the RDL starts from a standing position, and you don't set the weight down between reps. You’ll focus on hinging at your hips, keeping your legs relatively straight as you lower the weight. This places a major emphasis on your hamstrings and glutes, specifically during the lowering (or eccentric) phase of the lift. That controlled negative creates more muscle engagement, which is key for building lean muscle and firing up your metabolism for greater fat loss.
User-Friendly Power: Trap Bar Deadlifts
The trap bar (or hex bar) deadlift is a fantastic, beginner-friendly option that still delivers a serious workout. Because you stand inside the hexagonal bar, the weight is centered with your body, making it easier to maintain a neutral spine and proper form. This setup tends to work your quads a bit more and allows you to lift heavier weight, faster—which is a great recipe for building power. The trap bar deadlift is an amazing tool for learning the fundamental hip-hinge movement safely while still providing the high-intensity, calorie-burning stimulus you need to see real fat-loss results.
Add Deadlifts to Your Fat-Loss Plan
Okay, you’re sold on the fat-burning power of deadlifts. But how do you actually fit them into your routine without overdoing it? It’s not about deadlifting every day; it’s about deadlifting smart. The key is to treat this powerful move as a cornerstone of your fitness plan, building the rest of your workouts around it to maximize results and give your body the time it needs to recover and get stronger. Let’s get into the specifics of how to make deadlifts work for you.
How Often Should You Deadlift?
Because deadlifts recruit so many muscles and place a heavy demand on your central nervous system, more isn’t always better. For most people focused on fat loss and building strength, deadlifting one to two times per week is the sweet spot. This frequency gives your muscles and nervous system enough time for proper recovery, which is when the real magic of muscle repair and growth happens. Remember, deadlifts should be one important part of a complete workout plan that includes a variety of exercises for different muscle groups. Listen to your body—if you’re feeling drained or your form is slipping, it might be a sign you need an extra rest day.
The Best Sets and Reps for Burning Fat
To turn your deadlifts into a fat-torching tool, you’ll want to focus on a specific intensity. The goal is to build metabolically active muscle, and that means lifting heavy enough to challenge yourself. Aim for a weight that’s about 75% of your one-rep max (the most you can lift for a single repetition). With that weight, perform 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Keep your rest periods short—around 60 to 90 seconds between sets—to keep your heart rate up and maximize the metabolic effect. This combination of heavy weight and minimal rest creates a huge energy demand, forcing your body to burn more calories both during and after your workout.
Pairing Deadlifts with HIIT and Strength Work
This is where the fun really starts. Deadlifts are incredibly versatile and fit perfectly into the high-intensity workouts we love at Armourbody. You can use deadlifts in High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which is proven to burn significantly more calories and reduce body fat compared to steady-state cardio. Imagine a circuit where you perform a powerful set of deadlifts, then immediately transition into a high-energy cardio move like battle ropes or box jumps. This combination of heavy lifting and explosive cardio sends your metabolism into overdrive. Check out our class schedule to see how we program strength and cardio intervals to deliver a killer workout every time.
Sample Workout Ideas
Ready to put it all together? Deadlifts are a great choice because they work so many muscles quickly, making them perfect for efficient, effective workouts. Here are a couple of ways you can structure them:
Strength-Focused Circuit (4 Rounds):
8 Trap Bar Deadlifts
10 Dumbbell Bench Presses
12 Bent-Over Rows
Rest 90 seconds
HIIT Workout (AMRAP in 15 Minutes):
5 Conventional Deadlifts (at a moderate weight)
10 Burpees
15 Kettlebell Swings
These are just examples, but they show how deadlifts can anchor a workout designed to build strength and burn fat simultaneously. It’s this community-driven approach to high-intensity training that helps you get the best results.
Common Deadlift Mistakes to Avoid
The deadlift is an incredible tool for transforming your body, but doing it right is everything. When your form is on point, you get stronger, build lean muscle, and burn a ton of fat. When it’s not, you risk injury and miss out on the results you’re working so hard for. It’s easy to feel a little intimidated by this lift, but trust me, avoiding a few common pitfalls will make all the difference.
Think of it less as a list of "don'ts" and more as a guide to getting the most out of every single rep. We see these mistakes all the time, and a few simple corrections can completely change your deadlift game. At Armourbody, our coaches are always there to guide you, but knowing what to watch for on your own is a huge step toward building confidence and strength. Let’s walk through the biggest mistakes so you can lift safely and effectively.
