There are a lot of myths about losing weight, and in particular how to burn more fat when you exercise.  Any activity that you take part in requires the body to use energy, and that energy can come either from fat or from carbohydrates.   If you take a slow stroll around the park, you’ll use mostly fat.  But if you really push up the intensity, the energy contribution from fat drops down, and you’ll be calling on your carbohydrate stores to provide the fuel to your muscles.

Since you use a greater percentage of energy from fat when doing exercise that is not too strenuous, you may think that you ought to work out that way in order to burn more fat.   Consider this, however: the total number of calories that you burn with low intensity exercise, even if all those calories come from fat, doesn’t add up to the total number of calories (many of which are also fat calories) you burn when increase the intensity.

In the end, a calorie is a calorie, whether it comes from fat or from carbohydrates.  So if you are interested in burning calories for weight loss, you’ll make much better progress if you push yourself a bit harder, so that your body uses more fuel, i.e. calories.  For even more impact, try some interval training or LONG exercise sessions – these are tried and true ways to increase the number of calories you burn.