Yes, Exercise Does Make You Hungry
Many people believe that exercising leaves you feeling hungry.
Some take it further claiming that you end up eating more - thus negating any calorie deficit from the exercise.
So what is the truth?
What Does the Research Say?
Researchers in the UK have concluded that exercise does indeed make you hungry - but the overall result will still give you a calorie deficit.Scientists point out that in the past people believed intense exercise could lead to overeating, which would cancel out any potential effects on weight-loss.
But the new study shows exercise may help alter people's appetite, aid in weight-loss, and prevent further weight gain.
The Study Simplified
For the study, published in the Journal of Endocrinology, researchers put 12 volunteers - 6 men and 6 women - through the following steps:- Ate the same breakfast.
- Wait for an hour.
- One group did 60 minutes of stationary cycling (at 65% max heart rate). The other group did nothing.
- Wait for an hour.
- Everyone enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The Results
The exercising group consumed 913 Calories at the buffet. The non-exercising group ate 762 Calories. However, during exercise, the first group burned 492 Calories compared to 197 Calories.The net result: the exercisers ultimately took in around 144 less Calories.
Note that during and immediately after exercise volunteers reported they felt less hungry - and the appetite suppressing hormones PYY, GLP-1 and PP were increased.
In addition to hormones, previous studies have shown appetite regulation is a complex process also involving the gastrointestinal tract and both the central and autonomic nervous systems.
Is Exercise Necessary?
According to the World Health Organization, exercise is essential for maintaining good health; reducing risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and colon and breast cancer.The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends adults get at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity on most days of the week; hitting a maximum heart rate of 50% to 85%.
If it's hard to find the time, the AHA suggests breaking up your exercise into two shorter sessions.
Do you think exercise makes a difference in the amount of weight a person can lose?
Image credit: Alain Limoges
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46 Comments
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Created / Updated: February 8, 2012
Hmmm, I have always noticed a queasy feeling in my stomach all day after exercising. Am I just abnormal to not want to eat more? Or do other people share my symptom?
ReplySounds like I need to get a nice bottle of PYY, GLP-1 and PP ;)
Actually, I've been wondering about this myself the past few days, since I've hit the gym on a regular basis again, and have been noticing that I feel starving for most of the day, and I was wondering if 1000 calories burned at the gym helped compensate for the extra food I ate, or if I just needed to suck it up and try not to hate my life :)
Either way, great post.
ReplyYou must eat less depends what your objectives are ? if you wan to lose 1 pound of fat you must reduce your intake by 3500 calories .
ReplyI think working out sort of makes me not as hungry. After a 9 mile run, I feel very "high" for about 4 hours afterward and I don't feel too hungry. I also don't know about everyone else, but when I work out, I watch what I eat a little more because I don't want to undo what I've done that day.
ReplyBicycling and weight training make me hungry... but oddly enough,
Replyrunning suppresses my appetite. If I run 13+ miles, I can hardly eat-- I have to force myself eat within an hour, or I absolutely can't eat without feeling sick.
i feel totally the same! I have NO appetite after running. I have to make myself eat!
ReplyI've trained myself to eat some on longer runs. I'm a big fan of GU rushes. Zing!
But, yes, biking, swimming, squash, and weight lifting give me an appetite, and running suppresses it.
ReplyI noticed that since I began working out that I have been eating more, and yet my stomach has been getting flatter. So I believe the UK research, completely.
Replythis is me also. i feel like if i eat junk or over-eat then the time i've spent working out hard from 4.30am was pretty pointless. technically, i suppose it isn't but i still feel that way. i actually feel a lot worse though if i over-eat on a day that i do less exercise.
ReplyI too get very hungry after a hard workout. The key is to discipline yourself to eat the right foods at the right time. For instance, eating carbs after lifting weights is okay; eating carbs before bed is not. I take a supply of "good" foods with me to work, so that I don't have to raid the vending machine.
ReplyIf you control well,exercise can make you strongger,otherwise,you will be fatter...
ReplyI often do not feel hungry after a workout,but when I do, what are some good suggestions for a snack, besides water? anyone?
