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If you purely consider the energy usage until you've stopped walking (or anything else thats fully aerobically powered, like sitting down or sleeping) then yes, you probably have burned fat 🤔
Say your not on a diet. You've just finished your dinner (which brings you up to your daily calorie allowance) and go for a leisurely walk, burning 500 calories. Your glycogen and glucose stores have been kept full by the food you've eaten. If you get home and eat 500 calories of cake (as a reward for your 500 calorie walk) it will just get stored as fat... did you burn fat or briefly use some stored energy?
Say you were short on time and you've already eaten your full calorie allowance, but wanted to create a 500 calorie deficit as you're on a diet. Blast out a run that has you gasping for breath all the way. Burn 500 calories and virtually all of it would be from your glycogen and blood glucose stores and barely any fat used... Without any additional food, some of your bodies fat stores will be drawn into the liver and be processed into glucose. Did you 'burn fat' whilst doing flat out cardio, or is your body just doing its everyday balancing act of using reserves?
Theres an ongoing balance between food consumption and how much it's been processed, stored body fat, liver and muscle glycogen, blood glucose and energy expended from being alive or exercise. It's futile to consider one moment in time.
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user69121
Can you explain this please? If the body is processing body fat, surely it's then gone. Which people would count as 'burning fat'.
@dubkev apparently BCAA's (branch chain amino acids) are good for stopping you losing muscle mass when in a calorie deficit and exercising.