OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022 - 19

19 WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM | VOL 22 NO 5 | 2022
Many people simply find the results
too hard to believe. Others say the study
was flawed for one reason or another, and
still others point to the fact that the study
has never been replicated.
So what did this research find that was
so unbelievable to some? A workout
lasting only thirty minutes, that includes
only three exercises and no cardio, was
able to create a metabolic ripple that lasted
for forty-eight hours afterward. The crazy
thing, when the researchers stopped their
measurements at the end of forty-eight
hours, the metabolic rate was still elevated
over pre-workout measures by nineteen
percent.
-
Seven college-age men were enrolled in
the study and did no activity for four days
leading up to the study. On day one, the
participants had their oxygen capacity
measured at 7a.m., 12p.m. and 5p.m. This
was the " resting day " or " pre-exercise "
day.
The following day the subjects were
again tested at 7a.m. and 12p.m., but the
5p.m. measure was preceded by the
workout. The workout consisted of four
sets each of bench press, squats, and
powercleans using a ten repetition
maximum (a weight they could lift ten
times but not eleven).
The final piece was to add the purely
anaerobic contribution to the totals. These
additions changed the final tally to thirtynine
kilocalories for the aerobic exercise
compared to sixty-five kilocalories for the
sprint exercise. When the researchers
added both excess post-exercise oxygen
consumption and the anaerobic
contribution to the original calorie total,
the sprint exercise was shown to far
surpass the aerobic exercise in total
calories burned.
This is striking when one considers
that the aerobic exercise session took over
four times longer to complete (two
hundred and ten seconds virus forty-five
seconds). What is most compelling is that
without including both excess postexercise
oxygen consumption and
anaerobic expenditure to the energy totals,
a full ninety-four percent of the calories
used during sprinting goes uncounted.
-
Exercise afterburn is not excess postexercise
oxygen consumption and it's not
metabolic elevation either. Unfortunately,
it has been shown that exercise, especially
aerobic exercise, provides little metabolic
advantage if any.
Dr. Edward Melanson published these
findings in Exercise and Sport Science
Reviews. While high-intensity interval
training and weight training generate
larger excess post-exercise oxygen
consumption measures than other forms
of exercise, this may not be as significant
as you may think.
The real exercise afterburn is likely
coming from increased calorie expenditure
during exercise, as demonstrated by the
Dr. Scott studies, but also by unique fuel
portioning effects created by hormone
changes during activity.
The metabolic rate can stay the same,
but if the relative ratios of fat to sugar
usage are shifted, then there is an increase
in fat-burning without a change in
metabolic rate.
-
For every action, there is a compensatory
reaction. This statement is key in
understanding why hormonal exercise that
focuses on short-duration, high-intensity
is better than the standard calorie
counting, long-duration approach.
Ghrelin is a hunger hormone that
signals hunger. When this hormone is
elevated we feel hungry, and when it's low
we feel satisfied.
Standard long-duration aerobic
exercise raises ghrelin levels, causing
compensatory eating reactions. In
contrast, Regulatory Peptides, a research
paper showed shorter duration exercise
does not have the same effect on ghrelin.
THE FAT-MELTING
WORKOUT
The European Journal of Applied Physiology
published a study that has changed the
way people look at fitness forever,
confusing confounding researchers,
doctors, and fitness professionals.
Subjects did each set to failure and
adjusted the weight up or down so that
each set created mechanical failure
between eight and twelve repetitions.
After the workout, the subjects
immediately had their metabolic measures
reassessed. They were then measured
again six times over the next forty-eight
hours.
Twenty-four hours after the workout
the metabolic rate was twenty-one percent
higher. Forty-eight hours after the
workout, the metabolic rate was nineteen
point three percent higher.
Based on these calculations, the
researchers concluded four hundred and
four calories and three hundred and sixtynine
calories were burned during the first
and second day, respectively. As the
researchers pointed out, " This equates to
seven hundred and seventy-three
kilocalories expended post-exercise. "
If we take these results as true, and
there is no reason why we shouldn't, what
does this tell us about the nature of
exercise prescriptions for fat loss?
Intensity is king!
It would be convenient to dismiss this
study, except there are other studies that
have found similar effects. And of course,
some have not been able to duplicate the
responses of this study. A quick look at
both shows intensity is the missing link.
When analyzing all these studies
carefully, several things become clear. One:
aerobic exercise modalities fail to deliver
anywhere near the same metabolic effect
http://WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM
OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022
