Does Pilates Burn Fat? The Factual Truth About This Trending Workout

Pilates is having a moment. The exercise may have been founded in the early 1920s to rehabilitate soldiers (1), but it has now become one of the most popular exercises of 2025. You can hardly scroll through TikTok or Instagram without seeing someone showing a simple at-home routine or discussing the benefits of Pilates weight loss.

However, despite all its popularity, one cannot help but wonder if the purported benefits, especially weight loss, are true or exaggerated. 

So, does Pilates burn fat? 

Let’s take a look at what science and experts say.

Can You Get In Shape Just Doing Pilates?

It depends. If your definition of getting in shape simply refers to toning your muscles, building some lean muscle, and improving your posture, then Pilates can help you do this. This exercise can also help with pain management, improved mental health, and increased flexibility (1, 2, 3).

However, if you hope to lose weight and/or build larger muscles, then Pilates alone will not help you achieve this goal. 

Here’s why:

Nutrition Matters

Fat and weight loss are influenced by multiple factors, with the biggest one being your nutrition and calorie intake. Increased fat and weight are primarily caused by eating in a caloric surplus and a lack of physical activity. 

Research states that:

1. An energy deficit is the most critical factor in weight loss (4)
2. While dieting alone or exercising alone can help with weight loss, the best weight loss results occur when a program combines both diet and exercise (5).

So, what does this mean for someone planning to lose weight with Pilates? 

You are unlikely to see satisfactory results by doing Pilates alone without changing your eating habits. 

Experts recommend reducing your average daily calorie intake by 500 to 750 calories (4).

Aside from eating less, the types of food you consume also matter. 

Experts say that a nutritionally balanced, hypocaloric diet is the best option for anyone looking to lose weight. 

BetterMe: Health Coaching app helps you achieve your body goals with ease and efficiency by helping to choose proper meal plans and effective workouts. Start using our app and you will see good results in a short time.

A balanced diet is characterized by (6):

• Eating a variety of foods, with the majority being grain products (e.g., bread, pasta, oats, and rice)
• Consuming at least 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables
• Eating only moderate amounts of dairy and meat products
• Limiting the consumption of foods that are high in fat or sugar or contain few nutrients.
• Practicing portion control.

If you are looking for a specific diet, a 2020 study found that the Mediterranean diet and a high-protein diet are the 2 best options for facilitating weight loss and maintenance (4).

Exercise Intensity

Exercise and physical activity are crucial factors that determine weight loss (7). 

While all types of exercise can help with fat and weight loss, the rate of success is determined by the intensity of the workout, with research showing that higher-intensity exercises yield better results. 

For example:

2003

In this study, researchers compared the effects of different exercise durations and intensities on weight loss and found that subjects who were either:

• Exercising for longer
• Increasing the intensity of their workouts
• Or a combination of both

Had lost more weight than those who exercised for moderate durations or intensities (8). 

2017 

Researchers in this study compared the effects of different intensities of aerobic exercise on the body composition of young women. 

They found that while light-intensity workouts resulted in significant reductions in body weight and body fat, high and moderate-intensity workouts had better results. 

High to moderate-intensity workouts had significantly more changes in:

• Body weight
• Waist-to-hip ratio
• Waist circumference
• Waist-to-height ratio 

Then, low-intensity workouts (9).

2024

In this study, researchers compared the effects of high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training on the weight, body composition, blood lipid indicators, and metabolic status of 40 college students with obesity.

There were 20 female students and 20 male students who participated in an 8-week intervention, consisting of 3 weekly sessions with alternating days of training. 

• The moderate-intensity group exercised for 35 minutes.
• The high-intensity group worked out for 28 minutes.

At the end of the study, researchers found that males lost a higher percentage of body fat, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase, and uric acid than their female counterparts, regardless of the group they were in.

However, regardless of gender, researchers noted that both males and females in the high-intensity groups recorded better results in all areas as compared to their counterparts in the moderate-intensity groups (10).

So, what does this mean for achieving Pilates results, such as reducing belly fat or losing weight in general?

Pilates, like yoga, is a low-intensity workout. While it can help you lose weight or get in shape, it may take longer to see the desired results.

Instead of relying on Pilates alone to get in shape, we recommend adding it to a routine of other moderate and high-intensity exercises.

Examples:

• For a 3-day workout routine 

1. • Monday – High-intensity cardio or HIIT
   • Wednesday – Full-body strength training
   • Friday – Pilates

• For a 4-day workout routine

1. • Monday – Upper-body
   • Tuesday – Lower-body
   • Thursday – HIIT or Tabata
   • Friday – Pilates

For more in-depth information on this exercise and weight, take a minute to dive into our article that answers the popular question: Does Pilates help lose weight?

Read more: Beginner Pilates Ball Workout: 8 Exercises and Frequently Asked Questions

Can Pilates Help Burn Fat?

Yes, it can. As shown through the studies listed above, Pilates, despite being a low-intensity workout, can help burn fat. 

However, for the best results, it is recommended that you combine this exercise with a balanced diet and other forms of exercise, such as cardio and strength training.

If you don’t have a lot of time in your routine to dedicate to exercise, consider looking into cardio pilates routines. Such routines or programs combine the principles of Pilates with heart-pumping cardio movements.

• Cardio is a great workout that burns a large number of calories during the session, but it’s also fantastic for cardiovascular health. 
• Pilates helps boost core strength, fitness, balance, and flexibility, benefits your mental health, muscle strength, and pain management for those who need it (1, 2, 3, 11, 12).

Cardio Pilates is the best of both worlds.

Does Pilates Help You Lose Belly Fat?

Not particularly – or at least not in the way you think. 

Many people, especially women, turn to pilates for belly fat loss due to the misinformation found on many social media platforms. 

