foodconsumer.org: Exercise doesn’t boost metabolism long

Exercise doesn’t boost metabolism long
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admin on 05/27/2009 12:00:00
 
Wednesday May 27, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Bad news for the reluctant
exerciser: new research says longer, harder, more consecutive workouts, in
addition to cutting calories, may be the only way to boost metabolism.
Dr. Edward Melanson, exercise expert at the University of Colorado, and
colleagues found that even moderate exercise has little impact on fat-burning
duration.
An abstract from Melanson’s research states: “Despite decades of research
into the effects of exercise on fat metabolism, there is still no clear
understanding of how exercise helps to regulate fat mass. Although exercise
improves the capacity of muscle to oxidize fat, our studies suggest that
moderate duration exercise (less than one hour) has little impact on 24-hour fat
oxidation.”
The research, reported in the American College of Sports Medicine, states that
the notion that exercise somehow boosts the body’s ability to burn fat for as
long as 24 hours after a workout has led to a common misconception, according to
MSNBC.
“People think that they have a license to eat whatever they want,” Melanson
told MSNBC, “and our research shows that is definitely not the case. You can
easily undo what you set out to do.”
Authors of the study concluded that while more fat is burned during exercise,
that doesn’t necessarily translate into more fat burning while lying on the
couch 24 hours later.
Melanson said that other experts in the field were flabbergasted at the results
of the test.
“If you exercise and replace the calories you burn,” he said, “you’re no
better — with regard to how much fat you burn off — than if you didn’t
exercise.”
The studies involved 65 exercisers whose diets were closely controlled and who
performed low-intensity or high-intensity cycling or no structured exercise at
all. They repeated their experiment with endurance athletes, runners and
triathletes, while comparing sedentary obese people with sedentary lean people.
They then compared older men with younger men.
None of the studies indicated that people burned more fat the following day,
regardless of exercise levels or age.
Melanson said that longer, harder and possibly different types of exercise
performed on consecutive days could lead to a more lasting fat burn effect.
Results of the report were published in the Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews.
(By Sheilah Downey, and edited by Heather Kelley)