www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30826120/
Exercise not likely to rev up your metabolism
Studies bust myth that working out gives you a fat-burning boost
By Jacqueline Stenson
MSNBC contributor
msnbc.com contributor
updated 7:22 a.m. CT, Tues., May 26, 2009
Start exercising and you’ll become a round-the-clock, fat-burning machine, right? That’s long been a commonly held belief among exercisers and fitness experts alike. But a new report finds that, sadly, it’s not very likely.
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 misperception among the general public that diet doesn’t matter so much as long as one exercises, says Edward Melanson, an exercise physiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver.
"People think they have a license to eat whatever they want, and our research shows that is definitely not the case," he says. "You can easily undo what you set out to do."
In the new report, published in the journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, Melanson and colleagues discuss research to date on the issue of burning fat during and after exercise. The authors conclude that while people do burn more fat when they are exercising than when they are not, they have no greater ability to burn fat over the next 24 hours than on days when they are couch potatoes.
[much more in the article]