The impact of physical activity continues long after the workout ends.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers from Virginia Tech, the University of Aberdeen, and Shenzhen University found that being active increases the total amount of energy the body uses each day without prompting it to cut back elsewhere.

While the health advantages of regular exercise are well established, scientists know less about how physical activity influences the body’s overall “energy budget,” meaning how energy is distributed among different biological processes.

For years, researchers have debated whether this energy budget works like a fixed income, where energy for movement is taken from other functions, or like a flexible system that expands to support more activity. The study aimed to identify which of these models best reflects how the human body manages energy at varying levels of physical activity.

To do this, researchers evaluated the total energy expenditure, or the total calories burned in a day, in participants across a wide spectrum of physical activity.