EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. EPOC can bump up our resting metabolic rates as much as 5-10 percent. That may not seem like much, but it can build up. For example, a brisk half-hour walk may only burn 150 calories,3100 but if it then boosts our metabolic rates by 7.5 percent over the subsequent thirty-six hours, that EPOC effect alone could burn an additional 170 calories or so—more than was burned during the actual walk.
