Fat Burning Exercises

Updated March 9, 2025

The question of the best fat burning exercises comes up often. In fact, this one question is still widely debated by many websites and experts.

There are many claims and statements by websites and experts that state that they have the best exercises to burn fat. Or that their method was the best way for fat loss.

Unfortunately, not all sites agreed on what are the best fat burning exercises. There were two common factors, however, that most everyone agreed on.

First, to burn fat you must include some form of aerobic exercise, also known as cardiovascular exercise (or cardio). And secondly, you must build lean muscle by adding strength training exercises.

The controversy is not around whether or not to include exercises, but at what intensity and for how long you should do these workouts to effectively burn fat. To help clear things up a bit, I have outlined each form of exercise (aerobics and strength training) so that some of your confusion and questions can be answered.

Aerobic Fat Burning Exercises

An effective weight loss workout routine should include both the aerobic exercises and strength training exercises.

Aerobice exercises, also called cardio, are workouts that get your heart pumping, such as walking briskly, bike riding, using an elliptical machine and jogging just to name a few.

When doing aerobic exercises, you want to make sure you are working with in your target heart rate to get the benefit from your fat burning exercise routine.

A good rule of thumb is that when doing your workout, you should be able to have a light conversation, say a few sentences at a time. But you should not be able to sing a complete song nor should you be totally out of breath.

If you can still sing, move it up a notch or if you are having difficulty breathing, slow it down. This however just covers the definition and basics of aerobics. The question of the best type of aerobics for burning fat is still yet to be covered. Keep reading to learn about the best fat burning aerobics exercise.

Best Aerobics for Fat Burning

Are you wondering what the best aerobic fat burning exercises are? Believe me you are not alone. The answer is that there is no one perfect aerobic exercise that is best.

They are all an effective exercise to burn fat. Any exercise that gets your heart pumping within your target heart rate zone is considered an aerobic exercise and will help burn off the fat.

So, it doesn't matter if you select walking, jogging, or use an elliptical machine, just make sure your workout is within your target heart rate to get the most from your fat burning exercises.

So if any aerboic exercise is the best fat burning exercises, then why do so many people ask the question? The real question is not which one is best for burning fat but rather how long and how intense should the exercise be in order to burn fat effectively.

Low to Moderate Intensity Workouts

Some will state that longer, less intense workouts are best. The reason for this belief is that during a low to moderate aerobic exercise, your body uses a higher percentage of fat, about 60%, for fuel. Whereas during a high intense workout your body uses only about 35% - 45% of fat for fuel, depending on how high the intensity is.

The reason for this is that during a high intense aerobic exercise, your body switches to using more carbohydrates for fuel and less fat. But before you pick a low aerobic workout for your maximum fat burn, keep reading.

High Intensity Aerobic Exercise

The fact is that while a low to moderate aerobic exercise routines use a higher percentage of fat for fuel, it is also burning fewer calories overall.

For example, a woman weighing 145 pounds walking at 3 mph for 30 minutes will burn approximately 130 calories. If 60% of this was from fat, then she would have only burned 79 fat calories during her aerobic exercise routine.

Let's assume this same woman ran for 30 minutes at 6 mph. This is a high intense aerobic exercise for many of us.

This increase in intensity also increases the calories burned. In this example of calories burned during exercise would be approximately 348 calories.

If 35% of that was from fat, her total fat calories burned would be about 122 fat calories. As you can see, the higher intense aerobics routine would burn more calories and fat.

So now the answer is, for the best fat burning exercises, the higher intense workouts are best, right? Yes mathematically this is true, however this is not necessarily what is best for everyone.

Selecting the Instensity Level

Remember, you have to be able to keep up that high intensity level for the full duration of your workout to get this benefit. And for many of us, especially if you are just starting out, it is not possible to keep this up for that long without going over your target heart rate.

So the answer to the question of “How long and how intense should my aerobic exercise be to burn fat” is; it depends. This answer will really depends on at what level you can safely exercise at and for how long.

If you are just starting out, your best bet is to do a low to moderate workout and keep adding more time to your cardio workout. As you move forward, try increasing the intensity even if it's for a small amount of time during your total workout.

To wrap this question up, any aerobic fat burning exercises you choose will be effective.  What you need to determine is what length and intensity you want to perform your chosen aerobic exercise at in order to get the most benefit towards burning fat.

Let's move on to what is the best strength training fat burning exercises

Strength Training Exercises

Strength training exercises are those types of exercises that help build lean muscle. This does not mean that you will bulk up with excessive muscles, but rather you will be strengthing and toning your body.

