What kind of exercise most benefits heart health as well as weight loss?

High energy exercise--such as brisk walking, bicycling, swimming, cross country skiing, step aerobics, Jazzercise--when continued for more than 30 minutes requires your body to begin to burn stored fat for energy. Although you want to exercise large muscle groups, you don't have to put your joints as risk by more demanding activities such as jogging. These high energy forms of exercise, when done for longer than the 30 minutes, have also been shown to raise your HDL, the good form of cholesterol.