Before you begin an exercise routine, it is important to know the difference between burning fat and burning calories. Just because you’re burning calories does not mean you are burning fat. You cannot lose body fat just by burning calories.

When you first begin exercising, the calories you burn are calories from carbohydrates, and that just burns “water weight.” To burn calories from stored fat, you have to exercise hard enough to reach or exceed your age-recommended target heart rate. Carbohydrates are your initial source of energy calories. Burn carbohydrates only, and your muscles will not receive enough energy to increase your metabolism, and that is what burns fat, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic.

Walking

Believe it or not, if done long and fast enough to reach or exceed your target heart rate, walking can actually be a good fat-burning workout. If you’re a bit out of shape, you can start on flat surfaces and as you get better conditioned, try a hilly route. As your endurance grows, you can start to increase your speed and length of time walking to fat-burning intensity.

Body weight exercises

Rather than lifting free weights or using weight machines, body weight exercises use your own weight to tone and burn fat. When it comes to body weight exercises, crunches and push-ups are some of the best fat-burning workouts you can do.

Using free weights

For women, strength training has several benefits. It burns both calories and fat, and builds muscles that help protect bones. Experts have found that if you mix up the type of exercises you are doing, it causes muscle confusion and helps burn calories faster. You might want to try using dumbbells first, and then jump on your stationary bike for a cardio workout. After the cardio workout, go back to your free weights, and so on.

Circuit exercising

One of the best fat burning exercise tips available is to circuit train. Once again, change your routine around. Do your circuit training on a stair stepper, then hop off and hit the free weights.

Pilates

Developed by Joseph Pilates, this yoga-like exercise does a surprisingly good job helping its 10 million followers lose weight and maintain a more fit body. Fat burning is not the only benefit you’ll receive from Pilates. According to the Pilates Fitness Journal, Pilates helps with circulation, heart strain, posture and energy.

Cycling/spinning

This is a great example of a cardio workout with a mixed routine which maximizes your fat-burning workout. The nice thing about spinning is you have more control over your workout. You can add hills or skip them all together.

Stair climber and elliptical machines

If you have to exercise indoors, a treadmill is good, but a stair climber or elliptical machine is far better, as the latter two both multi-task by working more muscle groups.

Next time you’re watching an infomercial on weight loss, remember the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.” Nothing replaces a proper diet and exercise when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.

Article Adapted From http://life.gaiam.com/article/top-7-fat-burning-exercises