jrusmc, hss given some very good advice above, the bucket thing sounds really good to be honest.
There are many methods of exercise that claim to be effective at fat burning, Swimming is a great way to lose fat… It’s Possibly one of the best way’s to get ripped IMO. The best fat burning exercises use the entire body and as many muscles as possible. This is why swimming is so ideal in form of fat burning.
Not only do these exercises increase the amount of calories burned, frequent exercising can increase metabolism rates even on days when no exercise is achieved. As the body gets used to burning fat and will eventually burn more calories than it intakes naturally, increasing the metabolism. It is important to intake enough calories to be able to continue this exercise as you know.
Many years ago with my club, I vagly remember, Chop and Change your strokes, Instead of doing one lengh with a one stroke, X amount of lenghs with freestyle = 1/4 of the pool we did front, next 1/4 you turn and do back then Breast then Butterfly.
Or instead of 1/4’s you did 4 or 5 strokes of each repeatly for so many lenghs (Strick form ofcourse must be kept) - Tigershark Style is alos another way but that’s advanced. Ofcourse doing all this we had a coach at the side telling us to change and we also could judge our strokes well enough. Sadly the swimming club days were many moons ago and I got bored of it and went to Boxing-MMA.
My time at Boxing, skipping is generally considered a more anaerobic work - IMO it is not the best exercise for burning fat directly, even though it does burn a great deal of energy. an ideal exercise for a great cardio workout, yes. Ofcourse the more you do this, the higher your fitness levels will increase, and this will help you develop a much better energy system allowing the body to burn fat
Effective fat loss doesn’t always mean choosing exercise which burn fat directly, all exercises have their benefits and it is probably best to use various exercises when attempting to lose weight.
May the force be with you,