An hour after some physical activity, you probably feel energetic and full of energy. However, two hours later, you're ready to eat whatever you can find in the fridge and then worry about how this devastation will affect your weight loss process.
There is nothing strange about that, because exercise does not always stimulate appetite in the same way for everyone.
In a new small-scale study, which included 16 healthy men, while women were left out due to the influence of the menstrual cycle on metabolism and appetite, the level of the hormone ghrelin was measured after several different physical activities. Also, the respondents had the task of self-rating their feeling of hunger.
It turned out that more intense and longer exercises actually suppress the secretion of ghrelin, so those who practiced them felt less hungry than those who exercised at a low or moderate intensity for a shorter period of time.
Professor David Stansell of Loughborough University's Faculty of Sport and Health, one of the authors of the study, says that previous research has not shown that people eat more food after exercise than is normal for them.
However, if you want to lose weight, there is no doubt that you need exercise. However, to prevent overeating after a workout, try to keep your exercise intensity to about 75 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Even short and explosive exercise, such as 30 seconds of sprinting, suppresses appetite and ghrelin secretion. That effect lasts up to two hours after exercise, but it varies from person to person, reports Novosti.
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