Aerobic Exercise Suppresses Appetite

from a news release of the American Physiological Society

A vigorous 60-minute workout on a treadmill affects the release of two key appetite hormones, ghrelin and peptide YY, while 90 minutes of weight lifting affects the level of only ghrelin, according to a new study. Taken together, the research shows that aerobic exercise is better at suppressing appetite than non-aerobic exercise and provides a possible explanation for how that happens.

There are several hormones that help regulate appetite, but the researchers looked at two of the major ones, ghrelin and peptide YY. Ghrelin is the only hormone known to stimulate appetite. Peptide YY suppresses appetite.

In this experiment, 11 male university students did three eight-hour sessions. During one session they ran for 60 minutes on a treadmill, and then rested for seven hours. During another session they did 90 minutes of weight lifting, and then rested for six hours and 30 minutes. During another session, the participants did not exercise at all.

During each of the sessions, the participants filled out surveys in which they rated how hungry they felt at various points. They also received two meals during each session. The researchers measured ghrelin and peptide YY levels at multiple points along the way.

They found that the treadmill (aerobic) session caused ghrelin levels to drop and peptide YY levels to increase, indicating the hormones were suppressing appetite. However, a weight-lifting (non-aerobic) session produced a mixed result. Ghrelin levels dropped, indicating appetite suppression, but peptide YY levels did not change significantly.

This line of research may eventually lead to more effective ways to use exercise to help control weight, according to the senior author, David J. Stensel of Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

While the study showed that exercise suppresses appetite hormones, the next step is to establish whether this change actually causes the suppression of eating.

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Your Cell Phone as Fitness Coach?

UbiFit display on a cell phone. Different colored flowers grow for different activities, and butterflies appear when the user reaches weekly goals.

excerpts from a news release of the University of Washington, "Track your fitness, environmental impact with new cell phone applications," by Rachel Tompa, Nov 19, 2008

Planning on gobbling a few extra treats this holiday season? Soon, your cell phone may be able to help you maintain your exercise routine and keep the pounds off over winter months, without your having to lift a finger to keep track.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Intel have created two new cell phone applications, dubbed UbiFit and UbiGreen, to automatically track workouts and green transportation. The programs display motivational pictures on the phone's background screen that change the more the user works out or uses eco-friendly means of transportation.

The applications are designed to change people's behavior for the better, said Sunny Consolvo, a recently graduated UW Information School doctoral student and one of UbiFit's creators. In a three-month field experiment, people using UbiFit with the background display kept up their workout routines over the winter holidays, a period when people typically slack off on exercise, while people without the display let their regimen slide.

Current versions of UbiFit and UbiGreen use an external sensing device (the Intel Mobile Sensing Platform) clipped to the user's waist. The device includes an accelerometer to sense the user's movement. The programs could run on phones with built-in accelerometers, such as the iPhone and the new Android G1, with no need for external equipment, Landay said. UbiGreen also relies on changing cell phone tower signals to determine whether a person is taking a trip.

UbiFit displays an empty lawn at the beginning of the week, and flowers grow as the user works out during the week. Different kinds of workouts yield different colored flowers. Users set weekly workout goals and are rewarded with a butterfly when the goal is met. Users can also enter workout information manually if the sensor made a mistake, they forgot to wear it, or they did an activity that the sensor does not detect.

This background display proved motivational, said Consolvo, who is a researcher at Intel Research Seattle. "[It] was definitely one of the biggest wins of our study," Consolvo said.

UbiGreen automatically logs a trip that involves walking, running or biking using accelerometer data, and uses cell phone tower signals to determine if someone is riding in a vehicle. UbiGreen displays a tree on the cell phone's background that grows leaves, flowers, then fruit as the user makes green choices. Icons light up when a choice saves money, incorporates exercise, or allows the user to multi-task. A green bar and number also display how many pounds of carbon dioxide each trip saves compared to a car ride.

UbiFit and UbiGreen could be released to the public within the next year or two, Landay said, especially as phones with built-in accelerometers become more common.

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Get Outside and Succeed in Your Resolutions

Most of America's top New Year's resolutions could be achieved by a weekly hike or some type of outdoor excursion with family and friends. Losing weight and getting fit consistently top America's list of New Year's resolutions. Outdoor Industry Foundation's Exploring the Active Lifestyle report found that 50% of outdoor participants say that participating in outdoor activities is the main way they get exercise. However, The Next Generation of Outdoor Participants 2007 and Exploring the Active Lifestyle determined that only about half of U.S. adults are participating in outdoor activities on an annual basis.

Spending more time with friends and family, reducing stress, and trying something new also topped the resolution list. According to the Exploring the Active Lifestyle report, 91% of outdoor participants between the ages of 35 to 44 believe that participating in outdoor activities strengthens family relationships; 88% of all outdoor participants feel that getting into a natural setting allows them to escape the everyday pressures of life; and 78% declare that they know how to get started in a new outdoor activity that interests them.

Many Americans state "enjoying life more" is their top resolution. A simple weekly outdoor excursion with family or friends is a celebration. The positive side effects and enjoyment received will cover most all the other top resolutions.

a news release of the Outdoor Industry Association, from the Jan 11, 2008 newsletter
See Exploring the Active Lifestyle Report
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The Psychology of Fitness

Cover Jan 2008 Observer Association for Psychological Science

It’s only been a few weeks since you made that New Year’s resolution to exercise more, but already you’re finding reasons to skip days — maybe even weeks.

