Have you ever noticed how you don’t feel as hungry after you’ve worked out, or your appetite doesn’t seem as ravenous when you’re exercising regularly? There’s a reason for it! From sciencedaily.com
A vigorous 60-minute workout on a treadmill affects the release of two key appetite hormones, ghrelin and peptide YY, while 90 minutes of weight lifting affects the level of only ghrelin, according to a new study. Taken together, the research shows that aerobic exercise is better at suppressing appetite than non-aerobic exercise and provides a possible explanation for how that happens.
The article goes on to talk about how their study showed both types of exercise suppressed appetite, but aerobic exercise to a greater degree:
In this experiment, 11 male university students did three eight-hour sessions. During one session they ran for 60 minutes on a treadmill, and then rested for seven hours. During another session they did 90 minutes of weight lifting, and then rested for six hours and 30 minutes. During another session, the participants did not exercise at all.
During each of the sessions, the participants filled out surveys in which they rated how hungry they felt at various points. They also received two meals during each session. The researchers measured ghrelin and peptide YY levels at multiple points along the way.
They found that the treadmill (aerobic) session caused ghrelin levels to drop and peptide YY levels to increase, indicating the hormones were suppressing appetite. However, a weight-lifting (non-aerobic) session produced a mixed result. Ghrelin levels dropped, indicating appetite suppression, but peptide YY levels did not change significantly.
Based on the hunger ratings the participants filled out, both aerobic and resistance exercise suppressed hunger, but aerobic exercise produced a greater suppression of hunger. The changes the researchers observed were short term for both types of exercise, lasting about two hours, including the time spent exercising, Stensel reported.
The article concludes:
This line of research may eventually lead to more effective ways to use exercise to help control weight, according to the senior author, David J. Stensel of Loughborough University in the United Kingdom
No matter what, regular aerobic and resistance exercise are still a good thing. If you have a hard time suppressing your appetite – a few laps around the block might do you some good!
Great article and good find on sciencedaily.com. I’ve always found I had a better day and ate less if I work out with cardio in the mornings. Guess this might explain why. Thanks, Jessica.
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