Does being active make us ravenous afterward and prone to eating more than we perhaps should? Or does it blunt our appetites and make it easier for us to skip that last, tempting slice of pie?
A new study provides timely, if cautionary, clues. The study, which involved overweight, sedentary men and women and several types of moderate exercise, found that people who worked out did not overeat afterward at an enticing buffet lunch. However, they also did not skip dessert or skimp on portions. The findings offer a reminder during the holidays that while exercise has countless health benefits, helping us eat less or lose weight may not be among them.
For most of us, exercise affects our weight and hunger in unexpected and sometimes contradictory ways. According to multiple scientific studies, few people who start to exercise drop as many pounds as the number of calories they burn working out would foretell.
Some recent research suggests this occurs because our bodies stubbornly try to hang on to our fat stores, an evolutionary adaptation that protects us against (unlikely) future famines. So, if we burn calories during exercise, our bodies might nudge us to sit more afterward or reallocate energy from some bodily systems to others, reducing our overall daily energy expenditure. In this way, our bodies unconsciously compensate for many of the calories we burn exercising, reducing our chances of dropping pounds by working out.