Yes, but not in the way that you might think!
Whilst a single exercise or PT sessions won't burn many calories, by regularly exercising you are more likely to:
Feel better about yourself and therefore make healthier food choices
Sleep better which makes sugary or high fat foods less appealing
Improve your mood and feel more like leaving the house and therefore doing some form of movement
Use exercise rather than food when you feel: bored, tired, lonely, angry, stressed, or sad
Prioritise your health in general as by exercising you are acting on the promise you made to yourself to do something for you
Feel more confident that you can trust yourself with other things such as healthy food choices
Which will all contribute to weight loss over time!
Let’s take a look at one aspect of how physical activity and exercise can affect food choices and our ability to maintain a healthy weight.
Exercise and food reward: the evidence
A 2020 review brought together current evidence from exercise studies about the impact of physical activity and exercise on food reward.
Food reward is the value we place on food at the moment we consume it. The two components are:
Liking; the pleasure of the food's taste
Wanting; the motivation to eat the food
The conclusions are well worth reading, especially if you are inactive and struggle with overeating and weight gain!
The studies suggest there is reduced pleasure of food and the motivation to eat it with increasing levels of regular physical activity. Interestingly this was particularly with people with higher levels of body fat.
Food preference
Higher levels of regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity are associated with greater liking for low-fat/low-energy food and lower wanting for high-fat food; those who engage in more sedentary activity prefer high-fat food.
The study suggested that the avoidance of high-fat food perceived to be unhealthy, the preference for low-fat food, and the greater physical activity levels are all driven by a desire to be healthy and engage in positive health behaviours.
Studies suggest that physical activity may act as a barrier for liking and wanting high-fat foods. So just by getting active you can influence your food choices in a positive way!
Pleasure-seeking eating
Low levels of physical activity can make people more susceptible to pleasure-seeking eating, and more influenced by the food environment to partake in pleasure-seeking eating.
Examples of food environment influences are:
large portion sizes at restaurants and takeaways
the price and convenience of unhealthy foods in shops
a lack of places to buy fruit and vegetable
availability of unhealthy food in the workplace or home
unhealthy food options available e.g. at parties or events
abundance of convenience food shops and takeaways
The research suggests exercise and physical activity could be an effective strategy for controlling pleasure-seeking eating in people with obesity.
If you find yourself often looking to food for pleasure and ‘treating’ yourself with food, exercise could be key.
Hunger and Satiety
The research shows higher levels of physical activity are associated with enhanced signaling of feeling ‘full’ resulting in a better matching between energy intake and energy expenditure.
Lower levels of physical activity are associated with higher body fat, weaker signaling of feeling ‘full’. This leads to over consumption and a further increase in body fat.
As levels of regular physical activity increase there is a change in rewards systems that accompany weight loss and improvement in appetite control.
If you always feel hungry or never feel satisfied after a meal, increasing your physical activity can help with this.
The graph below shows what happens to energy intake, body fat, wanting and like ing food, with those who are sedentary (on the left hand side) to those who are very active (on the right).
Fig. 2 Conceptual model of the impact of habitual physical activity and exercise on appetite control.
If you struggle with overeating, not feeling satiated after meals, or simply matching your energy in vs energy out: engaging in regular physical activity can help.
You are less likely to partake in pleasure seeking eating, be influenced by your environment, and less likely to go for high fat/high energy foods.
Make exercise a regular part of your life. Be active every day.
Reference:
Beaulieu K, Oustric P, Finlayson G. The Impact of Physical Activity on Food Reward: Review and Conceptual Synthesis of Evidence from Observational, Acute, and Chronic Exercise Training Studies. Curr Obes Rep. 2020 Jun;9(2):63-80. doi: 10.1007/s13679-020-00372-3. PMID: 32297126; PMCID: PMC7261263.
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