Though there are certainly some, most people who exercise do not do so for fun. Working your body out on a machine that forces you into a difficult and monotonous routine is not everyone’s idea of fun. Imagine if you put yourself through a half hour exercise routine only to find out that if you had done a different exercise instead, you would have burned more calories. It’s okay, stop crying. You may already be doing the best exercise to burn fat, but if you’re not, all is not lost.

First, you must understand the many ways in which you burn fat. Let’s break them down:

Burn fat throughout the day: Your muscles can help you lose weight. The more muscles you have, the faster your resting metabolism is. That results in more burned calories while doing nothing. Additionally, as you do workouts that involve building muscle, you burn even more calories. This makes toning and muscle building a double impact activity.

Burn fat when you work out at low intensity: As you walk slowly, put away laundry, sweep floors or do any low intensity activity, you burn some calories.

Burn fat when you work out at high intensity: When you work out and get your heart rate up to intense levels you burn more calories per hour than during low intensity activities.

Next, it’s time to figure out what, exactly, burning calories means. Calories are like energy. Whenever you do anything, even if it involves sitting and staring at a wall, you are using calories. Now, calories do not necessarily mean fats. You have free calories within you in the form of proteins and carbs that you eat every day. These are the calories you initially burn. Now, when you work out, you sometimes get to a point where your body has no choice but to start utilizing stored fat as calories. That is the point you generally want to get to with your workout.

In general, since the more calories you burn, the more often your stored fat gets tapped into, high intensity aerobic activity is often the best exercise to burn fat. Before you change anything in your current routine you must make sure that it is safe for you to do so. A visit with your primary care physician can help you assess your physical health and stamina. It does no good to take part in a high intensity work out if your body can not physically handle it. You will end up hurting yourself and doing more harm than good.

Once you get approval from your primary care physician to begin working out at higher intensities, you must decide what exercises to do. Spinning, a form of high intensity stationary bike riding, is a great example of a high intensity work out. In a spin class, you will peddle your stationary bike ferociously while listening to loud music. You will peddle while sitting and standing and your instructor will tell you to switch your bike’s resistance several times.

Another high intensity workout is running. Running is also a high impact activity or your joints, so make sure your doctor approves of you adding running to your routine. Another high intensity workout that has an added benefit of increasing your muscle is Tae-Bo. Tae-bo is a combination of martial arts moves and aerobic moves.

It is important that you do not push yourself too hard when you start working out. Be sure to start gradually and let yourself build up to a complete work out. No amount of calorie or fat burning is worth a debilitating injury, so always pace yourself and listen to your body as you exercise.