Why do you exercise? Most of the time, the main motivation to exercise is to lose weight. When our body stores excessive body fats, our metabolism slows down. Further inactivity does nothing to help speed it up. The body's metabolism must reach a certain speed before it can begin the fat burning process. Needless to say, exercise fill this need.

But what kind of workout speeds up metabolism to burn away fat? There are many theories on this matter but where boosting the metabolic rate is concerned, nothing beats cardiovascular exercises. When done early in the morning before you've taken anything, cardio exercises really do their thing in burning away fat. This is because during sleep, the body burns calories, especially complex carbohydrates so that in the morning, the blood sugar and carb levels are almost to the point of depletion. In order for the body to accomplish its activities for the day, it looks for an alternative source of energy and that is the stored body fat.

When you do cardio exercises at this time everyday, even for at least 30 minutes, you are really letting the body dip into the stored body fat and thereby burn it. When combined with increased meal frequencies (4 - 6 small meals per day, or 3 meals and 2 healthy snack meals) you keep your metabolism burning all throughout the day which keeps the fat burning process up.

So what are these fat loss workouts? The simplest and easiest to do for those who have been couch potatoes for a long time is walking. Try brisk walking early in the day for 30 minutes 5 to 6 times a week (you can start with only 15 minutes and move up to 30). Another exercise is aerobic dancing. Not only does this give you a great cardio workout necessary for fat loss, it's also fun. The music simply encourages you to keep on moving! If you have a pool in your home or can find one nearby, then swimming is an even better alternative. It has virtually no impact to the joints and benefits your body not only in terms of fat loss but in toning the muscles as well.

When your cardio exercises are coupled with resistance training exercises, you also expedite the fat burning process. Resistance training routines build muscle which is also an essential element of losing excess body fat. If you want the guidance of an instructor, then you can always avail yourself of a gym membership. However, you can still do bodyweight exercises at home if enrolling in a gym is inconvenient or unaffordable for you. Crunches, pull ups and push ups are simple bodyweight routines that can be done right in the comfort of your very own home. These develop muscle and burn away fat.

To conclude, the basic idea behind fat loss workouts is to keep your physical activity levels up throughout the day. Even the mere chasing around of your toddler is a fat-burning activity. To burn fat, keep moving!