Exercise makes a womam eat more?

I found this article on Tina Juan’s column at Inq7 entitled “Well and Good: Exercise makes women eat more?”. Her article really caught my attention for it’s happening to me. I sometimes make myself desperate for exercise but indulge on food and sweets for godsake after each work out! Or, when I eat McDo meals before my trainings, yikes! No wonder I still feel flubby and chubby all the same.

I once asked my friend to accompany me in jogging but to my disappointment he said, “wag na, lalo ka lang tatakaw”, which was probably true after all.

Here I posted the full article of Ms. Tina Juan from her Lifestyle column in Inquirer posted on Aug 22, 2005.

Well and Good : Exercise makes a woman eat more?

IT’S unfair but true. Men have an easier time losing weight than women.

Scientists think it could be because women’s cells are more prone to storing fat. A new study may have discovered another reason. Exercise may stimulate a woman’s appetite so she ends up eating an equal amount of calories or more than she burns in the workout.

In the past, research found that male rats did not increase their caloric intake in response to exercise and consequently lost weight. Female rats ate more after exercising and maintained their weights.

It turns out that, when it comes to exercise and appetite, humans may be just like rats. Many studies have shown that moderate and high-intensity exercise has no effect on a man’s appetite.

A Canadian study at the University of Ottawa found women participants consumed more calories at lunch after exercising vigorously in the morning compared to when they exercised at a low intensity or not at all.
Researchers defined “high intensity” as walking at a fast pace for 37 minutes on a treadmill (70 percent of peak oxygen uptake) while “low intensity” (40 percent of peak oxygen uptake) was defined as walking at a slow pace for 65 minutes.

The duration of workouts was adjusted so that everyone was burning 350 calories per session.

Is no exercise better?

Does this mean it’s better not to exercise or, at least not vigorously, if you want to lose weight? Not at all. The Canadian study found that the women ate 878 calories during lunch after a high-intensity workout, 819 calories after low-intensity exercise, and 751 calories when they did not exercise.

Although they ate the fewest calories at lunch when they did not exercise, a comparison of the amount of calories taken in the whole day and calories used showed they actually had more net calories. So, to lose weight, it’s still better to exercise than sit on the couch.

A 2002 study found that fit menopausal women only had 25 percent body fat compared to sedentary menopausal women who had 38 percent body fat.

You burn more total fat calories during vigorous workouts compared to lower intensity exercise. As long as you control what and how much you eat after workouts, you will still be a winner in the weight-loss game. So if you enjoy vigorous exercise, go ahead.

Less body fat

A 1990 study on 1,366 women and 1,257 men suggested that those who did high-intensity exercise tended to have less body fat than those who did lower-intensity workouts.

For those who cannot control their appetite, low-intensity, longer duration exercise may be more appropriate.

Appetite is temporarily suppressed immediately after exercise but ravenous hunger can occur one to two hours later. Take advantage of that small “window of opportunity.” Eat a small snack within 30 minutes after working out if you are not ready for a main meal.

The snack should be about 100-150 calories and should contain protein and carbohydrates, like a glass of milk. The protein helps to suppress appetite while carbohydrates help restore glycogen (a stored form of carbohydrates in the muscles) used during workout.

Do not exercise hungry because you will be very hungry afterwards. For example, if you exercise at 5 p.m. and the last meal you ate was lunch, don’t be surprised if you lose control of your appetite at dinner.
Watch out for psychological hunger. It’s that attitude that says, “I deserve to eat as much as I want because I had a hard workout.” You are probably not burning as many calories as you think.

In a 2004 University of Alabama study, normal-weight women overestimated the amount of physical activity they did in one day (formal exercise plus activities of daily living) by 600 calories. Overweight women overestimated it by 900 calories.

Temperature

Aside from gender, appetite after exercise is also affected by temperature.

Scientists have long suspected that swimming in cold water increases the appetite compared to jogging or cycling that makes one feel hot and sweaty afterwards. Some studies have also found that swimming is not as effective for weight loss as land-based exercise.

Jaci Van Heest, exercise physiologist of the United States Swimming Association, says although elite swimmers and runners burn about the same amount of calories while training, top swimmers have three to five percent more body fat than top runners.

Researchers at the University of Florida have confirmed that there is indeed a connection between cold-water exercise and appetite.

They compared the energy used and calories consumed after riding a stationary bike submerged in cold water (68°F) and warm water (91.4°F).

Participants burned 517 calories in cold water then consumed 877 calories. When they exercised in warm water, they burned 505 calories then consumed 608 calories.

That’s why scuba diving could open up my appetite like no other activity could.

No guarantee

The message is that exercise does not guarantee weight loss if you will overcompensate for the calories burned. That goes for both men and women. A study last year illustrated that less was sometimes more. Male participants did either one set or three sets of upper body weight lifting exercises for two months. Both groups became 21 percent stronger but the group that lifted only one set had a greater fat loss (19 percent) than the group that did three sets (10 percent).

Calorie overcompensation was the suspected reason.