The great thing about exercise is it helps burn calories. An added bonus is that certain forms of exercise allow the body to keep burning fat even after the exercise is done. This is because the energy that was used during the exercise has to be replenished. To do this the body burns extra fat calories. This is called “excess postexercise oxygen consumption.” Some research shows that fat keeps burning for an hour after exercise while another study shows the calorie-burning effects last until the next day.
The intensity of the workout seems to affect this more than the length of the workout. Intense exercise that includes stops and starts during the workout leads to more fat burned afterward.
The authors of this study focused on resistance training (weight lifting), since it is an exercise that involves stopping and starting. Past studies of this type have mainly been done on men. These authors wanted to see whether the calorie-burning trends were the same in women, whose intensity during weight lifting would generally be lower than that of men.
The study included twelve women who were regular lifters. Participants performed three sets of 10 repetitions, completing a circuit of nine different resistance exercises. Their workouts totaled 45 minutes of high-intensity lifting with 60 second rest intervals. Before and after-exercise calorie-burning measures were taken.
The results showed that energy use stayed high for up to 60 minutes after exercise. After 90 minutes, there wasn’t much additional calorie burning, but the calories being burned tended to be from fat. The body attempts to replace sugars used during exercise, so it turns to fat calories to restock energy stores.
Compared to the amount of energy burned at rest, exercise burned 79 percent more fat. The authors insist that further studies are needed to see how these figures actually impact changes in body fat and weight control.