Weight Loss Tips: What is EPOC?

Have you ever thought of this thing called EPOC when people talk about weight loss and fat loss? EPOC stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption and is a very important aspect of weight loss that needs to be understood in order for you to create a strong exercise program.

Basically, EPOC means that, after exercise, the body's processes are all vamped up a bit. This means the body is still working harder than at rest for up to a few hours after exercise. This extra exercise requires more energy, and that means it also will burn more calories.

So the goal of your exercise program should be to maximize EPOC, both in magnitude and duration.

So how do you do this?

It's actually quite simple. All you have to do to get more out of EPOC is increase your high intensity work. High intensity exercise has a far greater effect on EPOC than low intensity exercise.

This means you should be doing more resistance training with moderate to heavy resistance and more interval training. These types of exercise are typically high intensity in nature and will elicit a great response in the form of increased EPOC.

Here's some more advice: Try a total body circuit training routine of about 30-45 minutes three times per week. Add 20-25 minutes of intervals either after the circuits or on days in between twice a week. This combination is sure to get a good metabolism boost from EPOC. Give it a try and see the fat fall off!