Most people think of cardio when it comes to exercising to lose fat. That's because running, biking, or any other form of intense aerobic exercise helps to burn calories, as well as raise the body's metabolism.

But there are new studies out that show weight training to be better at raising your resting metabolic rate, which is the rate at which you burn calories at rest. This may mean that the best way to burn off unwanted fat is by building muscle in the gym.

There is one requirement for weight training to be effective at raising the metabolism. The weight lifting must be very intense to produce a drastic increase in resting metabolic rate.

Lifting light weights or exercising for too short a time can diminish the results. You need to do 3 to 4 sets per exercise and do an average of 6 to 8 reps for each.

This ensures that each major muscle group is trained intensely. In the studies, it was shown that the test subjects resting metabolic rate was still elevated, on average 21%, even 24 hours after the workout.

It appears weight training can release hormones like growth hormone and norepinephrine that assist in the fat burning process.

Also, removing the lactic acids that's built up through heavy weight training also requires calorie expenditure.

Finally, the muscle building process of repairing damaged muscle tissue caused by weight lifting can also burn more calories.

Building muscle itself will increase resting metabolic rate, since muscle tissue burns far more calories at rest than fat.

So the more lean muscle mass you have, the higher the resting metabolism. That's why building muscle through weight training is also a way to lose unwanted body fat.

The best way to lose fat is to combine cardio with weight training, to create a synergistic effect in which both work together to burn calories.

So if you're currently trying to lose some fat, try to focus on building muscle as well, through weight training, so you can raise your metabolism and burn more calories at rest.