ReplyI'm a stop-and-start dieter (yeah, I know, it's bad). But I recently put two and two together. I would always do the "all or nothing" approach. "I'm going to start dieting AND start exercising today", and I would increase my activity, but cut back on eating. Consequently, by noon, I'd be STARVING, and would eat anything and everything I could get my hands on. Then I'd consider myself a failure, and quit both.
This time, I started exercising without changing anything in my diet. A week or two later, I noticed that I wasn't eating less, I was eating differently. I was adding fruit, veggies, or v8 juice to meals. I was snacking on nuts and cheese instead of cookies and cakes.
So I'm in the camp that says that more exercise means a larger appetite, but my body seems to be craving better stuff lately, so I guess I can eat "more", but because it's better stuff, I'm actually eating "less". (although I will never give up my dark chocolate...)
ReplyThanks, I like your comment and it helps me/answers what I'm researching; why I'm eating more now that I've started working out. I hope that after a couple of weeks that like you, I'll switch from just being hungry/eating more, to eating better. :)
ReplyThe article is interesting... this was a carefully-run study.
- The 12 participants were healthy, young individuals with normal weights (BMI 22.0 +/- 3.2) and great eating habits. None were exercise fanatics (in that none of them did more than 1 hour of moderate or intense exercise every day).
- They did the test twice (on two different days), and randomly assigned participants to the exerciser set each time. Crossover studies are great.
- They computed intensity based on age estimated maximal heart rate, which is quite inaccurate. But, given that the volunteers were young, the error would be small. One hour at 65% level is not super tough, but not a snoozer either. They warmed up for 2 minutes, and then alternated 17 minute spins with 3 minute breaks to consume the hour.
- The buffet meal wasn't like going to Las Vegas! They ate in individual booths. They were presented with lots of food - 4,100 calories - sandwiches, salad, fruit, cake, cookies, potato chips, yoghurt, mayonnaise and mustard. They chose the foods by asking each participant to rank a list of food in terms of preference to eat. The buffets were made up of the second and third choices rated by each subject.
- The exercisers weren't hungry while spinning away (no surprise there!) Afterwards, their hunger increased rapidly, but over the hour between exercise and lunch, their hunger raised only to the level of the control group. This is consistent with the plasma levels of most of the hormones, except for one (pancreatic polypeptide, whose role is not well understood), which remained elevated.
In any case, I think that it's hard to generalize their results to our experiences reported above. When I bikeride, I go out for several hours and alternate long climbs with descents. Heather running 13+ miles is undoubtedly more intense, and I'm guessing from Spectra's descriptions of herself, her 9 mile runs take an hour but are significantly more intense. Nate said he burned 1,000 calories during his gym sessions, which is more than 3 times what the exercisers burned during their hour of exercise.The authors were most surprised by the fact that the two groups reported the same level of hunger - born out by most of the hormones - but ate different amounts anyway. And, the amount extra eaten by the exercisers was less than the amount expended. It wasn't a huge difference - about the amount of a can of cola. The authors think - but couldn't prove - that the exercisers ate more because they thought something like "well, I just worked out, so let me have a bit more".
They raised an interesting question: could the combinations of hormones - PYY, GLP-1 and PP - that are raised during exercise have a large enough effect that they provide a pharmacological explanation for exercise-induced anorexia.
ReplyWhy did these researchers not measure ghrelin - the appetite stimulating peptide?
ReplyActually what surprises me the most in this study is that these people wanted to eat almost 1000 cal. only 3 hours after eating breakfast! Oh yeah, after a significant workout which raises body temperature my appetite is decreased and my understanding is that after a lower intensity workout like lap swimming one's appetite in increased.
ReplyI forgot to mention in my long posting above: I was surprised that the BBC misinterpreted the results of the study. They led off the story with:
While one hormone remains elevated, lack of hunger did not. By the time lunch arrived, both groups reported the same amount of hunger (and the same variance - that is, both groups disagreed the same amount as to how hungry they were).So, in fact, this thread could also be called No, Exercise Doesn't Make You Hungry But You'll Eat More Anyway.
Reply