Forget hours running on the treadmill or the elliptical machine at the gym — if you’re short on time and looking for a way to torch calories, you’re better off doing a quick HIIT workout. You don’t just burn calories during a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout itself. Your body continues to burn calories after you’ve stopped — something referred to as the Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), or the afterburn effect.
There are several reasons why this happens. Firstly, during HIIT training, your body’s oxygen demand exceeds the supply, so your body needs to replenish this post-exercise, and this in turn burns calories. Your body will also be repairing muscle tissues, converting lactate back to glucose, and reducing its body temperature, all of which use energy.
