Anyone reading up on HIIT will come across the term "afterburn effect" fairly often. You'll find it on the banners for the Bowflex Max Trainers too.
What is the afterburn effect?
Put very simply, the afterburn effect is the burning of extra calories after your workout. Another name for it is "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption", or EPOC for short.
After your session your body has to go through various processes to return to a resting state, including:
- Replenishing glycogen in the muscles
- Bringing lactate levels back to normal
- Muscle repair
- Bringing the heart rate down
- Replenishing ATP stores
- and so on
All of these processes cost our bodies energy (meaning calories burned), which is where the name "afterburn effect" comes from.
How effective is afterburn, or EPOC?
Research indicates that most of the calories are burned in the first hour after a workout, and that the effect then continues on a declining curve for 10 to 72 hours.
A study in Norway indicated that 80 minutes of running at moderate intensity burns an average of 150 extra calories through EPOC. Eighty minutes is a very long time, though, and if your aim is to build muscle mass and strength it's extremely important to keep cardio sessions short and sharp. That's one of the reasons HIIT is so popular. The Max Trainers cater to this nicely with their 14-minute session, and the Bowflex LateralX machines are extremely well suited to it too.
Do you burn more with HIIT than with traditional cardio?
So how much does HIIT differ from traditional cardio when it comes to EPOC? Flinders University carried out this study. Thirty minutes of high intensity interval training burns an average of around 69 calories after the workout.
How large that afterburn effect is depends on a whole range of factors, including intensity, age, training level and sex.
80 minutes at moderate intensity (running) ---> average burn: 150 kcal
30 minutes of HIIT (running) ---> average burn: 69 kcal
So it's significantly better, but far from what some fitness "specialists" or companies claim. Add up those 69 calories three times a week, though, and you're burning an extra 200 or so a week. Repeat that for a few weeks and those "extra" calories certainly add up. The afterburn effect is more of a cherry on the cake, then.
If you're working towards a goal where you want to burn as much fat as possible while losing as little muscle mass and strength as you can, HIIT really is your best choice.
At NRG we distribute the ideal products for it.
We've recently added the Octane Max Trainer, the most brutal HIIT machine on the market.
Thanks to its built-in 14-minute session, you get all the benefits of the afterburn effect in your gym, hotel, CrossFit box or PT studio.
Are the Max Trainers not entirely your thing after all? Then there's also the Bowflex LateralX mentioned above.
A distinctive movement you won't find on any other machine.
Questions, or would you like to experience the afterburn effect for yourself?
Email sales@nrgfitness.nl and we'll put you in touch with your nearest reseller.
