Research

Hormonal

Acute endurance exercise increases skeletal muscle Perilipin 3 (PLIN3) and coatomer GTPase proteins, and this increase is positively associated with fat oxidation.

Engaging in long-duration endurance exercise (e.g., cycling at 50% VO2max until 650 kcal is expended) triggers an increase in specific proteins (PLIN3 and coatomers) in your skeletal muscle. This molecular change is directly linked to your body's ability to oxidize fat during and after the workout. To leverage this, prioritize steady-state cardio sessions that are long enough to stimulate these adaptations.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
a long duration endurance exercise bout (20 males; age 24.064.5 y; BMI 23.661.8 kg/m2) increased PLIN3 protein in human skeletal muscle (p = 0.03) in proportion to ex vivo palmitate oxidation (r = 0.45, p = 0.04) and whole body in vivo fat oxidation (r = 0.52, p = 0.03).
Jeffrey D. Covington et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014

Why this rating

Observational study with a small sample size (n=20, with molecular data from 14-19 participants) and acute intervention only.

Source

Skeletal Muscle Perilipin 3 and Coatomer Proteins Are Increased following Exercise and Are Associated with Fat Oxidation

Jeffrey D. Covington et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0091675

mechanism_only · n=20Cited 52×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →