Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption

[2] However, direct and indirect calorimeter experiments have definitively disproven any association of lactate metabolism as causal to an elevated oxygen uptake.

In response to exercise, fat stores are broken down and free fatty acids (FFA) are released into the blood stream.

In recovery, the direct oxidation of free fatty acids as fuel and the energy consuming re-conversion of FFAs back into fat stores both take place.

After a single bout or set of weight lifting, Scott et al. found considerable contributions of EPOC to total energy expenditure.

[13] This is echoed by Reynolds and Kravitz in their survey of the literature where they remarked: "the overall weight-control benefits of EPOC, for men and women, from participation in resistance exercise occur over a significant time period, since kilocalories are expended at a low rate in the individual post-exercise sessions.