Recent obesity research has revealed some shocking and rather frustrating news, which is that the number of calories burned after exercise actually fall in people whose BMI is greater than 30.0. This was the result of a study into resting burning rates by a team at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and from the University of Roehampton.
The paper detailing the research was published at the end of August in the Current Biology journal. It found that the calories burned after exercise actually fell during rest when compared to those who did not. The research specifically looked into people with obesity and found that this trend was greatest among older adults.
The news that resting calories burned will actually fall after exercise instead of rising or at least staying the same is unwelcome news for people battling obesity. The data analysis examined the statistics from 1,750 adults in the IAEA doubly labeled water database. It found that in people with the highest BMI, 51 percent of the calories they were burning during activity were being burned while at rest at the end of the day. Comparatively, for people whose BMI fell in the normal range, that figure was 72 percent.
This reduction in calories burned after exercise is particularly difficult news for obesity patients. They are, after all, a category that experiences the greatest struggle in achieving fat burning exercise on a regular basis. These strength training and cardio workouts are very important to their overall health and are considered desirable lifestyle habits for reducing their weight and maintaining it once it reaches a healthy range.
That said, the decreased burned calories following an exercise workout could also make it harder to achieve the desired results than it would for someone whose BMI was already in the normal range.
This study does not suggest that people with obesity should reduce their workout sessions. Instead, it only underscores the importance of diet control, particularly in terms of calorie restriction, when it comes to losing weight. While workouts remain just as important as always, they are meant for overall health and for later prevention of regaining the weight and are not necessarily beneficial for easier or more rapid weight loss. Moreover, this is only a first study suggesting this outcome. Before viewing its results as fact, further study into calories burned after exercise among people with obesity is required.