There is a common misconception that exercise increases your appetite. I have never found this to be true. I always feel like eating more on the days I don’t exercise. When I exercise, I eat less than when I don’t. This seems counterintuitive, but I know I am not the only one.
This seems to be common with people who exercise regularly. When I talk to people who are starting an exercise program, they feel their appetite has increased, but this is usually temporary. Often, they state that after a couple of weeks of regular exercise, they don’t feel as hungry.
Exercise, especially at higher intensity, reduces our appetite, and now science has an explanation.
Exercise as an appetite suppressant.
New research published in Nature Metabolism explains how exercise reduces our appetite and increases our metabolism. After exercise, Lac-Phe, a metabolite produced with intense exercise in people, mice and racehorses, is increased more than any other metabolite. The researchers discovered that Lac-Phe starts a chain of reactions in our nervous system that reduces our appetite. While the study was done with mice, before this study, scientists didn’t understand how this metabolite worked to suppress appetite.
One of the study authors, Dr. Jonathan Long at Stanford University School of Medicine, says,
This finding is important because it helps explain how a naturally produced molecule can influence appetite by interacting with a key brain region that regulates hunger and body weight.
Exercise and eat less
It is not your imagination. You will eat less when you exercise. The effects of the Lac-Phe compound, produced during intense exercise, directly reduce hunger neurons and boost appetite-suppressing ones in our brain.
This is one of the benefits of regular exercise, and when it comes to your appetite, intensity matters.
Performing regular high-intensity exercise has numerous benefits, including improving insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation, enhancing balance and bone density, improving heart health, and now the list includes reducing our appetite.
Change your mind, change your health,
Shayla
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