When you are looking to lose weight, the formula is simple and it never changes. You have to burn more calories than you take in. Aside from healthy dieting, that means that high cardio exercises are your best choices. Following is a list of the best exercises that may only take fifteen to thirty minutes of your day, but will give you the best burn for your time.

1. Aerobics: This is the best form of exercise for burning a lot of calories in a short time, and one form of aerobics, particularly step aerobics, is one of the most popular cardio exercises for women. This type of exercise targets the legs and butt, as well as burning calories giving you the best of both worlds. Done properly, step aerobics can burn over 400 calories in 30 minutes. It doesn’t get much better than that.

2. Biking: This can be done either way, with outdoors or a stationary bike. Some of the advantages of biking outdoors includes the weather, scenery, and the need for balance. Natural inclines can give some rest while hills give strong physical workouts. The change up also keeps all the muscles working. Biking is a great way to get into shape, and you can still move quickly. The stationary bike is just as good, and is a great way to burn a lot of calories in a short time inside. Some of the more advanced stationary bikes allow you to even program in hills and mountain climbing. Depending on what kind of resistance and speed you work out at, you can pretty easily burn 400-1,000 calories in just one hour.

3. Swimming: Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise, and is especially effective because it is a full body exercise, working all of the muscles, but the water makes everything low impact. Different types of swim strokes can burn as many as 3-500 calories in half an hour.

4. Cross-Country Skiing: This is a great winter exercise for when biking or swimming just are not viable options. This is a major work out, using both arm, chest, and back muscles, as well as all the leg muscles. Working your way through snow makes for a work out just as good as any swimming or light biking.

5. Walking: Brisk walking is one of the least strenuous forms of cardio exercises. Walking can burn up to 150 calories in only half an hour, and because of how easy walking is on the body most people can walk for two hours and not even realize it!

These are some of the best and easiest exercises to burn a large amount of calories in a short time, which will in turn lead to much better results in weight loss than any diet could ever promise. It takes both, and making these exercises part of your weekly routine will guarantee that the weight will come off and you’ll be looking at a slimmer, happier, you.