If you absolutely love running and want to use it to maintain your weight loss, NASM- and ACE-certified trainer Holly Roser said you always want to mix up your workouts so your body doesn't get comfortable burning the same amount of calories each day. Alter your runs by increasing your speed, the incline, or distance. And don't just run! Holly said the best plateau-buster is mixing up your cardio every other week. "Try kickboxing one week, swimming the next, tennis, or uphill sprints," she suggested.
Krissi, Rachel, and Jared agree that cardio can help burn calories, but it should be used in conjunction with strength training. Rachel recommends full-body training, since building muscle will rev up your metabolism. She said that although running is a great way to burn calories and keep your heart healthy, solely doing sustained cardio "can actually decrease muscle mass (it is catabolic meaning muscle-deteriorating), and can slow the metabolism."
For strength training, Jared recommends doing compound exercises, which are multi-joint movements that work groups of large muscle. This includes exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, bench press, step-ups, pull-ups, and push-ups.
"Not only are you going to burn more calories while working out, but because you're building lean muscle tissue, your metabolism is going to increase, and you'll be burning more calories even after you leave the gym," Jared said.
Above all, Krissi said that all exercise can help with weight maintenance, but that it's important that you love it. "If you don't enjoy the activity you're doing, then it can become a barrier to your success, and it will be easy to make excuses as to why you can't do your exercise that day," she said.