9 Best Fat Burning Exercises That Can Actually Help You Lose Weight Quickly

The key to the quickest way to lose weight

The key to losing weight is to take steps to burn more calories than you take in.

According to Mayo Clinic, you can lose about a pound every week if you manage to cut 500 to 1000 calories from the food you eat.

But to lose weight quickly is not just a matter of counting calories from the food you eat. That is because trying to lose weight could make you lose fat, water, and lean tissue.

For various reasons, your body goes through many changes when you try to lose weight. Thus, it may become necessary to cut much more calories before you meet your weight loss goals.

To effectively lose weight and manage the weight successfully, you need to take steps to create a calorie deficit every day.

You can achieve this goal by

• paying attention to the types of food you eat,
• the amount of food you eat, and,
• by supporting your diet with physical activities, such as fat burning exercises.

Besides helping you lose weight quickly, physical activities, such as fat burning exercises, can

• give you many other benefits. Such benefits include
• helping you build stronger bones, (1)
• improving your general mood (2)
• helping to reduce the risk of many diseases, including those connected with the heart (3)

Losing weight with fat burning exercises

Three exercise factors come into play when you decide to use fat burning exercises to support your weight loss effort.

Resistance or Strength Training

Resistance or Strength Training expect you to build strength by working against resistance. The exercises usually involve exercising with weights.

Training with weights can help you build muscle.

With more muscle, your body will need more energy to perform effectively. Thus, you will have to burn more calories to support your muscles.

With weight training, your body will burn calories during your fat burning exercises. Not only that your body will continue to burn fat throughout the day.

Cardio Exercises

The key to burning calories with cardio is the intensity at which you do the fat burning exercises.

Generally, you need to exercise at moderate-to-high intensity levels to burn any meaningful fat with cardio.

You may also have to make constant changes to your workout routines to achieve success.

Consistency

You can turn your body into a fat burning machine by exposing it to regular fat burning exercises.

That means you must be consistent with your exercise and workout routines. That can help you lose weight quickly.

Here are 11 best fat burning exercises that can help you lose weight quickly

Check these 11 best fat burning exercises I have listed here. They can help you burn more calories and thus, help you lose weight quickly.

Jumping rope

Many professional sportspeople and exercisers use jumping rope as part of their training.

It is a cardio exercise with many benefits.

Some of the many benefits include helping with the

• building your stamina
• toning and strengthening your calves and ankles
• improving the capacity of your lungs
• strengthening your core
• developing your coordination capabilities

As a full-body workout, jumping rope can help you burn many calories within a short period.

Generally, the heavier you are, the more calories you burn when you jump rope. That is because you need more energy to work against gravity if you have a higher weight

As an example, an average-sized person can burn more than 10 calories a minute when jumping rope by doing about 100 skips every minute. But you will be able to burn 213 calories within that period if your weight is 160lb. (4)

Sprints

Sprinting is a way of quickly reaching your goal or target without being caught by your opponent.

Sprinting is used in many sports that involve running. Such sports include tennis, soccer, basketball, American football, and track and field events. Many professional sportspeople use it as part of their training as well.

Sprinting is one of the most explosive and fat burning exercises you can add to your fitness or weight loss plans.

It is a total body workout that targets various parts of your body including your butts, hamstrings, hips, quads, abs, and calves.

Research shows that a small burst of intense sprint for between 8 to 10 seconds could put your effort to lose weight quickly on steroids.

In the review and meta-analysis, the researchers found that participants who did sprints managed to lose 29% extra body fat than those who exercised at moderate intensity.

Thus, it will make sense to consider sprinting as one of your fat burning exercises if you intend to lose weight quickly

Running or Jogging

Jogging and running are some of the best fat burning exercises that can help you lose weight quickly.

You can do both exercises anywhere – at home, in the gym on a treadmill, or out on the fields.
Due to their simplicity, you can easily include these exercises in your fitness or workout plans.

How many calories you will burn jogging or running will depend on several factors.

Some of the factors that can affect the number of calories you can burn are

• your age
• your sex,
• your body weight, and
• how intensive you exercise.

Your aim, as a beginner, should be to jog for 20-30 minutes per session. You can do this 3-4 times every week.

According to Mayo Clinic, men tend to burn more fat than women. That is because the 2 genders have different fat levels.

