It’s time to make your New Years resolutions! I’m guessing 90% of the people on the planet will include losing weight or getting in shape? But, does exercise make you hungry?
Of course most people will focus on fad diets and miracle cures to beat the holiday bloat.
But exercise and proper nutrition produces the best, fastest, and safest results.
And the best part is that unlike dieting and fasting off pounds which is always about pain and suffering, exercise can be real fun.
And even more important, is that the effects of regular exercise last far beyond what you accomplish with intermittent fasting only.
Exercise Decreases Hunger
Research continually shows that exercise does not make you hungry, and even helps to control your appetite. So, while dieting for weight loss is usually a frustrating undertaking, exercise just quietly removes the pounds.
Depending on your will power to control your appetite in the battle for a cheeseburger or sweets is doomed from the start. However, exercise can stop you from being hungry in the first place.
The fact is it’s crucial to get regular exercise to burn calories and to kick in the hormones and chemical changes it takes to fight off food cravings and urges to eat.
It Seems Counter Intuitive To Expect Exercise to Control Appetites
I’ll be the first to admit, that it seems like a contradiction.
At first look you would think that because of the extra energy it takes, exercise would lead to more hunger?
But, as surprising as it may be, research proves that exercising actually improves your ability to control eating and food choices. Even after a good workout.
There’s a study from Leeds University that indicates that feelings of being hungry are significantly decreased both during and after vigorous exercise routines.
What Happens With Exercise
You are right in the assertion that we need to replace the fuel we used during exercise. But what happened is that the ability to synthesize the nutrients in our body during this physical activity improves dramatically.
Here’s what one study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found:
“The effect of exercise on appetite regulation involves at least 2 processes: an increase in the overall (orexigenic) drive to eat and a concomitant increase in the satiating efficiency of a fixed meal.”
All of that basically means that because of working out, it will take less consumption of food to get the nutrients to replenish what we used. That is the opposite of needing to overeat to satisfy our body and appetite.
It Takes Consistency To Reap Results
This study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that “Increasing EE (energy expenditure) did not lead to compensation of EI (energy intake, or food) over 7 days.
However, total daily EE tended to decrease over time on the two exercise treatments. Lean men appear able to tolerate a considerable negative energy balance, induced by exercise, over 7 days without invoking compensatory increases in EI.”
That seems sorta complicated to me to say this:
The more routinely we exercise, the less energy we expend with each session. Over time, we find that our bodies become accustomed to the using the energy on a regular basis — and hunger and cravings for food decrease.
Our Bodies Understand the Stimulus
Let’s say you can do 2 push-ups, and that’s it. You are fatigued to the point that if you rest a couple of minutes and try again, you can’t even do one?
However, if you continue everyday to do those 2 push-ups, it won’t take but a few days to notice those 2 are much easier, right? That’s because the stimulus of exercise on the muscles causes them to actually rise to the job.
More Muscle Means Less Appetite
Any workout like this will create fatigue and your body will need time to recover. As it is recovering it will build more muscle tissue and adapt itself to be prepared for the next time.
In the case of these push-ups, we continue getting stronger, able to do more, and burn more calories.
When it comes to dieting and exercising regularly, our body also adapts. In fact, it soon realizes that working out in any form regularly is now routine, and it doesn’t need to replace any of the expended energy.
You Just Gained The Ability To Control Your Appetite
What it all means is that research shows that when your exercise several times a week you will actually be hungry less. Of course, in the end, there is no such thing as a miracle cure that will turn off your appetite or remove the pounds.
No matter how you decide to shape up and get fit, it takes consistency and dedicated habits for long term success. Check out this last study from the British Journal of Nutrition:
“These findings demonstrate that habitual exercisers have an increased accuracy of short-term regulation of food intake in compensation for preload manipulation, and provide additional support for advocating regular exercise in the prevention of overweight and obesity.”
What’s it all mean?
If you exercise on a regular basis, over the long term, you will see that you are less hungry and can control your appetite with ease.