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Why To Exercise Today: Appetite Suppression (Short-Term)

The profiteroles. The petits fours. It's been one showdown after another lately between me and the heavily laden holiday table. So I took note of #88 on my handy dandy "101 Reasons To Exercise" poster:

And I'm thinking that before the next festive occasion, I'll try hitting the treadmill right before. Or do you think the other guests would mind if I did jumping jacks in the corner? I gather the effect of exercise on appetite remains somewhat controversial among specialists. But this study suggests that vigorous exercise does stimulate hormones that control appetite — if only for a couple of hours, including the exercise time. From the report on that study:

Based on the hunger ratings the participants filled out, both aerobic and resistance exercise suppressed hunger, but aerobic exercise produced a greater suppression of hunger. The changes the researchers observed were short term for both types of exercise, lasting about two hours, including the time spent exercising, Stensel reported.
“The finding that hunger is suppressed during and immediately after vigorous treadmill running is consistent with previous studies indicating that strenuous aerobic exercise transiently suppresses appetite,” Stensel said. “The findings suggest a similar, although slightly attenuated response, for weight lifting exercise.”

This program aired on December 17, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

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Carey Goldberg Editor, CommonHealth
Carey Goldberg is the editor of WBUR's CommonHealth section.

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