Calculating EPOC?

diy

Has anyone come across any verifiable formula for calculating the effects of EPOC on HIIT and steady state training?

There are a few which suggest its + 14% for HIIT based training and 7% for steady state. However that would give for example assuming you can burn 6kcal per min steady and 10 HIIT:

1. 1 hour steady state = say 6ckal per minute gives 385kcal
2. 30 mins of HIIT = 342Kcal

Is the EPOC effect really so small?

I know we shouldn't look at exercise to attack calories, but there is so much bro science from the fitness industry claiming HIIT burns fat, when given most people could manage an hour steady state vs a lot less being capabile of 30 mins of HIIT ans we know that high intensity exercise just targets glycogen, there is an argument that you are better doing an hour of steady state if you want to burn fat.

bobmcstuff

To be fair I've also heard the argument that steady state is better for fat burning from many sources as well, particularly within the cycling community, it's not like opinion is one sided.

I've always been slightly sceptical of EPOC simply because the numbers that you see for it seem rather inconsistent, I've seen studies which say it's negligible and studies which say it's a big component so it's difficult to know what to believe.

Personally I like to keep it simple and just work on calories in < calories out = weight loss; it works really well for me anyway. The key determining factor for me (and I suspect most normal people with a job, family commitments etc.) is how much time I have spare to exercise - if it's not much then I'm more likely to do HIIT on the turbo or go for a run(!), if it's lots then going for a proper bike ride is more fun. If I got hung up on doing slow steady rides for fat burning (which I know people do), then I'd probably just end up either doing less or burning fewer calories when I did go out, because I only have a finite amount of time to play with.