If you ever thought that going to the gym works up an appetite, and sitting around makes you not as hungry, you may be mistaken. But, no fear, there may be a way to keep your weight in check that won’t leave you exhausted from exercise, and may reduce your craving for food. One does not necessarily become ravenous after a workout, according to a new study conducted at Brigham Young University by professors James LeCheminant and Michael Larson. The researchers found that an exerciser’s urge for food could diminish greatly after a 45-minute mild-to-intense workout.
In the study, 35 women were asked to look at pictures of food—both after a morning of vigorous exercise and a morning without exercise—so that experimenters could measure their brain’s neural activity. On the two different days, the food stimulus of 17 clinically obese women and 18 average-weight women was studied. On the days that the women exercised, they went on a treadmill at a speedy pace for 45 minutes and their brain waves were watched within the next hour after their workout. In order for the study-conductors to measure the brain’s neural activity, electrodes were attached to each test subject’s head and to a EEG machine while the test subject looked at 240 different pictures—120 of plated food meals and 120 of flowers (the flowers were used as a control). The findings, published in the October issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, showed that after a brisk workout, their response to the images of food was actually altered.
Exactly seven days later, at the same time in the morning, the team performed the identical experiment, except without the workout. Interestingly, the women in the experiment did not eat more food on the exercise day, which might make up for the extra calories they burned in exercise. In fact, they ate approximately the same amount of food as on the non-exercise day. When comparing the two experiments, the results showed that after the women exercised for 45 minutes they had a decrease in brain responses to the pictures of plated food, and an increase in the amount of physical activity for that day. “
We wanted to see if obesity influenced food motivation, but it didn’t,” said LeCheminant. “However, it was clear that the exercise bout was playing a role in their neural responses to the pictures of food.” LeCheminant goes on to say “This study provides evidence that exercise not only affects energy output, but it also may affect how people respond to food cues.”
So if you want to get the benefits of calorie burn plus diminish your food craving, hit the gym for 45 minutes right before your next big meal!