Thursday, April 11, 2013

Facebook Q&A on Post Exercise Calorie Expenditure

This is all cut and paste. First, the articles in question from my friend and judo badass: Dan Gomez

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"Two contradictory articles. The first says we burn more calories after intense workouts even up to 14 hours later (increase in metabolism).
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/many-calories-burn-exercise-132500805.html

The second which is linked on the first article's page says that you don't increase metabolism with moderate to intense exercise (don't burn extra calories).

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=is_exercise_a_metabolism_booster_maybe_not

I'd like to look at each of the research used and see the different approaches. What do you think Kristin Laine Newman?
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My answer:
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So I followed the second link back to their reference, which still wasn't the original report. Neither stated what they used for their "moderate" and "vigorous" exercise, but the source referenced "participants all cycled for under an hour, burning up to 400 calories."

The first article also had participants cycle "vigorously" for 45 mins.

The problem I have with this study is two-fold. If you do continuous ANYTHING for 45 mins, you're in steady state cardio land, and your EPOC levels aren't going to be boosted much. You can't ask people to work at 110% of VO2 max for that long. Well, you can ask, but... 

I'm still a believer that HIIT training and intense heavy lifting DO up your EPOC, some studies have shown that the effect lasts up to 48 hours later, slowly tapering off as muscles and the CNS recover. And you'll need trained individuals to get that response because their better adapted for full motor unit recruitment and CNS activation. 

My other issue is that these studies are merited on the calories in vs. calories out paradigm, and give no credence to the type of training that will increase testosterone, increase insulin sensitivity, and generally affect your hormonal profile for the better (HGH, cortisol, etc). That sort of effect is, again, seen time and time again through HIIT and strength training (emphasis on the compound lifts, obviously). 

Better hormonal profile = body primed for fat loss, muscle building, and better use of the good food you feed it.

tl;dr?

Both studies are Meh. Stop reading Yahoo!
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What do you in internet-land think? 

1 comment:

  1. Most of my students have no idea how to eat healthy or what type of physical activity would be right for them. They read articles like these and get more confused.

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