The way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume and try to increase your metabolism. You can achieve both of these goals by doing fat-burning activities. Performing this type of exercise can not only help shrink your waistline, but it can also improve your lung capacity, strengthen your heart and increase your muscle tone.
Walking
Walking is a popular low-impact activity that people do for disease risk reduction and for weight maintenance. To increase your fat-burning potential, turn your morning walk into a power walk by alternating between high and low intensities. You can also walk up steep hills. According to the Mayo Clinic, the more vigorously you exercise, the more calories you'll burn.
Running
Running is more intense than walking and it too can be done interval style or with the aid of hills. You can also do wind sprints which are very intense. After a 5-minute light warm-up jog, sprint as hard as you can for 40 yards. Rest for 20 seconds and sprint back to your original starting point. Rest again for 20 seconds and sprint again. Keep following this pattern ten to 12 times and finish with a light 5-minute cool-down. This type of training causes a high amount of calories to be burned after you are finished. This is called the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).
Elliptical Training
Elliptical machines have platforms that you place your feet on and handles that you hold on to. While you use this machine, you move your hands and legs back and forth in a smooth, alternating motion. This activity causes you to work your upper and lower body simultaneously to get an efficient fat-burning workout. A 180 pound person can burn just under 300 calories in a 30-minute session.
Swimming
Swimming is a non-impact activity that is not only safe on the joints, but it can also cause a high fat-burning response. Thirty minutes of vigorous laps can cause a 180 pound person to burn over 400 calories.
Indoor Cycling
Indoor cycling is done on an exercise bike that can be adjusted to increase the resistance. By itself it is a high fat burner, but when you partake in a class, such as the Spinning® program, can be even more intense. During these classes, you interval from moderate to all-out intensities for 60 minutes straight. This can cause you to expend on average anywhere from 400 to 800 calories.
Weight Training
Weight training does not burn much fat while you are doing it, but the after effect is where it can be seen. Muscle is metabolically-active tissue that can cause you to burn more calories around the clock. This in turn leads to a high amount of fat being burned.
Snow Shoveling
Snow shoveling is an activity that can not only cause a high fat burn, but it can also improve your muscle strength and endurance. This especially holds true when the snow is wet and heavy. A 160 to 170 lb. person can expect to burn 18.5 calories per minute while shoveling heavy snow. This comes out to over 1,100 calories in an hour.
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