Always hungry? Go for a walk
Many of us survive on salad leaves or deny ourselves treats in order to lose weight.
But scientists have now discovered that going for a brisk walk could be the key to curbing hunger.
Exercising is more effective than restricting food to help us limit our daily calorie intake, researchers found.
Women put on a diet ate up to a third more at a buffet meal compared with another occasion when the same energy deficit was created through exercise.
Exercising is more effective than restricting food at helping us limit our daily calorie intake, a study has found
The team, from Loughborough University, recruited 12 females and monitored their hormonal, psychological and behavioural responses to exercising as well as to denying themselves food.
On one occasion, they restricted their diets by 3,500 kilojoules (around 836 calories) and monitored them over nine hours.
In the evening, the women were presented with a buffet, unaware that what they were eating was being measured.
On a separate occasion, the women were forced to carry out a 90-minute treadmill run of moderate intensity that was designed to burn around 3,500 kilojoules.
Again, they were presented with a buffet in the evening, and told they could eat as much as they liked.
Researchers found that when women were dieting, they ate an average 944 calories at dinner.
This was a third more than on the day in which they exercised, when they ate only 660 calories.
When women denied themselves food, levels of the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin increased, and levels of a hunger-suppressing hormone called peptide YY decreased, researchers noted.
Dr. David Stensel, a specialist in exercise metabolism in Loughborough’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, said the findings contradict previous studies suggesting exercise makes people – in particular women – eat more.
He said: ‘Our findings provide a valuable contribution to the diet and exercise debate. We’ve shown that exercise does not make you hungrier or encourage you to eat more – at least not in the hours immediately following it.
‘Our next step is to see whether this benefit continues beyond the first day of exercise.’
Dr Stensel was able to compare the results to a similar experiment in men, showing the hormones ghrelin and peptide YY respond to exercise in the same way for both men and women.
The study was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise.
© Daily Mail, London