Bad Form That Kills Your Results
Nothing stalls progress faster than bad form. The most common culprit is a rounded lower back, which puts a ton of stress where it doesn’t belong. Instead of using your powerful glutes and hamstrings, you end up straining your back. This not only sets you up for potential lower back sprains but also means you aren’t actually working the muscles that burn the most calories. Your goal should be a flat, neutral spine from start to finish. Think of keeping your chest up and your shoulders pulled back. This engages your entire posterior chain and turns the deadlift into the full-body powerhouse it’s meant to be.
Going Too Heavy, Too Soon
We’ve all been there—you feel good, and you want to load up the bar. But letting your ego write checks your body can’t cash is a fast track to injury and sloppy reps. Lifting too heavy forces your body to compensate, often by rounding your back or jerking the weight off the floor. A deadlift should be a smooth, controlled pull. The key is to gradually increase the weight as you get stronger, adding just 5 or 10 pounds at a time. Master the form with a lighter weight first. A perfect rep with 100 pounds is infinitely more effective for fat loss than a sloppy one with 150.
Skipping Your Warm-Up
Jumping into a heavy deadlift with cold muscles is like trying to stretch a frozen rubber band—something is bound to snap. Before you even think about touching the barbell, you need to prepare your muscles and joints for the work ahead. A solid warm-up increases blood flow, activates your central nervous system, and gets your body ready to move efficiently and safely. Spend five to ten minutes doing dynamic stretches like leg swings, cat-cows, and bodyweight squats. A few light-weight reps of the deadlift itself can also help groove the movement pattern before you add more weight. Don’t treat the warm-up as optional; it’s a non-negotiable part of every workout.
Poor Planning and Not Enough Rest
More isn’t always better, especially when it comes to high-intensity lifts like the deadlift. Your muscles don’t get stronger during the workout; they get stronger when they recover afterward. If you’re deadlifting too often or not giving yourself enough rest between sets, you’re short-changing your results. Inadequate recovery time can lead to fatigue, which tanks your performance and makes your form sloppy. Listen to your body. Plan your deadlift days with at least one or two days of rest in between to let your muscles rebuild. This ensures you can come back to your next session stronger and ready to give it your all.
Nail Your Form: A Step-by-Step Guide
Proper form is everything when it comes to deadlifts. It’s the difference between building a stronger, leaner body and setting yourself up for injury. Think of these steps as your foundation. Once you have them down, you can focus on adding weight and intensity. At Armourbody, our coaches are always there to guide you, but learning the fundamentals on your own will give you a huge head start. Let’s break down the perfect deadlift, piece by piece.
Setting Up Your Stance and Grip
Your setup determines the success of your entire lift. Start by standing with your feet about hip-width apart, with your toes pointing slightly outward. Your shins should be close to the bar, almost touching it. When you bend down to grab the bar, use a grip that’s just outside your shins. This stance provides a stable base of support for a powerful pull. Most people start with a double overhand grip, but as you get stronger, you might explore other options. The key is to find a setup that feels strong and balanced for your body.
Mastering the Hip Hinge
The deadlift is not a squat. The primary movement is a hip hinge, which means you initiate the lift by pushing your hips back, not by bending your knees. To get the feel for it, unlock your hips and slowly move them backward until the bar lowers past your knees. From there, you can bend your knees to lower the bar the rest of the way to the floor. Think of it like pushing your hips back to shut a car door when your hands are full. This pattern engages your glutes and hamstrings, which are the real powerhouses of this exercise.
Keeping the Bar Close and Staying Tight
Where the bar travels matters. For the safest and strongest lift, the bar should stay in contact with your body the entire time. As you set up, make sure the bar is positioned over the middle of your foot and let your shins make contact with it. As you pull, imagine you’re dragging the bar right up your shins and thighs. This keeps the weight centered and protects your lower back. Before you even lift, create full-body tension by pulling your shoulders down and back (engaging your lats) and bracing your core. This tightness keeps your spine neutral and secure.
Quick Fixes for Common Mistakes
Two common mistakes can derail your deadlift: ripping the bar off the floor and letting it drift away from your body. Instead of trying to jerk the weight up, think about pulling the tension into the bar gradually before it leaves the ground. You should hear a "click" as the bar makes contact with the plates. This smooth start engages your muscles properly. If you find the bar swinging away from you, focus on keeping it tight to your legs on the way up and down. A good lift always ends with the bar back over the middle of your foot, right where it started.
