It increases the blood supply to the muscles, bringing more oxygen and calories to be burned for energy. Simply walking briskly for a half hour per day will substantially increase your fat-burning capacity, according to Dr. Barnard. Exercising more intensely at regular intervals adds to the benefit, of course. Exercise increases the fat-burning activity of the LPL enzymes we talked about earlier. The effect is almost instantaneous.
Exercise continues burning extra calories long after the exercise is over.
This can take 24 hours or more and have a substantial effect. Muscle tissue is better than fat tissue at burning off calories, so if you keep your muscles from wasting away, your body will be able to burn calories faster. Still, in a major omission, Barnard makes no mention of strength training. He talks a lot about the benefits of aerobic exercise, but offers not one word on weight training. He apparently does not recognize the value of weight training for building and preserving muscles.