Usually working out tends to make you pretty hungry and many gym goers go through vicious cycles of completing a rigorous workout regimen, only to scarf down their next meal, canceling out their exercise routine. However, recent studies show that certain types of exercise can actually help curb your hunger pangs, effectively controlling your appetite. Is such a thing true? Find out for yourself.

While it’s difficult to completely control our appetites, being able to successfully suppress hunger, even for moments throughout the day, is a great start towards weight loss. A recent study has been published in many medical journals, highlighting the results of an experiment involving college students exercising and its relation to weight loss, specifically appetite suppression. During the experiment, the students were given two meals after each exercise session. The results show that doing strength training and cardio exercises can effectively curb one’s hunger pangs. The study found that during exercise, there are two types of hormones that play a part in suppressing a person’s appetite: peptide YY and gherlin. Researchers found that during certain periods of exercise, these two hormones changed levels, resulting in a suppression of hunger. These changes happened during and after exercise, which researchers see as a promising step towards using exercise to control weight.

Interested in seeing if this works for you? Then you’ll want to head to the gym and get started on a treadmill. Participants in the study ran on the treadmill for one hour and then rested afterwards. Other aerobic exercises you can try out include working out on an exercise bike, jumping rope, swimming, running, and stair climbing. Or if non-aerobic exercise is more preferable for you, engage in an hour and a half of weight lifting exercises and then rest afterwards. Some examples of common weight lifting exercises include pull-ups, one arm dumbbell rows, and bent-over barbell rows. These two types of exercise in particular were able to curb hunger pangs during the study so try it out the next time you’re at the gym and see how you feel. Don’t overdo it and be sure to rest afterwards.  

While the results of the study are positive, it is important to note that the period of hunger suppression only lasted about two hours for both types of exercise. This also included the time spent exercising. So it’s important to know that this particular workout schedule used for the study is not a steadfast solution to completely controlling your appetite. It is still important to maintain a healthy exercise regimen and to eat a healthy and balanced daily diet in order to control your weight. If you have any concerns or questions about your weight loss situation, it is best to consult with your doctor or pair up with an experienced fitness trainer/coach who can help create a tailor-made workout routine to help you reach your weight loss goals.

Related Articles
	Foods for a Flatter Stomach We all love food but unfortunately, our bodies don’t always turn out for the best physically because of it. For those of you who are tired of going through diet after diet or are sick of downing the latest weight-loss miracle product, maybe it’s time to turn to the very thing most of us run away from   ...Read more		Take Charge and Lose Weight Together If you’ve been in a relationship that’s measured in years rather than months, then you’ve noticed some differences in both of you over time. Somewhere around the six-month mark she started ordering more than a salad when you went out to eat. Somewhere around the one year mark, you backed off   ...Read more