Running to some is amazing (comme moi)
rowing machines are also great, gets the heart rate up and you're working basically your whole body - it has helped strengthen my shoulder muscles and I like to use them to cross train
weight lifting is important and will increase the metabolism
I would like to try pole dancing, it looks so fun and it seems as if it would help strengthen my arms (everytime I lift weights over 35lb my veins seem to pop when I look in the mirror so I freak out)

The bodybugg looks like a pretty cool device, and I've seen like two people with it say they love it. It is very convenient. I still don't know how it does what it does, but it basically reads everything about you from your arm and the changes in you temperature, bloodflow, etc. It's crazy, just go check out the websites documentation on it. I think this will actually be the future where it will be incorporated into our clothes or a little band or patch that will register all your vital stats recorded throughout the day, but that is a ways off and requires some other technologies, but you can see the benefit!

Anyway, as a personal trainer I hear questions like this one a lot. The simple answer is:

It depends

As you aptly pointed out, some people like this while others like that. The "best way to burn calories" is the one that you enjoy, will do regularly and often and burns calories. How do we know if it is burning calories? Because your heart rate has increased such that your body has to work harder to do the activity. The fact is I'm burning calories right now sitting on my rump (about 2200 for my basal metabolic rate, BMR). Of course, this isn't an "activity" lol

While I am fine with anyone using the elliptical, I now caution to the fact that the calorie calculation the elliptical uses is not accurate at all. [Elliptical Trainers Lie]. Running demands a bit more, but puts a lot of stress on the body. Cycling, incline walking or stairs demands a lot, too, because it highly utilizes the large leg muscles. The fact is, I was burning far more calories per minute at a 30% gradient at 2.5 mph than I do at level ground at 7.5 mph (8 min/mile pace). Which one was harder? The running is harder on my joints and I feel it more in that sense, but which made my heart pump more, my lungs demand more oxygen? The walking! Why? Intensity.

Thus, the best calorie burning workout is the one that you do more intently. The fact is that whichever exercise you can do the most demanding work in will burn the most calories because when you work harder ... shockingly ... you burn more calories. Not everyone can get on a treadmill and run 8 mph, but you certainly can walk quickly on a hill to do the same level of work. On the other hand, swimming could be rather easy since you're like weightless, you don't sweat, etc., but you are still using muscles not often used in endurance activities and limiting your oxygen intake, all of which puts high demands on the body.

Returning to what you said, though, one could also go dance, play sports or whatever. All these activities are still activities. While you aren't going to dance to the intensity that a sprinter does, you are still going to burn calories. I left salsa dancing sweaty with sore calves because it does stress the body. The real question is

how long did I do it?
how difficult was it?
how often do I do it?

Those three things determine the total impact because the longer you do it and more frequent you do it the more you will get the benefit of it determined by how difficult it was to you. On the flip side, if someone does want to burn more calories you do get a better benefit and change in your body composition if you incorporate resistance training because more lean tissue increases your resting metabolic rate (sustained amount of calories one will burn throughout the day). I was actually going to do a blog on this last year but never got around to it!

@methodElevated - agreed. I wanted to join my school's dragonboat racing team but b/c my dad told me to pick either running or dragonboat (I picked running) I like to imagine myself rowing with the team. My local YMCA didn't have rowing machines when I still had a membership but thankfully, my school weightroom has a few and b/c I'm the only girl there I tend to always get to use it

@PPhilip - First, I'd say you're missing out if you don't subscribe to this blog since she provides some very useful information. I only expect this blog to get better. As for personal training, you should have a good idea about the person before you ever hire them if they work at your gym because a good personal trainer is out there getting to know potential clients. As you get to know them, you develop that relationship before you ever have to pay them. The only downside is once money gets involved it does change the social dynamic which is one thing I always hated, as a trainer, having to go out and make my own sales, handle the contracts, etc. Not to mention after doing all that, I still only got a small fraction of the money they spent on the training! Some gyms just try to rip trainers off, but I digress.

I like to get my exercise outdoors as much as possible. The gym just gets so boring for me. I only go there to use the track when it's really awful out or to swim. I have to watch what I eat because I have IBS but I don't really worry about the whole calorie in out thing.

@i_Nutrition - It actually depends, because I did a lot of that small talk when I was a trainer and it was rarely about money. Then again, I'm different than most people! I'm not pushy, but I did want to build that relationship with my clients. These people talk to me every day, get comfortable with me, get tips from me, see me training other clients, etc., What happens when they realize that they want to improve their game? They come to me! I am not a pitch man, and I don't care to screw people out of money, especially when I had no incentive and received very little of it for all the damn work lol That, and it is a nice way to pick up cute girls that are all icky sweaty, but I like that kind of thing haha

I think to enjoy personal training you have to really enjoy helping people, and really enjoy sales. If you want to do well in the industry, you will have to be a salesman. It is a business in the end. Unless, of course, you build your own business and do your own model. I frankly would have enjoyed a personal training studio that did nothing but training, and let people specialize in what they're good at, like something with sports-specific training, nutrition counseling, fitness counseling, etc. I'm much better as an educator, and would rather just do the whole counseling part than go out and sell, sell and train. Other people are more naturally inclined to motivate people by their mere presence, while others are better suited to pitching the benefits of health and bringing in clients. To be successful, you have to have the spirit of all those. I didn't, and I got sick of stupid and lazy people. I'm much more suited for athletic clients. I'd make a good coach! Group fitness is also another alternative.

My advice, though, since getting certified isn't all that hard. The material is not entirely foreign to you with the classes you've taken, I'm sure. Try to avoid working at a big gym. You are an employee more than a trainer, and they skim way too much off the top usually. While they may also offer more incentive packages, that all revolves around sales, sales and making the company money. You can be much more satisfied working at a smaller gym that, say, only requires you to pay them a "cover charge" to train out of their gym. You pay your own liability insurance, get your clients and do things on your time, entirely autonomous. It really depends on the gym, the clients in that area and any outside networking you might build. The experience would be good for you, especially if you ever get into a more holistic front for wellness because those networks are everything. You can help people get their lives together from fitness in the gym, rehabilitation from injury from doctors, counsel on nutrition, etc. It's all interconnected, and having experience with that network from another angle definitely is enlightening. It all depends, though. It depends on you, what you want and what you're comfortable with.