Aerobic exercise can help suppress hunger, study says

by: Sandeep Godiyal

(NaturalNews) In a new study, researchers have made the conclusion that aerobic exercise such as rope jumping, which involves the body's vertical movements, can suppress appetite and cravings for fatty food. Researchers, who published their report in the journal Appetite, sought to find out if exercises that involve up and down bodyweight movements, which lead to "gut disturbance," actually affect hormones such as ghrelin, which our body releases when we are hungry. Moreover, the study compared the level of hunger in men who did rope-skipping to those who did cycling.

Previous studies support a similar claim

Prior to this new study, a number of other studies suggest that running curbs hunger more than cycling and that jumping rope can suppress hunger more than running. Since there is no horizontal movement in jumping rope, it is more of a weight bearing exercise compared to running.

According to researchers, jumping rope leads to more gut disturbance and could stimulate greater appetite suppression.

Comparing vertical and horizontal movement aerobic exercises

To test their idea, researchers tested 15 healthy men who had the average age of 24 years. On non-consecutive days, the men were made to jump rope for 30 minutes, exercise on a stationary bike or rest.

At a number of points during and after their work out, the researchers measured the men's level of appetite hormones. Likewise, researchers also asked the men how hungry they were as well as how much they craved sweet, salty, sour and fatty foods.

The initial results showed that those who skipped rope and cycled in stationary bikes felt less hungry than those men who had controlled resting sessions. They even felt less hungry 15 minutes after their exercise session.

But 25 minutes into their exercise, those who skipped rope felt less hungry than those who were cycling. Likewise, researchers found out that those who exercised had less craving for fatty foods, and this observation was more obvious for those who jumped rope. Furthermore, those who did cycling felt hungrier after their cycling session than when they did rope-skipping sessions.

With such results, the researchers concluded that cycling, and not skipping rope, causes hunger that eventually makes those who skipped rope compensate for the energy they burned through eating.

However, the study determined that there was no clear difference in the level of gut hormones between those who did cycling and skipping rope. As such, there might be another mechanism or explanation why the men who jumped rope felt less hungry than when they exercised on a stationary bike.

In totality, the researchers concluded that aerobic exercise, especially rope-skipping, could regulate a person's cravings for fatty foods. Doing such exercises may improve the dietary behavior of adults, especially when it comes to foods rich in fat.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.deccanherald.com

http://healthyliving.azcentral.com

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com