Best exercise by your experience...

One of the best overall exercises you can do is the bent leg / standard Dead lift. It works your thighs, hamstrings, lower back, core, arms, shoulders and upper back. Done with good technique you can go extremely heavy for 1-2 rep lifts (anaerobic), or lower the weight and (still with good technique) increase the reps to get a more aerobic impact.

Go to a good gym and get some instruction on the proper technique before you attempt it though.

If you want to get good at running, go running - if you want to shed excess bodyfat, look specifically into the types of exercise that will assist with that goal - be specific.

Good luck.

I got the best results from reducing my food intake and by sitting less.

The usual fat loss (and fitness) plan includes full-body strength training + some cardio. I do both.

Get on a full-body weight lifting routine.

For exercise sake - muscle activation, cardio, core, etc - nothing beats jumping burpees.

If you are just trying to burn calories for weight loss, it is a mix of steady state and high intensity cardio.

Tricep kickbacks



Just kidding! Love dead lifts.

I do HIIT and strength training (mostly on alternative days) and it works wonders. There isn't ONE exercise, I'd recommend because you do need to work different parts of your body with different concentrations and intensities. A plan that gets all of your main muscle groups is the key.

Heavy Squats

"Best" is going to be relative to ones fitness goals. As a matter of general all around fitness you should be doing cardio work as well as resistance training (follow an actual program) and it should be pretty balanced. I would also suggest stability, balance, and flexibility work as well.

For general fitness I ride 4x weekly and average about 60 miles or so per week. I lift 3x weekly and do a full body, compound routine...this is also where I fit in my stability, balance, and flexibility work.

For programming, look into New Rules of Lifting for Women...even if you don't do the program, it's an excellent read and a good intro into the world of resistance training/weight training. If you don't have equipment you should focus on bodyweight work with maybe some band work and light dumbbell work if you have them.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/

^^^this is a pretty good resource to get you started as well and they have some ideas for beginners and formulating a decent routine. You just don't want to be willy nilly doing whatever...you want something that is properly programmed to get the best results.

Whatever you enjoy doing. If you hate it, you won't keep doing it.

Exercise should be enjoyable, not a punishment for eating.

Totally this. You will get different answers, because everyone is different.

I do bodypump once a week and go horseback riding two to three times a week. I was running, and finished C25K, and I might go back to that at some point. I had heard a lot of folks put down bodypump as "only cardio," but I am getting good results from it--definition and strength. They might be newbie gains, but my upper body looks better than it ever has (I have biceps! and my bingo wings are smaller/firmer) and I no longer despise my calves. I enjoy the class, where I doubt I would have stuck to (or even started) a heavy lifting routine. I tried a bodyweight exercise program, and didn't really like it.

TL;DR--experiment until you find something you like to do, the results will follow from consistency.

Rowing. It's a great whole body workout and it doesn't strain your joints too much.