Simply put, people felt less hungry after an intense workout
of ConsumerAffairsA new study findsthat hard exercise makes people less hungry than easy exercise, especially for women.
Here's the simple breakdown
- Ghrelin: This is a hormone that makes you feel hungry.
- The study: Researchers had people do hard and easy exercises then measured their ghrelin levels.
- The results: Hard exercise lowered ghrelin more than easy exercise, meaning people felt less hungry after. This was especially true for women.
Why this matters
- Weight loss: If you're trying to lose weight, hard exercise might help you control your hunger better.
- Exercise as medicine: The researchers believe exercise should be treated like medicine, with different "doses" for different goals.
Basically, if you want to feel less hungry after exercise, push yourself harder!
About the study
The study examines the effects of exercise intensity on ghrelin levels and appetite between men and women. Ghrelin is known as the hunger hormone and is associated with perceptions of hunger.
We found that high intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels more than moderate intensity exercise, said lead author Kara Anderson, Ph.D., of theUniversity of Virginia and the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Va. In addition, we found that individuals felt less hungry after high intensity exercise compared to moderate intensity exercise.
The study examined eight males and six females. Participants fasted overnight and then completed exercises of varying intensity levels, determined by measurements of blood lactate, followed by self-reported measurements of appetite.
Females had higher levels of total ghrelin at baseline compared with males, the study noted. But only females demonstrated a signifcant reductionfollowing the intense exercise, according to the findings.
We found that moderate intensity either did not change ghrelin levels or led to a net increase, the study noted. These findings suggest that exercise above the lactate threshold may be necessary to elicit a suppression in ghrelin.
Researchers also acknowledged that more work is needed to determine the extent to which the effects of exercise differ by sex.
Ghrelin has been shown to have wide-ranging biological effects in areas including energy balance, appetite, glucose homeostasis, immune function, sleep, and memory.
Exercise should be thought of as a drug, where the dose should be customized based on an individuals personal goals, Anderson said. Our research suggests that high-intensity exercise may be important for appetite suppression, which can be particularly useful as part of a weight loss program.
The manuscript,The Impact of Exercise Intensity and Sex on Endogenous Ghrelin Levels and Appetite in Healthy Humans,was published online.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-10-24 19:19:57
