To Your Health
September, 2013 (Vol. 07, Issue 09)
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The Easy Way To Skinny

We all know exercising can help you lose more fat, but can it also help you eat less? According to a new study, it turns out it can. Researchers recently found that strenuous exercise seems to dull the urge to eat afterward better than gentler workouts.

This is good news if you are trying to find another good reason to get back into the gym. By burning calories, you can also accomplish your goal of cutting back on cravings.

In the study published online in The International Journal of Obesity, researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth and other institutions set out to compare the effects of easy versus exhausting exercise on people's subsequent desire to eat.

exercise - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register Mark According to the report, they recruited 17 overweight but otherwise healthy young men in their 20s or 30s and asked them to show up at the university's exercise physiology lab on four separate days. One of these sessions was spent idly reading or otherwise resting for 30 minutes, while on another day, the men rode an exercise bike continuously for 30 minutes at a moderate pace (equivalent to 65 percent of their predetermined maximum aerobic capacity). A third session was more demanding, with the men completing 30 minutes of intervals, riding first for one minute at 100 percent of their endurance capacity, then spinning gently for 4 minutes. The men displayed significantly lower levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is known to stimulate appetite, and elevated levels of both blood lactate and blood sugar, which have been shown to lessen the drive to eat, after the most vigorous interval session than after the other workouts. The men also consumed fewer calories during the subsequent 24 hours after the very intense 15-second intervals than after any of the other workouts.

If you have been having trouble with cutting back on the calories, try a rigorous gym session, it might help you lose those last pounds.