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News: Morning Workouts Could Curb Appetite
Greatist News examines and explains the trends and studies making headlines in fitness, health, and happiness. Check out all the news here.
Photo by Aleksandra Flora
Exercise burns calories, but a morning workout may actually make us skip that delicious egg sandwich. A new study conducted at Brigham Young University discovered that 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous morning exercise actually reduced a person's motivation to hit the fridge afterwards.
The Study
Researchers measured the brain activity of 35 women while they looked at 240 images — half were of food, and the other half flowers. The first measurement took place right after 45 minutes of brisk walking on a treadmill; a week later, the same neural activity was measured but without the exercise. The results found that the morning workout led to lower brain responses to the pictures of food.
Interestingly, scientists also found that participants ate roughly the same amount of calories on both days, regardless of exercise. The 45-minute workout also led to an increased amount of physical activity throughout the day.
Can We Trust It?
For starters, the workout in this experiment was 45 minutes of treadmill walking, leaving us wondering if food cravings would increase with more rigorous or sustained exercise. (Half-marathon or interval training, anyone?) Moreover, the study measured brain activity directly after working out, failing to address the question of how long a lack of food motivation may last.
Yet, this experiment does question whether it’s smart to fill up on food immediately after working out, which can lead to unnecessary weight gain (if we overdo it). It’s important to consume a good balance of carbs, protein, and fat after a workout to aid in recovery, but it’s just as important to listen to our bodies to really check hunger-level [1].
The Takeaway
What to do, then? Skip the stack of pancakes and enjoy a healthy post-workout snack (like a protein shake!) to refuel the right way.
Have something to say? Leave it in the comments below, or tweet the author at @lschwech.
Works Cited
- Contemporary Issues in Protein Requirements and Consumption for Resistance Trained Athletes. Wilson, J., Wilson, G. California State University East Bay, Hayward, CA. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2006; 3(1): 7–27⤴
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Comments Leave a comment
So they found that the people still ate the same amount of calories through the day but the people who did exercise burnt more calories? Wow.
What's the problem with apatite anyway?! If people understand that eating crap food is probably not doing any good more our bodies and eat as clean as possible, then the laws of calories in vs calories out is pretty relevant, not like you can really tell without experimenting what exactly is your calories out but just try it out.
I'm x amount of lbs and I'm y tall. Going to guess or estimate that my maintenance level (where you neither lose or gain weight but stay the same) is 2500, so I will eat exactly that each day for one week, and see what my weight is. Do I need to increase or decrease, or maybe increase of decrease exercise.
Shoot, this may be the thing that finally gets me to work out in the am lol.
@Nyleator400 ever tried Flywheel?