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Post-Exercise Fat Burning is a Myth

Monday June 29, 2009

Are you walking 10K and eating for 20K? Don't count on moderate exercise to boost your metabolism past what you burn in your exercise session. A study found no increased fat burning in the 24 hours after exercise vs. after a non-exercise day.

The study had participants bike off 400 calories and measured their fat metabolism over the next 24 hours. The bad news is that there was no fat-burning afterglow. The moderate exercise itself burnt fat, but it didn't rev up the body's fat burning machine when the person wasn't exercising.

While adding a pound of muscle will increase your calories burned per day by 5-8, very few of us are putting on enough muscle to earn an extra snack a day. It would take 20 pounds of muscle just to burn off some string cheese. Don't even think about the hulk you would have to be to burn off a hot fudge sundae!

If you are carefully balancing exercise with your food intake, use calorie calculators to get an approximate calorie burn, but don't overdo on the food rewards.
Walking Calorie Calculator
Calorie Count
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner

^{Source: Melanson EL, MacLean PS, Hill JO. "Exercise improves fat metabolism in muscle but does not increase 24-h fat oxidation." Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2009 Apr;37(2):93-101.}