The fact that exercise helps you to lose weight is a well documented standard because the exercise increases caloric expenditure.  What is less well known is that exercise can also reduce your appetite.  Well, it can decrease and increase your appetite depending on the intensity, temperature of the environment and whether you are male or female.

Men tend to have a greater reduction in appetite immediately after working out at moderate to high intensity levels than women do.  Two to three hours later men’s appetites were not affected by the exercise where women consumed more calories post exercise.  A good way to counter the effect of possibly overeating for women is to eat something low in fat and high in protein and carbohydrate blend within an hour of ending the exercise session so that ravenous hunger will not ensue.

There is another factor that affects your post workout appetite; intensity of the exercise session and body temperature.  The higher the intensity and temperature, the longer your appetite will be suppressed.  That means a walk on a cool morning or a swim in the pool will possibly lead to a big breakfast whereas a run at dawn on a muggy day will not.

In addition the endocrine and cardiovascular systems of the body play a role in appetite suppression.  The hypothalamus, a gland in the brain, suppresses hunger and is triggered to release hormones when you exercise at a moderate to high intensity.  These hormones are responsible for suppression of hunger.  Another reason exercise helps to inhibit hunger is that when you exercise the blood is being taken from the stomach and sent throughout the body.  Moderate exercise levels can be reached by exercising three times a week for one hour.  The increase in the level of the hormone lasts up to 15 hours.  That should be a good reason to get your self moving.

High intensity exercise may have the opposite effect.  When you workout at a high level of exertion, your body will start to break down glucose in the muscles for fuel and that will make you hungrier.  Your body knows what it needs to survive and maintain.  If you approach a workout session on an empty stomach or a stomach that has not been fed any carbohydrates for hours, you will suffer the consequences two-fold.  Firstly, you will be breaking down muscle instead of building as described above and secondly, your body will crave those carbs in abundance post exercise setting you up to fail at your exercise efforts.

Yet another factor to consider is psychological hunger.  Many times after an exhausting round of kickboxing or a great spin class you might think to yourself, “I deserve a ½ pound cheeseburger with french fries and a chocolate shake”.  The truth is we tend to overstate what we think we burned and studies show we do it in a big way.  The average person believes he/ she burned 600 more calories than actually were burned and the average overweight person will overshoot by 900 calories.  That’s a lot of calories!  Don’t give in to the urge to binge eat. Exercise, eat within an hour of completion, never exercise on an empty stomach and make good choices.

Cristina Leon, Staff Writer