

Exercise suppresses appetite by affecting appetite hormones - ph0rque
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/12/11/exercise.suppresses.appetite.affecting.appetite.hormones

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pchristensen
This is definitely true for me. The only times I've been able to control my
appetite are when I regularly do aerobic exercise. When I'm not regularly
exercising I have no power whatsoever over my appetite. When I am, I lose my
taste for unhealthy food and naturally get portion control.

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scott_s
I've know this for a while (but I obviously did not know the mechanisms).

When I have an intense Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practice, it takes an hour or more
for me to get my appetite back - despite my knowledge that I need calories.
But after lifting I am famished, and I have a protein shake immediately after
getting home just so that I can cool down and shower before eating.

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gaius
I don't believe this. An hour after running a half-marathon or greater I am
basically inhaling food. Every other running I know is the same.

Plus I don't know what kinds of weights they were lifting for 90 minutes.
20-30 minutes is more like it for a real workout (see Mike Mentzer, Stuart
McRobert, Dorian Yates etc for references).

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ph0rque
> An hour after running a half-marathon or greater I am basically inhaling
> food.

I don't think the article disagrees with you:

> The [appetite suppression] the researchers observed were short term for both
> types of exercise, lasting about two hours, including the time spent
> exercising, Stensel reported.

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gaius
Ah, including exercise time, missed that bit! :-)

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tocomment
What is the reason the body does this? Is it just a side effect, or has it
evolved that way?

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scott_s
My guess is that strength training sends the message "we need more muscle
mass" to the body. More muscle mass requires more calories.

On the other hand, aerobic activities are inhibited by excess mass - even
muscle mass. So the other side is, my guess, aerobic activity sends the
message "we need less mass, fat and muscle." Decreasing appetite will result
in a smaller person.

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old-gregg
Is this yc.news or a general American phenomena? How come stories about food
and fat routinely get voted up? Hey, there are plenty of other, more
interesting organs in your bodies, stop being obsessed with your digestive
tracts - that's disgusting. BTW is that true that in California they're
starting to do butt-hole bleaching? I am tired of waiting for a yc.news
article confirming this...

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zasz
Because diet and exercise are two of the most obvious ways you can control or
"hack" your body. Therefore, they are interesting and voted up.

Though I don't think this particular article has anything to do with diet.
It's just an interesting, counterintuitive discovery. I would have thought
that exercise in general made you hungrier, but apparently it doesn't. See?
That's interesting.

To your last point. I'm from California. We don't.

