Muscle mass burns more calories than fat tissue, according to Mayoclinic.com. Men naturally have more muscle mass than women, which helps them burn more calories. As a woman, to increase your body's ability to burn energy from fat you must increase your muscle mass. This doesn't mean you need to increase your size, just tone and tighten your muscles with strength training. Combining cardiovascular exercise for fat burning with strength training for muscle building is an effective way for women to lose weight.
Interval-Training
Building lean strong muscles will help ensure you are burning the most amount of calories daily. Interval-training workouts are a series of exercises that work the entire body, moving from station to station. Interval training burns calories and strengthens and builds strong muscles. Women also gain the added benefit of building stronger bones through interval-strength-training. According to the June 2007 "Science Daily," interval training also helps keep your metabolism high for longer periods after your workout, which burns more fat. An effective interval-training workout includes exercises that isolate one muscle for one to three minutes, and move quickly from one exercise into the next. You should aim for working your entire body--upper, lower and core--for the best results.
Pool Workout
Water workouts are easy on the joints, burn up to 600 calories per hour and tone your muscles. Water supports your body weight, which helps you avoid injury and muscle strain and can prevent you from over-heating. This is excellent if you are pre- or post-natal or suffer from back strain during your menstrual cycle. There are a wide variety of water workouts: swimming and lap-style workouts, fitness style workouts, aqua jogging and water aerobic classes. Lap-style swim workouts should alternate strokes, keep you at a steady pace and be a minimum of 30 minutes. Fitness-style water workouts use the shallow end and often use equipment, such as bands, balls and steps. Aqua jogging uses the deep end of the pool and requires an water vest, shoes and optional hand and ankle weights.
Long-Cardio
Cardiovascular exercise strengthens the heart muscle and is an effective fat-burner. Walking, jogging, running, cycling and dancing are all effective cardio exercises. To get even more benefits from your cardio workout, Jason Karp, Ph.D., suggests taking your cardio workouts to one and 1/2 hours to two hours. When you go long with your cardio workout you burn fat faster and more efficiently, notes Karp. With a naturally lower percentage of muscle mass and a higher percentage of body fat, women do not burn as many calories after their cardio workouts as men. Longer cardio sessions will teach your body how to burn fat for fuel for hours after your workout, which will result in faster weight loss.
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