Deadlifts vs. Other Exercises: Why They Win for Fat Loss
When your goal is fat loss, not all exercises are created equal. While any movement is better than none, some give you a much bigger return on your effort. If you want maximum results in minimum time, the deadlift is a true powerhouse. It stands out from other exercises because of how it challenges your entire body, turning you into a calorie-burning machine long after you’ve left the gym. Let’s break down why this single move often outperforms others when it comes to shedding fat and building a strong, lean physique. At Armourbody, we build our workouts around effective, total-body movements just like this.
Why Compound Lifts Beat Isolation Moves
Think about the difference between a bicep curl and a deadlift. A bicep curl works, well, your bicep—that’s an isolation move. A deadlift, on the other hand, is a compound lift. It recruits a whole team of muscles to get the job done, including your glutes, hamstrings, quads, core, and entire back. Why does this matter for fat loss? Simple: the more muscle you use, the more energy your body needs to expend. This means you burn significantly more calories performing a set of deadlifts than you would doing an isolation exercise for the same amount of time. Compound lifts are the champions of efficiency, helping you build functional strength and burn fat simultaneously.
The Calorie-Torching Power of Full-Body Moves
The deadlift is the ultimate full-body exercise. From the moment you grip the bar, you’re engaging muscles from your hands to your feet. This massive muscular activation is what makes it such a potent tool for fat loss. Your body has to work incredibly hard to coordinate the movement, which sends your heart rate soaring and your calorie burn through the roof. In fact, a tough deadlift session can be more demanding metabolically than a steady jog on the treadmill. You’re not just lifting a weight; you’re building power, strengthening your core, and improving your posture all at once. It’s a strength and cardio workout rolled into one highly effective package.
More Effective Than an Hour on the Treadmill?
Here’s where the deadlift really outshines traditional cardio. The fat loss benefits don’t stop when you finish your last rep. Heavy, intense exercises like deadlifts create something called the “afterburn effect,” or EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption). This means your metabolism stays elevated for hours—sometimes even a full day—as your body works to recover and repair your muscle fibers. This post-workout calorie burn can be substantial, with some studies suggesting it’s equivalent to the energy used to run a mile. So while you might burn calories during your treadmill session, the deadlift helps you continue burning them long after you’ve gone home. When you combine the in-workout burn with the afterburn, the deadlift is a clear winner for efficient, lasting fat loss.
Fuel Your Lifts and Your Fat Loss
Your hard work on the gym floor is a huge part of the fat-loss equation, but what you do in the kitchen is just as important. Nailing your nutrition is what turns those powerful deadlifts and high-intensity circuits into real, visible results. Think of food as the fuel that powers your performance and the raw material that rebuilds your body stronger. Without the right strategy, you’re leaving gains—and fat loss—on the table. Let’s break down how to eat to support your goals, so every single rep counts.
Eat Enough Protein to Keep Your Muscle
When you’re working to lose fat, protein is your best friend. As you reduce calories, your body can sometimes break down muscle tissue for energy, which is the last thing you want. Eating enough protein sends a clear signal to your body to preserve the lean muscle you’re building in class. Why does that matter? Muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns more calories at rest than fat does. So, the more muscle you keep, the more efficient your body becomes at burning fat around the clock. Aim to include a quality protein source—like chicken, fish, eggs, tofu, or Greek yogurt—with every meal to support muscle repair and growth.
Finding Your Calorie Sweet Spot
To lose fat, you need to consume fewer calories than your body burns. But this doesn’t mean you should slash your intake drastically. Finding your "calorie sweet spot" is about creating a moderate deficit that encourages fat loss without leaving you feeling drained and weak during your workouts. Severe calorie restriction can sabotage your efforts by slowing your metabolism and causing muscle loss. The goal is to provide your body with enough energy to crush your deadlifts while still prompting it to tap into fat stores for fuel. Using an online TDEE calculator can give you a solid starting point for understanding your body's daily energy needs.
What to Eat Before and After You Lift
Timing your nutrients can make a big difference in your energy levels and recovery. Before a tough workout, focus on easily digestible carbohydrates for quick energy, plus a little protein. Think of something like a banana with a spoonful of almond butter or a small bowl of oatmeal. This will help you power through every set. After your workout, your priority is recovery. You’ll want to replenish your energy stores with carbs and provide your muscles with protein to repair and rebuild. A protein shake with a piece of fruit, or a meal like grilled chicken with roasted sweet potatoes, is a perfect way to refuel. Focusing on nutrient-dense foods will support your energy levels and help you reach your goals faster.