You lose muscle mass as you get older. Thus, the older you are, the fewer calories you can burn.

If you are a beginner, you will usually start at a slow pace. That means you will be burning fewer calories.

According to Harvard Health Publishing (HHP), if you weigh 125 pounds, you can burn about 80 calories when you jog at 5 miles per hour for 10 minutes

You can burn approximately 100 calories during the same period when you jog at the same speed if you weigh 155 pounds.

But you will burn about 118 calories if you weigh 185 pounds and jog at 5 miles per hour for 10 minutes.

Aside from being some of the best fat burning exercises, studies have pointed out that jogging and running can help you burn abdominal fat.

It is a known fact that belly fat can contribute to various chronic diseases. Such diseases including those of the heart and diabetes. (5, 6, 7)

Interval training (HIIT)

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) should be on top of any list of best fat burning exercises that can help you achieve your weight loss goals.

Interval training involves combining a short burst of highly intensive exercise followed by an identical short rest period. You then repeat the cycle. The alternation between intensive exercise and rest goes on for the duration of the workout. A typical HIIT workout lasts for 20-30 minutes.

Various studies have shown that interval training can help you burn more calories than you will burn when you do a steady-paced exercise over the same period.

Interval training can involve many muscles that you don’t usually use. That makes it possible for you to use more energy and burn more calories. (8, 9, 10)

According to Harvard Health Publishing, if your weight is 125 pounds, you could burn about 360 calories if you cycled at a steady pace of 16-19 miles per hour for 30 minutes. But you could burn up to 468 pounds if you switched to a HIIT cycling session.

A study of nine (9) active men found that they could burn 25%-30% extra calories every minute in a HIIT session than they could burn in regular exercises. (11)

Thus, by opting for HIIT sessions as part of your fat burning exercises, you could reduce the time you spend exercising and still burn more calories.

You can apply HIIT to many types of exercises. Such exercises include jumping, running, biking, and walking.

Various studies have concluded that interval training is a good workout that can help you burn abdominal fat. Abdominal fat is known to be one of the causes of many chronic diseases like cancer.

Weight training

Weight training has been one of the most popular fat burning exercises for those looking for ways to lose weight quickly for quite some time.

Weight training helps you build muscle mass. They often say muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue (12). Muscle tissue continues to burn more calories, even when at rest.

Experts believe you can increase your resting metabolism by building more muscles. The resting metabolism is the number of calories you can burn when your body is at rest.

Thus, you will be able to burn more fat by building more muscle tissue with weight training.

How many calories you burn depends on various factors, including your gender.

A recent study concluded that men tend to burn more calories when at rest than women.
The study showed that weight training could help men burn about 140 extra calories per day. But women could burn up to 50 extra calories per day, with weight training (13, 14). According to various studies, your metabolism could stay at a high level for up to 38 hours after your weight training. (15)

Thus, you can burn calories during your training session by adding weight training to your fat burning exercises. Not only that you will also burn calories long after your training session

Harvard Health Publishing estimates that if you weigh 155 pounds, you could burn up to 112 calories by weight training for 30 minutes.

Cycling

Cycling is one of the most effective fat burning exercises that can help you lose weight quickly. It is also a good exercise that can help you build up your fitness levels.

Aside from doing it in the open fields and roads, you can also exercise with a stationary bike at home or in the gym.

Cycling is a low-impact and non-weight-bearing exercise. It does not place much stress on your knees. Thus, people of all fitness levels and ages can enjoy it.

According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), you burn more calories if you breathe more oxygen during any physical activity.

Thus, the faster you can cycle, the more intense your exercise will get, and the more calories you will burn. The reason is you will need more energy to pedal at a higher speed.

Harvard Health Publishing estimates that you can burn about 260 calories if you weigh 155 pounds and ride a bicycle at a moderate pace of 12–13.9 miles per hour for 30 minutes.

But you can burn about 391 calories if you were vigorously biking at 20 miles per hour or more for the same period.

You would burn 298 calories if you weighed 155 pounds and riding the bike outdoors at 12–13.9 miles per hour for 30 minutes.

Likewise, you will burn 614 calories or more for the same period if you were riding the bike at a faster 20 miles per hour pace.

