How Long does your body continue to burn calories after a workout?

Question

How Long does your body continue to burn calories after a workout?

Answer 1

First of all I want to say your head's in the right place - the cals burned AFTER a workout is a much more significant number than during.  Too many people are focused on cals burned during a workout.

To answer your question, it really depends on the exercise performed and the intensity.  The higher the intensity and the more muscle fibers recruited overall, the higher the EPOC (excess post-oxygen consumption) which is a condition where the body expends calories in the form of free form fatty acids while it tries to achieve homeostasis.  Additionally, intense exercise sessions taxes the CNS, which in turn causes the metabolic rate to rise as the CNS recovers.  Finally, intense exercise releases fat burning hormones, chiefly GH and testosterone, both of which are powerful fat burners.  All this assumes adequate and proper post-exercise nutrition.

So, 15 minutes of intense full-out intervals will in the 24 hour period burn a lot more cals than a 60 minute slow to moderate paced cardio session.  Several scientific studies have been performed on this very topic (see below).  Measureable metabolic increases have been reported several hours after intense weight lifting or intense cardio sessions.

The point is, the mindset should be how to increase the resting metabolic rate in a 24 hour period, where real fat burning occurs.