[ELI5] How Does The Body Still Burn Calories Up to 24 Hours After a HIIT Workout
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The body burns calories 24/7 from conception to death. Not just while exercising.
After intense exercise, some extra calories are burned by EPOC (excess post-exercise O2 consumption) as someone mentions below, but also a lot of energy (calories) is used to repair tissues like muscle and bone that are slightly damaged, cool the body back to normal, move fluids (blood, lymph) and molecules (ATP, Ca2+, etc) back to their resting positions.
EPOC or oxygen deficit is the extra oxygen you consume after intense exercise to clear the lactic acid that builds up. This happens because you can burn carbs, which results in accumulating lactic acid, faster than your body can clear the lactic acid. Oxygen is used to clear it afterwards.
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