High Intensity Training (HIIT) is top notch for fat loss, there's no doubt about that.
First off, The Afterburn Effect is real (it's part of your daily recovery), but if you’ve ever heard any these myths about The Afterburn Effect, you may have been lied to.
Is it as effective as some claim? Lets talk about it.
It’s not uncommon to hear people blaring on about “burning fat on autopilot for 36 hours” as a result of doing a 20 minute session at home with no equipment.
Pick up any fitness DVD and you’ll see claims of how this crucial training ingredient is the missing link between a regular body and a ripped, lean body.
But the reality of The Afterburn Effect is far different then some sales people will lead to believe.
In fact, it may not even be close.
I’ve seen tons of people greatly exaggerate the EPOC phenomenon and use it as a marketing tool, without any research to back up their claims.
Heck, these are just a few statements I’ve seen over the years:
“You will become a fat incinerating machine for 36 hours following every workout!”
“Our fitness class will boost your after burn effect x5 over any other class!”
“For every 1000 calories you burn with this workout, you’ll go on to burn an additional 500 calories after the session!”
Let’s take a moment to slam our heads on the desk before moving on.
There is a possibility that they are lying to you (if they know it or not).
--> “You will become a fat incinerating machine for 36 hours following every workout!”
Really?
36 hours?
So if I do three workouts in three days, I’ve already added three 36 hour bouts of pure fat burning, right?
So can I take the week off?
That would have unlocked the miracle fat burning system that genuinely allows people to lose weight by doing barely any exercise and not even talking diet.
No.
After a very hard High Intensity Training Session, The Afterburn Effect can last for up to 14 hours maybe (it's pretty much the time after your workout where your body is recovering).
Not 24. Not 36. Not 48.
And sure, you can find research to support anything you want to (search McDonalds is healthier than) but this comes back to common sense.
--> “Our fitness class will boost your afterburn effect x5 over any other class!”
This one could be more pure marketing hype?
They are merely trying to say our class is better than their class. And there’s nothing wrong with more people offering a service to help people accomplish their goals (since as a whole, us fitness professionals are failing, we need all the help we can get), but it shouldn’t be done by confusing the market with more fancy marketing terms.....
It doesn’t matter where you do it.
It doesn’t matter what equipment you use to do it.
It doesn’t matter whose name is on the door of the building.
Providing you are Training to you Maximum effort , you will see results.
--> “For every 1000 calories you burn with this workout, you’ll go on to burn an additional 500 calories after the session (you are going to burn calories no matter what by being alive)!”
This is not so much marketing hype.
Maybe just a totally incorrect statement?
That would give you a 50% rate of EPOC – a figure unheard of in any study on high intensity interval training. Ever.
In fact, review studies covering the full body of research on High Intensity Training report The Afterburn Effect to typically fall between a 6% – 15% increase in EPOC.
Not 50%.
Quite frankly, if you burned as many calories as some of these people were suggesting, you’d prob be dead.
The afterburn effect is 100% real.
And it sure is useful.
But it is not, and never will be, the missing link between doing 20 minutes of exercise per day and getting ripped.
It’s not the “secret fat loss formula” that many make it out to be.
If you are Training Hard – whether it is outside, in a gym, or at home – you still need to Train Hard and you still need to Keep Your Food Tight in order to Lose Fat.
That said, those 6% – 15% boosts in fat burning activity following each session might not sound like much after they were previously hyped as 50% spikes, but they sure do add up over the course of a couple of solid months of consistent training!
Instead of the quick fix it’s often billed as, The Afterburn Effect should be a long-term concept.
And the stronger you become over time, the faster your metabolism will be in general and the more fat you will burn as a result
What can we take away from this?--> The harder you train (to your Max, not what the treadmill says, but what your body tells you), the better your fat loss will be in the long term.
Committed to your success,
Derek Ledwidge
