Anyone who has been reading about fitness on the internet or in articles must have read about EPOC or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. If you are not sure what exactly it is, then here is your chance to get a good understanding of what the EPOC effect is and how can you use it to your advantage.
You must have noticed that every time you do something stenuous, gasp for air once you have stopped. Infact, you gasp for air even more than when you were actually doing the strenuous activity. You create an oxygen debt and this is basically your body trying to bring itself back to normal or the resting state. This effect stays active even after your have stopped all the gasping. The internal body keeps using oxygen on a higher rate for some time. The good news for us fatless junkies is that, it brings some other benefits along with it. These benefits are:
- Hormone balancing
- Replenishment of fuel stores
- Cellular repair
- Anabolism
- and last but not the least ELEVATED METABOLISM
All five of the above are extremely useful, but the raising of metabolism in particular is what will help you become FATLESS. Research has shown that if your workout session is demanding enough, your metabolism will be elevated for hours and hours after the workout. One study showed that the EPOC effect will stay in action upto 38 hours. Oh, another thing, as we will have more oxygen in the system, the fat cells are broken down and sent to the bloodstream to be used as energy. Great, isn't it.
The effects of EPOC are said to be longer and more prominent after HIT (High Intensity Training) or weight training as opposed to cardio. If you do a cardio session at a very low intensity for 45 minutes, you will get a bit of EPOC effect for something like a couple of hours. However, think about it this way, you will breakdown the fats and use them as energy during the workout and after the workout, you will have a marginally raised metabolism for a couple of hours where you use all sources for energy and recovery and then you are back to normal. On the other hand, after a weight training (or HIT) session, you will use energy primarily from carbohydrates and then the metabolism will be elevated for a long time therefore burning a lot of calories from all sources. So overall, you use a lot more energy in the latter option. One thing to note in the cardio option is that you burn the fats and a bit of carbs, but there are a lot of carbs left over and if they are not used, they will be converted to fat, therefore showing you less benefits.
So basically, if you want to really get benefits of the EPOC effect, you need to concentrate on HIT and weight training. Opt for cardio on off days or low intensity days as you should not be doing HIT or weight training every day.
Most of the workouts that you will find on FATLESS FORMULA are HIT workouts so that you can gain maximum benefits from your exercise sessions.
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