Thus, you burn more calories riding your bike outdoors than you burn indoors. But for many people, it may be easier to exercise on a stationary bike than to do it outside.

Riding the bike outside also comes with many dangers and hazards that you may not encounter with an indoor stationary bike.

Studies have shown that besides cycling being one of the best fat burning exercises, it has many other health benefits. Such benefits include

• improving your fitness levels
• lowering the risk of many chronic diseases including cancer, and those associated with the heart
• help increase insulin sensitivity. (16, 17)

Walking

Walking is one of the best fat burning exercises that can help you shed unwanted fat.

According to Mayo Clinic, you could lose up to 150 calories a day by adding 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily activities.

How many calories you burn by walking will depend on how quickly you can walk. It also depends on how long you can walk each day.

As a low-impact exercise, walking does not put much stress on your joints. You don’t need any equipment to start the routine.

Thus, exercisers at all levels can use it as part of their effort to shed unwanted fat.

Harvard Health Publishing estimates that if you are 155 pounds heavy, you could burn about 167 calories by walking at a moderate speed of 4 miles per hour.

It is advisable to start the exercise by walking at a lower intensity and shorter distances if you are new to exercising. That will protect you from any risk of injury and soreness. You can then increase the pace and the distance you walk as you gain more confidence.

In a 12-week study, researchers found that 20 obese women lost an average of 1.5% of their body fat. The women walked for up to 70 minutes a day for 3 days, every week. The women also lost an average of 1.1 inches from their waistline. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25566464/)

8. Swimming

Swimming may not be on top of your list of best fat burning exercises. But as aerobic exercise, swimming provides cardiovascular conditioning.

Like all cardio exercises, you will burn calories while swimming and so lose weight.

Powering yourself through the water creates extra resistance. That forces you to use your muscles.

By helping you build muscle, swimming can help you burn fat during and long after your exercise.

As a low-impact exercise, swimming will not put much pressure on your joints. Thus, exercisers at all levels including, those with joint pains and other injuries, can take up the activity.

Aside from helping you burn unwanted fat, swimming can help improve your flexibility. It can also help reduce the risk of getting various diseases.

Swimming is a full-body workout. It can tone your upper and lower bodies, as well as your core, abs, and quads at the same time.

How many hours of swimming you need per week to help you lose weight depends on many factors and how intense you swim.

According to Harvard Health Publishing (HHP), if you weigh 155 pounds, you could burn about 233 calories by swimming for an hour.

The types of swimming strokes and your swimming styles can also influence the number of calories you can burn.

If you weighed 155 pounds, you could burn up to 298 calories doing the backstroke for 30 minutes. But you could burn up to 372 calories doing the breaststroke. Further, you could burn up to 409 calories if you opted for the butterfly.

A 12-week study found that 24 middle-aged women lost body fat swimming 3 times every week for 60 minutes per session. The flexibility of the women also improved. The researchers further found that the activity reduced the chances of getting various diseases. The diseases included those associated with the heart (18)

Stair Climbing

Stair climbing is an everyday physical activity that can help you burn calories. It can help boost your cardiovascular fitness. It can help tone your lower body as well.

You don’t need to set aside any specific time to do the exercise. By skipping the elevator for the stairs, you could burn more calories throughout the day.

You could turn it into a vigorous-intensity physical activity by running up the stairs. This could help you burn even more calories.

Studies have shown that you could burn more calories per minute stair climbing than by jogging at a slow pace. Aside from helping you maintain a healthy weight, it can also help you build and maintain stronger bones, muscles, and joints. (19)

According to studies, stair climbing uses up to 9 times more energy than sitting. It also uses up to 7 times more energy than going up on an elevator.

Generally, the faster you climb, the more calories you can burn. Also, the heavier you are, the more calories you can burn.

A Word from Livelife

There are many fat burning exercises that can help you burn calories, and thus, help you lose weight quickly

Many factors come into play to determine how many calories you can burn with each exercise

There are no guarantees that the fat burning exercises we have listed will help you lose weight.

Experts recommend you burn more calories than you consume. That implies combining your exercises with other changes in your lifestyle.

You must combine your exercises with a balanced healthy diet. Your pre-workout foods and your post-workout foods play a role in your effort to burn calories.

Thus, a balanced and healthy diet with correct food choices is as important as your weekly exercises.