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Extra calories burn after an intense workout Sept. 2, 2011 12:00 AM USA Today People who exercise vigorously get a bonus for their hard work: They continue to burn extra calories long after they're finished working out, a new study shows. Researchers found that men who biked intensely on a stationary bike for 45 minutes burned an extra 190 calories over the 14 hours after their workout. This is in addition to the calories they used while exercising. "This is the best evidence we have that a lot of calories are burned after intense exercise," says the study's lead author David Nieman, an exercise researcher with Appalachian State University in Kannapolis, N.C. The findings may also apply to other high-intensity activities such as running and playing intense sports, he says. To get the extra calorie-burning benefits, the workout needs to be intense enough that "you're sweating, your body temperature is up and your heart beats fast," Nieman says. Other researchers have looked at moderate-intensity activities, such as walking, and found no post-activity impact on calories, he says. To turn walking into this kind of calorie-burning workout would probably mean hiking uphill with a backpack, stair climbing or race walking, he says. Nieman, his colleagues at Appalachian State and researchers at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill studied the caloric expenditures of 10 men, ages 22 to 33. |