Here’s an interesting post I found on Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog. If you don’t know what EPOC is, it stands for Excess Post-Exercise Consumption, it’s really the amount of extra oxygen we consume after exercise to get back to a normal homeostasis in the body, all that extra oxygen helps the body work harder and burn more fat. EPOC is elevated when you train at high intensity with things like weight training, or intervals, or high intensity circuits. I talk about EPOC in my newsletters quite frequently. It’s one of the most important factors for fat loss. Here’s Alwyn’ s post:
Another study on EPOC –
Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM.
Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for body mass management.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7. Epub 2002 Jan 29
- Concluded that a circuit based weight training routine consisting of 4 exercises resulted in an EPOC that lasted 38 hours and metabolism was significantly elevated over the baseline measurement taken on a non-training day.
It’s also important to note that the effect of weight training may have an as yet unknown effect on EPOC when compared to other forms of exercise. This study:
Braun WA, Hawthorne WE, Markofski MM.
Acute EPOC response in women to circuit training and treadmill exercise of matched oxygen consumption.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2005 Aug;94(5-6):500-4.
- Compared treadmill exercise and circuit weight training at the same oxygen consumption intensity (ie the exercise programs were effectively matched) and found a higher EPOC in the short term with the circuit group.
Another study on EPOC:
Børsheim E, Bahr R
Effect of exercise intensity, duration and mode on post-exercise oxygen consumption.
Sports Med. 2003;33(14):1037-60
noted that “The relationships between the intensity and duration of resistance exercise and the magnitude and duration of EPOC have not been determined, but a more prolonged and substantial EPOC has been found after hard versus moderate resistance exercise.”
I would agree with that – however “hard” isn’t just determined by load. And load isn’t the primary factor when we’re looking to generate fat loss.
–
AC
Train hard, burn fat!