Have you ever wondered if
exercise makes you eat more? You are not alone. Scientists investigating our
response to food and how is modified by the physical activity. Specifically the
response in an area of the brain known as "bonus to the food system".
Keep reading to find out what they have discovered.
During the year we release
serotonin, which affects our State of mind and also regulates our food
consumption; dopamine, which is responsible for pleasure, which helps prevent
the search for satisfactory sources less healthy as sweets, tobacco or drugs; and
the endorphins, which are natural analgesic and reduce pain, anxiety and
stress. Although we can say according to studies at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory is not 100% sure that humans release dopamine during aerobic
exercise, this was demonstrated only in animals.
Specialized scientists in
studying the brain thought that changes in these hormones were responsible for
our desire to eat or not to eat after an intense physical activity. In fact,
what we eat depends on a variety of factors.
Recently, scientists have been
investigating how exercise alters the area of the brain known as "bonus to
the food system", the area that controls whether we like and we want to
eat after a physical effort.
A Brigham Young University study
has shown that exercise does not make you eat more.
In a study published in Medicine
& Science in Sports & Exercise, the researchers James LeCheminant and
Michael Larson assessed 35 women: 18 had normal weight and 17 had obesity
clinic. They participated voluntarily in the experiment to determine his
motivation in relation to food.
These women stepped in quickly
for 45 minutes on a treadmill one morning. At the time of completing the
exercise, underwent an electroencephalogram, (a study that measures the
electrical activity of the brain) while showing them a series of 240 images, of
which 120 were food and 120 were flowers (which served as a control).
Repeated the same experiment a
week later, the same day of the week and at the same time, but this time to do
exercise. In addition, we were asked to carry a record of everything that had
eaten and their physical activity in the days in which the experiment was
conducted.
The researchers responsible for
the experiment wanted to see if obesity was an influence that were motivated by
food consumption. Surprisingly women past weight in the experiment didn't eat
on the days that made exercise "to compensate" the calories that were
burned during physical activity. It is clear that there was an important role
of exercise in their neuronal response.
In other women, brain activity
was much lower to see the images of food after workout, while the days not
practiced the routine treadmill, activity increased.
It found a few scientists who
studied 30 young people (men and women in their twenties, active and healthy
weight) in two sessions in a lab at California Polytechnic State University in
San Luis Obispo. They evaluated the brains of the volunteers with functional
studies of magnetic resonance imaging (or MRI). The study was similar to the
previous but instead of getting a treadmill they hopped on a stationary bike,
they waited an hour and were subjected to the study of magnetic resonance
imaging while they saw images on a computer and this happened on one occasion
when they performed exercise and elsewhere, when they had not performed
exercise.
The results showed that areas of
the brain that are considered "bonus to the food system" including
the insular, put amen and operculum romantic, which control when we like and we
want food, was more activated in people who do not had been exercising especially
with foods high in fat and sugar-filled.
But the interesting thing is that
perhaps the brain not works the same in everyone. A study published in The
Journal of Obesity that included 34 obese people found that when it is
following them for 12 weeks in a supervised program for weight loss, weight
loss varied much. The study was designed so that they lost 500 calories per
session and could eat what you want. At the end of the 12 weeks, 20 people fell
11 pounds on average, but 14 people fell only one or two pounds. Those who did
not lose weight had a very high response in gratification to the food system,
while the others are not.
The author of this study says
exercise can have an impact on gratification to the food system, but depend
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