We’ve all seen the before-and-after videos of people showing how they lost inches around their waist after doing Pilates for a couple of weeks or months, so could all these people be lying?

No, they aren’t, but you’re missing some information as well. 

As previously mentioned, Pilates is effective in strengthening and improving the endurance of the core muscles. However, these muscles lie under a layer of fat.

Pilates is a low-impact workout, and while it may help with some fat burning, it’s not enough on its own to achieve drastic changes, as seen on TikTok.

Influencers are not always sharing that exercise goes hand in hand with a diet overhaul. 

In a study published in late 2021, researchers compared the effects of:

• Reformer Pilates alone
• Reformer Pilates combined with a weight loss diet. 

The researchers divided the women into 2 groups, all of whom participated in a 45-minute workout 3 times a week for a total of 12 weeks. 

Once the study ended, researchers found that the group that combined Pilates and a healthy weight loss diet had significant decreases in their:

• A higher increase in basal metabolic rate (BMR)
• Waist circumference
• Hip circumference
• Waist/height ratio
• Body muscle
• Body weight
• Body water
• BMI (13).

If you want to use Pilates for belly fat loss, you first need to adjust your diet and stick to your workout plan consistently. Aside from that, if you hope for faster results, you can combine this exercise with more calorie-burning exercises like cardio and build more muscle through strength training.

What Pilates Exercise Burns The Most Belly Fat?

There isn’t one specific Pilates exercise that will help you burn more belly fat than all other exercises. We recommend combining Pilates with a healthy, calorie-deficient diet, as well as cardio and strength training exercises, to achieve a smaller waist.

If you’re unsure where to start, our article on fat burning exercise at home for females offers great examples to get you started.

How Long Should I Do Pilates To Lose Weight?

There is no single correct answer for this. 

We mentioned above that weight loss involves multiple factors, not just exercise and diet. Your genetics, sleep schedule, medications, age, muscle mass, and more all play a part in determining how long it’ll take you to lose weight.

With that said, it can take 4-6 weeks to start seeing the initial weight loss changes from an effective weight loss plan.

If you wish to free yourself from all the extra pounds that have been weighing you down for way too long, start using the BetterMe: Health Coaching app and overhaul your entire life!

Do this and you could see changes sooner than you think:

• Be consistent
• Stay hydrated
• Maintain a calorie deficit.
• Play around with the intensity of your workouts.
• Sleep more (at least 7-9 hours a night)

Read more: How To Combine Pilates And Weight Lifting For Maximum Benefits

Is 20 Minutes Of Pilates A Day Enough To Lose Weight?

If you have been leading a sedentary lifestyle, 20 minutes can be enough to help you start seeing some changes – after all, any exercise is better than none. 

However, for long-lasting and significant changes, it will be more effective to eat healthier through a calorie deficit, while also incorporating cardio and weightlifting into your weekly exercise routine.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight With Pilates?

Failure to see weight loss results while exercising could be due to multiple factors

• Your Calorie Intake 

Make sure you are not overeating or undereating.

Overeating leads to weight gain, and undereating leads to starvation mode – a state where your body hoards calories instead of burning them as it thinks it’s saving you from starving to death.

• Exercise Intensity 

As shown above, Pilates is a low-intensity exercise. Research shows that high-intensity exercises offer significantly better results than moderate or low-intensity workouts. 

Add some cardio or weight training to your routine, and you may see better results.

• A Weight Plateau 

If you had been losing weight with Pilates and progress suddenly stagnated, you might have hit a plateau. To overcome this, you need to evaluate your diet and exercise plan. 

Whatever you have been doing has now become the new normal for your body, and you need to challenge it more for better calorie burning. 

Better yet, start practicing progressive overload to get past the plateau and prevent it from happening again.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Pilates enough exercise?

It depends on how you view your overall personal fitness, but for the most part, it is likely not enough. While it has its benefits and is certainly better than leading a sedentary lifestyle, it is not enough for significant weight loss or muscle growth. 

Combine Pilates with other cardio and strength training exercises for a well-rounded routine and better results. It all comes down to what your goals are with exercise. 

• Why does Pilates hurt so much?

Pilates is a form of exercise that focuses on flexibility, balance, and core strength. 

The movements target your muscles differently than either strength training or cardio. 

If you haven’t done Pilates before, your muscles are new to this, and you might notice some slight muscle soreness.  However, Pilates exercise should not cause you pain. 

Muscle soreness is normal, but working through actual pain could indicate a potential injury. However, with enough rest and consistency with the routine, that muscle soreness will begin to dissipate. 

• Can Pilates help skinny fat?

It can help, but the best results will come if Pilates is one of the exercises you do regularly. A combination of cardio, weight training, and Pilates is the best way to prevent skinny fat.

• Do Planks burn belly fat?

No, they do not. Like Pilates, planks are a fantastic core-strengthening workout, meaning they target the abdominal muscles hidden beneath the layer of fat in your midsection.

To reduce belly fat, start by combining cardio and weight training to help burn calories. 

Planks, Pilates, and other core-specific workouts can help make your abs more pronounced after the fat layer is gone. No exercise will specifically reduce belly fat. 

Belly fat loss and fat loss in general come from increasing the calories you burn daily and reducing your calorie intake.

The Bottom Line

Does Pilates burn fat? No, it does not. This exercise is not as effective for fat burning as cardio and weight training. However, this doesn’t mean you should disregard Pilates. 

It’s an excellent option if you want to strengthen your core, improve your balance, and increase your flexibility.

Pilates can suit anyone with a sedentary lifestyle who wants to increase their physical activity. People with chronic illnesses, specific disabilities, or older adults can also benefit from Pilates, as it is a lower-intensity exercise. However, it’s essential to consult your healthcare provider before starting this form of exercise.