What is the best exercise to burn fat?

In reality, there is no best exercise to burn fat, because it's more of an issue related to the amount of exercise you do, i.e. how intense it is, and how often you do it. It's not necessarily the exercise itself.

That being said, there are some cardiovascular exercises that seem to get results much quicker than others. When you exercise, the heart, lungs and arteries deliver oxygen through your blood to working muscles, and your muscles use that oxygen to perform work over that period of time.  By increasing your level of fitness, you can increase the rate that your body burns calories. The more aerobic an exercise is, the greater effect it will have on your aerobic enzymes (which help you burn more fat), cardiovascular fitness and metabolism - and therefore your percentage of body fat. So really, this is what we are aiming to achieve if we want to burn fat - increase our levels of exercise to speed up our metabolism, and improve our over-all cardiovascular fitness.

Here are five very effective cardio exercises that are great for helping with fat burning :

Jogging - It's possible that due to fitness levels, knee injuries or excessive body fat, you might not be able to jog; however jogging burns a lot of calories and absolutely revs the metabolism.  People who jog and use a calorie-restricted diet seem to lose fat at an accelerated pace.  For example, a 30-minute jog at 5.2 miles per hour burns approximately 350-400 calories.  The cumulative effect over a month or more is significant and turns you into a fat-burning machine.

Stepmill - Found in most gyms and not to be confused with the traditional stair stepper, the Stepmill actually has revolving steps that you continually climb while holding onto side bars.  It is a very difficult workout when first beginning and many people can only last several minutes.  If you build your capacity with natural progression, you’ll be doing 20-30 minutes within a month.  You’ll also burn approximately 350 calories in about 30 minutes.

Aerobic and Dance classes - Many cardiovascular exercise classes such as Cardio Kickboxing and Body-Pump fall into this category. As long as the class is aerobic and challenging, you’ll get tremendous benefit.  The calorie expenditure is dependent upon the type of class as well as continuous aerobic movement.  The last few years have seen the birth of a new breed of dance classes such as Salsa, Zumba, and Reggaeton.

Spinning - Spinning is an indoor specialized stationary-bike ride class, limited to about 15 people and lasting about 45 minutes.  Your spinning instructor plans a ride over imaginary terrain by changing intensity and speeds.  The ride is set to upbeat music so it's a load of fun.  You'll get extremely fit by spinning and will burn inches off your butt and shape your legs.

Powerwalking - an excellent form of cardio and actually what most beginners should start with.  It's a low impact exercise that can be very sociable too, as it's fun to do it with a partner and you can have a chat at the same time!  This isn't too strenuous and can be an ideal way to get used to exercising if you havent done it for a while.

Martial Arts - the ultimate in total body and mind conditioning.  Not only do you learn essential self-defense techniques, but you also develop an inner confidence, focus, and self-control which are especially good for dealing with stress in life.  Our personal recomendations would be Israeli Krav Maga, Muay Thai kickboxing, and Brazillian Capoeria. 

As always, check with your doctor before starting any exercise programme