Keep Getting Stronger (and Leaner)
Once you’ve nailed the conventional deadlift, you’ve built a solid foundation. But the key to long-term fat loss and muscle definition is progressive overload—continuously challenging your body so it has to adapt and grow stronger. This is where you turn a great exercise into your most powerful tool for changing your body composition. It’s not about ego-lifting; it’s about smart, consistent progress.
Getting stronger means your body has to work harder, which burns more calories both during and after your workout. As you build more lean muscle, you also fire up your resting metabolism, turning your body into a more efficient fat-burning machine around the clock. The next step is to learn how to push your limits safely and effectively, keeping your workouts engaging and your body guessing.
How to Safely Add More Weight
The golden rule of getting stronger is to prioritize form over everything else. As you feel more confident with the movement, you can start to gradually increase the weight. A good starting point is adding five to 10 pounds at a time. This small jump is enough to challenge your muscles without causing your form to break down. If you can complete all your reps with perfect technique, you’re ready to add a little more weight in your next session. Listening to your body is key to avoiding injury and ensuring you can keep showing up. If you're ever unsure, it's always best to get an expert eye on your form when you join a class.
Ready for a Challenge? Try These Variations
Your body is smart. If you do the same workout over and over, it will eventually adapt and you’ll hit a plateau. Introducing new movements is a fantastic way to keep making progress. Luckily, there are many deadlift variations that target your muscles in slightly different ways. For example, Sumo Deadlifts use a wider stance to engage your glutes and hips more, while Romanian Deadlifts keep your legs straighter to really isolate your hamstrings. Trap Bar and Single-Leg Deadlifts are other great options to build functional strength and keep your workouts feeling fresh and challenging.
How to Track Your Progress
Tracking your workouts is one of the best ways to stay motivated and ensure you’re consistently getting stronger. Keep a simple log of the weight you lift, and for how many sets and reps. For fat loss, a great method is to lift a challenging weight (about 75% of your max) for 8-10 reps, keeping your rest periods under 90 seconds. This approach maximizes calorie burn and muscle growth. Seeing those numbers climb over time is proof that your hard work is paying off. It’s incredibly rewarding to look back and see how far you’ve come, and it’s what will keep you pushing forward in our community.
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Frequently Asked Questions
I'm worried deadlifts will make me look bulky. Is that true? This is one of the most common myths out there, and I'm happy to clear it up. The "bulky" look typically comes from a combination of specific training and a significant calorie surplus—meaning you're eating far more than your body is burning. For most of us, deadlifts do the opposite. They build strong, dense, and metabolically active muscle that creates a leaner, more toned physique. This new muscle actually helps you burn more fat around the clock, which is exactly what you want.
I'm new to lifting. Are deadlifts safe for beginners? Absolutely, as long as you prioritize learning the proper form before adding a lot of weight. The deadlift is a fundamental human movement—we do a version of it every time we pick something up off the floor. The key is to master the hip-hinge and learn how to keep your back flat and safe. Starting with a user-friendly option like the trap bar deadlift or working with a coach to guide you is a fantastic way to build confidence and ensure you're moving correctly from day one.
What's the single most important thing to focus on for my form? If you only remember one thing, make it this: keep your back flat. A neutral spine is non-negotiable. This ensures that the work is being done by your powerful glutes and hamstrings, not your lower back. Think about keeping your chest up and pulling your shoulders back and down before you even lift the weight. This simple action engages your core and back muscles to protect your spine and allows you to lift safely and effectively.
Can I still get the fat-loss benefits if I use dumbbells or kettlebells instead of a barbell? Yes, you definitely can. The magic of the deadlift isn't in the barbell itself, but in the full-body movement pattern. Performing a Romanian Deadlift with two heavy dumbbells or a kettlebell still recruits your hamstrings, glutes, and core, providing that powerful calorie-burning stimulus. The most important thing is to challenge yourself with the weight and maintain great form, no matter what equipment you're using.
How do I know if I'm lifting the right amount of weight to burn fat? You're looking for a weight that feels challenging but allows you to maintain perfect form for every single rep. A great rule of thumb is to choose a weight where the last two reps of your set are tough to complete, but not impossible. If you finish a set feeling like you could have easily done five more, the weight is likely too light to create the metabolic response we're after. If your form starts to break down halfway through the set, it's too heavy.