Exercise is a Natural Appetite Suppressant

It would be natural to think that exercise would make you hungry since you are burning calories and depleting your muscles glycogen stores. Actually, exercise, both aerobic and anaerobic, affect two very important appetite hormones, ghrelin and peptide YY. Ghrelin stimulates appetite and peptide YY suppresses appetite.


A research study using 11 male college students measured these hormone levels and feelings of hunger over three eight hour intervals. In one interval, the students ran for 60 min and rested for 7 hours. In a second interval, they had a 90 min. resistance workout (anaerobic) and rested for 6.5 hours. In a third interval, they didn’t do any exercise. They were also fed two meals during each of the intervals.


During the aerobic interval, grhelin levels decreased and peptide YY levels increased. During the anaerobic resistance workout, ghrelin levels decreased but peptide YY levels didn’t change much.. These effects lasted about 2 hours, including the time spent exercising.


You may say that isn’t long enough of an effect to make a difference and researchers are still looking into the long term effects. Obviously you can’t just start exercising every time you get the munchies but daily exercise will help you keep control of your appetite and cravings. Appetite suppression is just one more benefit of exercise, along with calorie consumption, to help with fat loss.