After stopping 10 months of intense circuit training, overweight women lose some of their fat loss and fitness improvements over 5 months, but not all of it—body fat goes up slightly and aerobic...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
After 10 months of intense training, the body built more muscle and improved its fat-burning cells, and even after stopping exercise, those changes didn’t fully vanish — the extra muscle kept burning more calories at rest, and the fat-burning machinery stayed partly active, so fat loss and fitness...
Most probable mechanism
After 10 months of intense training, the body built more muscle and improved its ability to burn fat for energy, and even after stopping exercise for 5 months, those changes didn’t fully disappear — the extra muscle kept burning more calories at rest, and the improved fat-burning machinery in cells stayed partly active, so fat loss and fitness didn’t fully reverse (10.1371/journal.pone.0202390).
High-intensity circuit training increases fat-free mass through resistance-induced muscle hypertrophy, activating mTOR signaling and elevating basal metabolic demand due to higher ATP turnover for protein synthesis and cellular maintenance (10.1371/journal.pone.0202390).
Increased lean mass sustains resting metabolic rate during detraining, maintaining a negative energy balance that limits fat regain despite cessation of exercise (10.1371/journal.pone.0202390).
High-intensity training enhances mitochondrial biogenesis via AMPK/PGC-1α signaling, increasing oxidative enzyme activity and fatty acid oxidation capacity, which persists partially after detraining and supports continued VO2max elevation (10.1371/journal.pone.0202390).
Elevated post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) and catecholamine-mediated lipolysis during training contribute to prolonged energy expenditure and fat oxidation, creating a metabolic memory that slows fat regain during detraining (10.1371/journal.pone.0202390).
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
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