Why Strength training exercises strength training you ask? Well, when you do strengthening exercises, you are building lean muscle.

The more lean muscle mass you have the higher your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your BMR is responsible for 60 - 70% of the calories you burn in a day.

Check out this calculator and article on basal metabolic rate to learn more.

Strength training can be done with resistance bands, dumbbells or doing weightlifting exercises at home or at the gym.

Weightlifting seems to be the most recommended strength training exercise to burn fat. If you are just starting out, the resistance bands or dumbbells might be easier for you.

Which ever you select for your strength training, just make sure you are doing the exercise correctly to get the most benefit of your fat burning exercise routine.

Keep reading for a more in depth look at strength training for burning fat

Best Strength Training to Burn Fat

Some of the best fat burning exercises are strength training workouts. Why? As stated above, your BMR helps burn calories. The more lean muscle you have the higher your Basal Metabolic Rate. So, by increasing your lean muscle, which in turn is increasing your BMR, you are ultimately increasing the number of calories you burn in a day including burning fat.

Weight Lifting

In order to build lean muscle, you must do some strength training exercises, like weight lifting. This doesn’t mean you’re going to bulk up and look like Hulk Hogan. Body builders have to work very hard to obtain that amount of muscle.

Weight lifting is the most recommended strength training to effectively build lean muscles, although other methods can be effective as well.

For this type of workout, you will need to have access to exercise equipment, like a weight bench, free weights and a weight bar.

Your local gym can give you access to this equipment or you can invest in the equipment and set up a home gym.

If you do incorporate weight lifting into your fat burning exercises routine, make sure you know how to do the exercises correctly to get the maximum benefit of your workout. Check out the Step by Step instructions on this website for guidance.

You will also want to alternate your muscle groups when doing your strength training fat burning exercises to ensure you are not overworking a particular muscle group. For instance, one day focus on the upper body, and then the next day do lower body. Don’t forget to do the abdominal and core exercises during the week as well.

Resistance Band Exercises

You could start out doing resistance band exercises for your strength training as part of your fat burning exercises routine. Resistance bands are an easy and inexpesive way to start your workout routines. You can purchase bands with varying degrees of resistance, so you can start with the low and work up to the higher resistance bands.

Not only is this type of equipment afordable, it is travel friendly. These small items can easily fit in your travel bag so that you are always prepared to do your strengthening workout even when out of town.

To get the most out of your resistance band exercises, make sure you are doing the exercise correctly.

Dumbbell

Another alternative to weight lifting is using dumbbells. Dumbbell exercises also gives you resistance in order to strengthen and tone your muscles. Remember to challenge yourself – but don’t injure yourself.

You can use different weights to alternate between the heavier dumbbells and lighter dumbbells as needed for the different muscles you are strengthening.

You can use either fixed weight dumbbells or adjustable weight dumbbells. The fixed weights usually come in a set with the weights varying between 2 - 10 lbs. The adjustable weight dumbbells are similar to the weight lifting equipment where you can add or remove weight.

Body Weight Exercises

Using your own body weight can help tone and strengthen your muscles. A great example of this type of workout is your typical push ups. The weight of your body while performing this exercise is providing resistance in order to build your muscles. Not only does it help build lean muscle mass, it requires no equipment - so basically you can do these workouts without investing a lot of money.

There are many videos on Youtube or streaming services that have full workouts using just your body weight for the resistance. Once you find that this has become too easy, then move up to resistance bands or dumbbells weight to challenge and strengthen your muscles.

Abdominal and Core Muscles

Don't forget to strength train your core muscles as well. The core includes the abdominals, lower back and hip flexors. Make sure to work all these muscles and not just the abs.

Strengthening your core muscles can help with your posture and minimize back injury. Of course it also helps get that six pack abs many people are striving for. So be sure to save enough time in your routine to really work your core muscles as part of your fat burning exercises workout.

Check out all the abdominal exercises on this page to help strengthen your abdominal muscles.

Summary

Okay, now you know that you should do both aerobic exercises and strength training exercises. The exact level and intensity you choose will depend on your fitness level, schedule and equipment available.

Plan out your workouts for the whole week to ensure you have added aerobics and strength training. Rotate the muscles you strengthen so as not to overwork any muscle groups.



About Author

Contact

Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Site Map

Copyright © 2008 - 2024. All rights reserved.
Exercise 4 Weight Loss 2 Achieve Fitness and Health