Since you'll be training five days a week, I recommend starting with three days of weightlifting and two days of cardio. On the strength days, do full-body workouts that incorporate compound exercises — multijoint movements like deadlifts and push-ups that work large groups of muscle. I prefer these movements because they require more energy to perform, which means you'll burn more fat and calories, and you can get a more efficient workout with them as opposed to doing isolated movements like a bicep curl.

Another reason you should do a mix of strength training and cardio is because they'll both help improve your metabolism. Strength training helps you build muscle, and because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, you'll burn more calories in a day.

Since it helps you burn more calories, cardio boosts your metabolism. In a previous interview with POPSUGAR, Avigdor Arad, PhD, RDN, CDE, director of the Mount Sinai PhysioLab explained that you burn more energy/calories with cardio per workout than you do with lifting.

Cardio can help burn fat, but if done too often, it can also burn muscle. This is one of the reasons I advise doing fewer cardio workouts. For the two days of cardio, I suggest sprinting, swimming, cycling, running, or using a machine like the elliptical.

Follow this training split for four to six weeks, making sure you're tracking how you feel physically and mentally. If you're constantly feeling sore and tired, you should decrease the amount of sessions you're doing, for example: do three strength sessions but go down to one day of cardio.

If you're feeling great, then you've built a foundation of strength. You've improved muscular imbalances, and you can progress your workouts; this is when a trainer comes in handy. Two simple ways to progress your workouts are by increasing the amount of days you're training or simply increasing the complexity of the exercises you're doing.