It stands to reason that exercise makes us hungrier. We鈥檙e burning more calories, so we need to take more in, right? Well, there is a relationship between exercise and what you eat, but it鈥檚 more complicated than that.
Sally Squires, who writes the Lean Plate Club™ blog, told 草莓传媒 that researchers had the same common-sense assumption about exercising and appetite, until they performed a study on overweight men.
It turned out that 鈥渢he numbers didn鈥檛 track that way,鈥� Squires said.
Two factors did matter, though: 1) the intensity of the exercise and 2) when you exercise.
鈥淚f you exercise within an hour of eating a meal, you鈥檙e much less likely to eat more calories,鈥� she said. Those who exercised an hour before a meal not only ate fewer calories at that meal, but they didn鈥檛 negate that by eating more later: “They were less hungry throughout the day.鈥�
The men showed less craving for salty foods. And those who engaged in high-intensity exercise were less hungry the next day as well.
It turns out, Squires said, that exercise does more than that: It can change the composition of the bacteria in your gut.
鈥淓xercise does help change some of the microbiome,鈥� she said, comparing it to the kind of change you get from the healthy bacteria in yogurt. (She also said 鈥淲e are actually more bacteria than we are human cells,鈥� but we鈥檒l leave that here for now.)
鈥淓ven older people who exercise, it seems to change their gut bacteria, and that may help or moderate things like Alzheimer鈥檚,鈥� Squires said. It鈥檚 not definitive, but 鈥渢his is a new line of investigation that scientists are going to continue to pursue.鈥�
She added, 鈥淭his is why it鈥檚 really important for all of us to continue to remain active.鈥�
