Every workout has the potential to burn calories immediately, for a short while after you finish your workout, and long term. So how does each work?
1. Short-term - This refers to how many calories any given workout burns while you're actually doing it - this is what the charts and the readouts on some CV machines attempt to estimate. It is also notoriously hard to accurately asses as it depends on your fitness level, body composition, workout length and intensity, etc, etc.
2. Medium-term - When you exercise, your body continues to burn calories for a while after you finish your workout. Depending on the exercise you do, your body can continue to burn calories for hours afterwards.
3. Long term - What affect are your workouts having on your body composition? Different workouts change your body in different ways, and this will ultimately affect how many calories you burn, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.
Most fitness experts believe that the key to understanding the effects of exercise on calories burned is to ignore the short term, and focus on the medium and long-term effects of your workouts, because of their effects upon your metabolism.
So which workouts are most effective at raising your metabolism?
