6 Myths About After Burning Effect
1. Some are just born to be able to achieve a higher afterburn after a workout
TRUE
Not only the intensity of your training determines how high your afterburn is. Just as some people are born with high or low metabolism, genes also determine that some have a better afterburn than others.
Resting metabolism can vary by approximately 10-20% from person to person
2. Afterburn can be felt in the body
FALSE
An intense round of training can easily cause sweats and trembling muscles. But it’s not the sensation of calories rattling off your body that you can feel. Muscles can often be sore for 24-48 hours after exercise because they are still repairing the “damage” you caused them during exercise. But at this point, your afterburn is not very high.
Post-exercise hot flushes are due to the simple fact that your core temperature has been elevated, which means you can sweat long after exercise.
Your body uses the most energy to digest proteins, so if you want to get the burning going, you can benefit from eating plenty of proteins, for example, eggs, skim milk, fish, lentils and lean meat.
3. The afterburn stops if I eat after training
FALSE
Obviously, if you eat a lot of fatty food in the hours after you exercise, you will offset the calories you just burned. But you don’t have to be afraid of spoiling your afterburn by eating normally. Food does not make your body stop burning fat. After an intense workout, your muscles actually need carbohydrates and proteins to rebuild themselves. So you don’t have to go into fasting mode after training.
4. Cold can stop the afterburning
PARTIALLY FALSE
Nothing happens to your afterburn if you jump in a cold shower after training. Not even if you cycle home from the gym in freezing temperatures. But extreme cooling of the body can actually affect your metabolism. If, for example, you lie down in an ice bath for several minutes, your basal metabolism will drop again after training. Cold inhibits chemical processes in the body, such as combustion.
Your body temperature increases approx. 2 degrees Celsius/ 35,6 Fahrenheit when you exercise. Your metabolism is typically higher when you are warm
5. Sleep stops the afterburn
FALSE
Your metabolism is generally lower when you sleep compared to lying on the couch and relaxing while awake. But if you take a midday nap on a day when you’ve worked out, your metabolism will still be higher than on a day when you haven’t worked out. So the afterburn is intact, even if you sleep.
6. Exercise can make you immune to afterburn
TRUE
If you run the same 5 km in 30 minutes over and over again, your afterburn will decrease over time because your body gets used to the strain. So if you want to get the most out of your metabolism after training, it pays to increase the intensity continuously. But if you’ve found something that works perfectly for you, don’t constantly change your routines. Afterburning is only a small part of your total training benefit, and the most important thing is that you have found a form of exercise that gets you out the door.