For every woman in America both young and old, exercise has become a pivotal activity for weight loss and overall fitness. Generally, weight loss occurs when the amount of calories burned through exercise exceeds the caloric intake through food. Working out accelerates the expenditure of calories to complement your daily calorie-burning activities. It would please fitness gurus and others who want to get in shape greatly to know that exercise reduces appetite, another factor that affects weight loss. Actually, depending on workout intensity, environmental temperature, and gender, exercise can decrease or increase your appetite.

Men tend to sustain suppressed appetites immediately following and 2-3h after moderate to high intensity exercise. In contrast, women tend to consume more calories in the hours after a good workout. In order to counteract post-exercise overeating, women should eat low-fat foods high in protein and carbohydrates within an hour of ending the exercise session so that ravenous hunger does not develop. In addition to intensity, the temperature of your body during a workout also affects your appetite. The higher the intensity and temperature, the longer your appetite will remain suppressed. In other words, a swim in the pool will yield a bigger appetite than a morning jog on a humid day.

Those three factors aren’t the only culprits in appetite alteration. The endocrine and cardiovascular systems of the body play vital roles in appetite suppression. Moderate to high intensity exercise triggers the hypothalamus, a brain region that links the nervous system to the endocrine system, to release hormones, thus suppressing hunger. Exercise inhibits hunger as a result of the journey of the blood from the stomach throughout the body. Moderate exercise levels can be reached by exercising three times a week for one hour. The increase in the level of the hypothalamus’s hormones lasts up to fifteen hours. That fact alone should motivate you to get fit and benefit from this brilliant method to suppressing appetite.

On the flip side, high intensity exercise may have the opposite effect. When you exert a high level of energy, your body compensates that energy by utilizing an alternative fuel source. This alternative source surfaces through the break down of muscle glucose, which makes you hungrier. Your body is well aware of what it needs to survive and maintain equilibrium; therefore, if you approach a workout session without the required nutritional resources, you will suffer dire consequences. You may think you are burning fat; in reality, you will be breaking down muscle. Secondly, your body will crave that nutritional element post-exercise, thereby setting you up for a binge-eating session, an obstacle to your weight loss efforts.

Another factor to consider is psychological hunger:telling yourself that an hour of exercise warrants the reward of an hour of unhealthful eating will just set you up for disappointment. The truth, backed up by scientific studies, is that we tend to overestimate the calories we burn in a big way. The average person in the healthy weight category misconstrues the actual calories burned by 600. The average overweight person’s expectation exceeds the actual calories burned by 900. That’s a lot of calories!

Don’t think that exercise replaces the need to eat healthy food in moderation. Both must be done in combination to reach a healthy weight and lifestyle. Don’t give in to the urge to binge eat after a good workout. If you find yourself eating within an hour after exercise, try to make it a point to never work out on an empty stomach and make positive food choices, I promise you that you will be well on your way to a healthy, happy body!