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Interval Training and After Burn

Old 04-16-2010, 04:34 AM
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Question Interval Training and After Burn

I have been using interval training for about 3 years now and have lost about 5 stone so I am quite pleased with it. The pundits talk about the effect of after burn which make it better than aerobics. However, I haver not been able to find any figures or calcs for the caolries burned post excercise to get a comparison. Does anyone know if this is available anywhere.
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Old 04-16-2010, 12:05 PM
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There is a term in exercise science: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This is the technical term for after-burn and is noticeably elevated after intervals, sprints, and heavy lifting, as compared to long-duration low-to-moderate intensity cardio. If you look up EPOC on pubmed or simply Google you should be able to find some charts or formulae that can estimate this for you depending on your activity.

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Old 04-17-2010, 10:59 AM
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Thanks Nik. I have tried some of the sites. One had quite a lot of detail on the science side but was a bit heavy. Others had a general discussion and no detail. But none reallly gave a break down on how to work out the after burn calories for a given exercise. I suppose I'm looking for something similar to the activities section on this site but perhaps it doesn't exist.
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Old 04-17-2010, 11:21 AM
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After looking into this more I've realized that calculating EPOC is difficult and impractical unless you work in a research lab that specializes in this stuff. For the purposes of balancing your calories I think it's safe to add 10-15% calories burned to your base metabolic rate depending on the intensity of your activity, since that's pretty much the range that a lot of studies have described, but it's pretty hard to nail it down to details.

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Old 04-19-2010, 02:48 AM
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Yes I found it bit heavy going myself. I would assume symplistically the more intense / vigorous the work out then the greater the EPOC.
The other thing I am wondering about is intensity v duration. For part of my workout I am currently doing 6 x 1 min sprints (11km/hr) up a 4% incline on the treadmill. However, is this better than say 12 mins at 6.5km/hr.
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Old 04-21-2010, 07:13 AM
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I read an article in Muscle & Fitness magazine that quoted a study (sorry I don't remember the study) that found that subjects who performed HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) had double the fat burn of subjects who performed MISS (Medium Intensity Steady State) cardio workouts. The logic to explain this was that the HIIT puts the body in a state of readiness waiting for the next high intensity interval. This 'After Burn' was good for 24 hours after the cardio was performed. So in essence the HIIT doubles the fat burning for 24 hours after the cardio workout ends.
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Old 04-21-2010, 07:39 AM
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Is there any way besides the perceived exertion scale to calculate where you should be with your intense intervals? It seems so subjective (I hate the pain scale from 0 to 10, also). Can you estimate when you're at the highest level from your heart rate, or is the delay in getting to that heart rate an issue?
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Old 04-21-2010, 07:40 AM
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hi guys, i read this in the new york times health section a week or so ago. Really? - The Claim - For Better Muscle Tone, Go Lighter and Repeat - Question - NYTimes.com

i'm not sure if when you mention interval training are you talking mostly about cardio, or if you are also talking about weights. if you're mainly talking about cardio this article is not applicable.
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Old 07-03-2010, 07:01 PM
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This site gives a logical explanation of intensity vs rest period of high intensity interval training HIIT.
Today I started using the elliptical to do a HIIT workout based on that. Well I couldn't do that just starting out.
I started easy
5min warm up
6x 15:45 intervals on elliptical
5min cool down

I'm going to try to work my way up to the HIIT - cardio - HIIT.

Last edited by vabeachgirlNYC; 08-29-2012 at 07:39 AM. Reason: link removed
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Old 07-08-2010, 06:55 AM
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Originally Posted by kbmealey
Yes I found it bit heavy going myself. I would assume symplistically the more intense / vigorous the work out then the greater the EPOC.
The other thing I am wondering about is intensity v duration. For part of my workout I am currently doing 6 x 1 min sprints (11km/hr) up a 4% incline on the treadmill. However, is this better than say 12 mins at 6.5km/hr.
Hi I'm a huge fan of intervals as well, I couple them with intense weight training.

And as far as intensity vs duration I'm pretty sure intensity is the only way to go. The reason being if you increase duration your intervals at the end will obviously be less intense then your first few, and your goal is to achieve the highest intensity, compared to your rest periods. 6 intervals is plenty, or 3 longer intervals. If you find your intervals are getting to easy mix up your interval pattern and up the intensity, but doing more won't really do much it will just turn your interval training into a lower intensity cardio type workout.

I prefer to use the stationary bike and keep my revolutions constant through intervals and rest, only increasing the resistance to amp the intensity. Doing this is a great way to avoid injuries.



I typically do a 5 min warmup followed by 10 mins of intervals and another 5 min cooldown.

the interval patterns go: 3-4-4-5-5 as a warmup each number is a minute and the number itself corresponds to intensity level

9-3-3-9-3-3-9-3-3-9
8-8-3-3-8-8-3-3-8-8
3-9-3-9-3-9-3-9-3-9

with a 3-3-3-3-3 cooldown

I alternate these interval workouts with my weight training, so that every other day is different, and you can always up the intensity when things get easier.

Last edited by midwestj; 07-08-2010 at 09:46 AM.
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