Basking in a Workout’s Long, Mysterious Afterglow

By GINA KOLATA
NYT

It’s a cold day and you have just finished a grueling session at the gym, sweating away on an elliptical cross-trainer. Or you had a tough workout in the swimming pool. Or in a spin class. Or you just finished a hard run or a long, fast bicycle ride.

Now you’ve showered and changed your clothes. You are no longer sweating, but you still feel warm. Your cold house, your chilly office does not feel so frigid anymore.

Exercise researchers used to say that this was an exercise bonus — that you burn more calories not just when you work out but for hours after you stop, even for the rest of the day. Exercise, they would tell people, has a significant effect on weight loss because of this so-called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.

But then the naysayers weighed in, reporting that such an exercise effect is just a myth. Metabolic rates plunge back down to normal as soon as exercise ends, investigators reported.

(More here.)