The EPOC Effect

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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Which Cardio to do and When?

If you haven’t already read ‘Why cardio? Do you really need it?’, then go through it and come back to this post. If you have, then you know the importance of cardio exercises. Now that we know that cardio should be a part of any fitness regime, we can now discuss what kind of cardio suits YOU.

I pointed out that there are two types of cardio exercises – steady state and High Intensity Trainings. Now both have benefits and both have drawbacks, so you need to decide for yourself which one suits you. Let’s take a look at the steady state cardio first.

Steady State: Steady state is for people who do not mind taking out an hour for a workout, do not want to push themselves to the limit, prefer working out in the morning and do not get bored easily. There is a debate on whether you should do this kind of cardio on an empty stomach in the morning when glycogen stores are at a minimum! Some say you should eat something and wait about an hour before you start and some say, don’t take anything. In my personal experience, taking a glass of skimmed milk half an hour before running off is a good way BUT you don’t have to. If you are a pro-bodybuilder, then you are very particular about muscle mass, but for the average Joe, losing 0.001 grams of muscle after a workout is not that big a deal. Another thing to notice is that chances are that your body will have protein in it anyways, if you are eating right, so muscle breakdown will only start if there is no protein in your system. You lose a bit of protein all the time, but then you eat more protein and you replenish it. It ain’t rocket science you know!!

This kind of cardio can also be very useful if you are on a high protein and low carb diet. There are not enough carbs in your system to burn out, so you can concentrate on burning the stored fat. So, I would recommend going with a steady state cardio routine if you are taking low carbs. You should avoid HIT if you are on low carb because you can face some serious health problems.

High Intensity Training: As for high intensity training, I would suggest a 40/40/20 carb, protein and fat ratio. You need carbs for the energy and glycogen storage, you need protein for repairing and recovery; you need fat because…ummm…ummm…you just need it…OKAY!!! Plus, you should never do HIIT or HIT in the morning. Make sure that you only do it in the afternoons or evening and you have had a good amount of food throughout the day. HIIT will raise your metabolism for hours and hours after the workout so you need to take in enough calories to cope with it. If you want to check how long the metabolism is fired up, you can do that be just checking your temperature, your sweat or how warm you feel. When you come back to your normal state, your metabolism would have fallen to just above what it normally is.

I suggest you do this work out if you are pressed for time, like high intensity workouts and your primary goal is fitness – not weight loss.

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Problems with starting working out

Starting an exercise program is a touch job, especially if you fall in the couch potato category. I know because I have been there. You can come up with 101 reasons, why not to workout. Basically, us humans like to take the easy way out and HOPE for the best. Well, that may work in some situations, but certainly not in this one. You will never be able to achieve your fitness goal if you do not put in the required time and effort. Here are some problems that most of us face.

Not able to make time for workouts: A vast majority of people don't have fitness as their number one priority on their priority list. If you are a student or you have a full time job, then chances are, you will find it hard to take time out to either go to the gym or workout at home. You will not take out time unless or until getting fit is important to you.

Motivation: Getting yourself motivated to workout is very tough. Putting yourself through agonizing pain when you could be watching TV, having potato wedges and gulping a can of soda does not sound that great. You need to be REALLY motivated to tell yourself 'Alright, get up off your lazy butt and start working out.' The question is, what will motivate you to get fit? You might want to consider some highly motivating music like ‘Eye of the tiger’.

Too difficult: If you manage to take out time and even motivate yourself, most people face the problem of doing stuff that is just too difficult for them. This make you just give up and not even trying anymore. Taking on too much, too soon in any aspect of life will make you give up rather quickly.

Unrealistic Goals: Finally the biggest one. People set VERY unrealistic goals. I have honestly seen a person whose aim was to gain 30 kilos of muscle in 1 month on a kilo a day basis. Now this just isn't possible. But people tend to make this mistake the most.

Now that we know the problems, what do we do next? You obviously need solutions to these problems. Here is another post that talks about How to start an exercise program with great tips on how to avoid the problems mentioned above and more.

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