You know all the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Yet the temptation of sitting on the couch and watching TV instead of going for a short jog is just too great.

You’re not alone. According to the surgeon general, more than 60 percent of American adults don’t exercise regularly and 25 percent aren’t active at all. The Center for Disease Control says that 34 percent of Americans are overweight and more than 72 million people were obese from 2005 to 2006. Inertia has become a national emergency.

For decades, psychologists around the world have studied why people exercise — and why they don’t — and there’s a growing body of work dedicated to helping you get up off the couch.

Preferring to be sedentary is not necessarily an innate human trait. In fact, most children are actually quite active, and people generally stay active all the way through high school. But many of them stop being active when they reach college.

And it’s not just college. This rule applies to many of life’s transitions — moving into the workforce, switching jobs or moving, getting married, having kids. In each of these moments, there is a chance for people to give up on exercise, possibly for good.

"What it comes down to at each of those points is if we have the skills to be flexible and keep believing that these things are good for us. … I can keep it a priority and make it something I schedule the rest of my life around," Bray says. "Unfortunately, [exercise] is one of the first things that goes when we get busy with other things."

Jochen Ziegelmann, a psychologist at Berlin’s Freie Universitat, has done work looking at goal-setting as it relates to exercise. He and a number of other psychologists who have done similar studies have found that participants who made implementation intentions ("I will walk to my friend’s house and back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday") were more likely to continue exercising after two weeks than were people who set goal-intentions ("I will exercise in my free time").

Once you have set your goals for implementing your exercise, it is easier to keep a certain exercise part of your routine. Then, you must be able to motivate yourself even on the days when you’re feeling tired or bored or distracted. That’s called self-control.

Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, has spent his career looking at self-control and decision making, and he has found that self-control is not an unlimited resource — the more you use your self-control, the more difficult it becomes to control your actions.

So if you spend all day trying to avoid the Snickers in the vending machine or trying not to say anything mean to your devilish child, you might not have the same stamina you normally would when you get home for an evening run.

Baumeister relates the idea of self-control to a muscle that becomes more exhausted the more you use it, and his studies "all pointed toward the conclusion that the first self-control task consumed and depleted some kind of psychological resource that was therefore less available to help performance on the second self-control task."

Once you’re off the couch, you have to figure out how to exercise to best meet your goals. That’s what Thomas Plante has been working on for more than 20 years. Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University, has looked at the psychological benefits of exercise in men and women. He focuses on keeping the exercise constant — 20 minutes at about 70 percent of the participants’ maximum heart rate — and then he measures people’s mood.

He has found that environment changes the type of psychological benefits one gets. Exercising indoors and alone is calming for many exercisers. However, if the goal of exercising is to feel energized, then participants are better off exercising outdoors and with friends.

Follow the link below to read more detail in this extensive article.

a news release of The Association for Psychological Science, "Exercising judgment: The psychology of fitness", Jan 9, 2008
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Forget the Track, Hit Nature's Gym

The following is an excerpt from a story which we believe is worthy of reading, but would lose too much of its charm if it were re-written for presentation on this blog. Please link through for the rest of the story, but hurry back! ... Editor

by Justin Raines

My mother is one of the South's few remaining butter cooks. In these days of low-fat recipes and healthy alternative spreads, she still uses enough butter in her holiday cooking to choke the arteries of a bull elephant.

This year, I arrived back in Rabun from a day at Mom's house for Christmas. During the drive down the interstate, I could feel my belly skin stretch and increase. By the time I made it back to Tiger, my body had expanded much like the capsulized foam lobsters that swell to 20 times their original size when placed in a bowl of water overnight.

As I lay writhing on the couch, feeling every cell and artery of my body expand, I began to think about New Year's resolutions. Something had to be done to counteract the effects of the butter shock. Bikini season was only a few short months away and with my rate of belly expansion, time was running out to get in shape for the ladies.... "

finish the story at the Clayton Tribune - see FAIR USE notice.
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Walking Helps Prevent Dementia

Vascular dementia, the second most common dementia (Alzheimer’s disease ranks first) can be held at bay by walking and other forms of moderate exercise.

The study, conducted in Italy, included 749 men and women over the age of 65. None of the participants had memory problems at the beginning of the study. Participants were not asked to change their exercise habits, but the researchers monitored the amount of energy exerted in the regular weekly activities of the subjects. Walking, climbing stairs, gardening, yard work, house work, and other moderate activities were recorded.

By the end of the four years, 54 people had developed Alzheimer’s disease, and 27 were diagnosed with vascular dementia. Those people in the top third as far as energy exertion due to walking were 27% less likely to develop vascular dementia as compared with those in the bottom third.

The results were independent of demographic, medical or genetic factors. Dr. Giovanni Ravaglia, the study's author, noted that walking provided the same benefits as more demanding activities. He says this may be due to improved cerebral blood flow caused by the exercise, but more research will be needed to learn the mechanism of the benefit.

This study did not support other findings that physical activity reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but Ravaglia says more research is needed before concluding that Alzheimer’s disease is not preventable through exercise.

read the full article at Caregiver's Home Companion, "Walking and Moderate Exercise Help Prevent Dementia", Jan 2, 2008
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Older and Out of Shape? It’s Never Too Late

Cornell University's Dr. Richard S. Rivlin says. "Many elderly people feel that it is too late for them to improve their health, but that is simply not true."

A study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adults over age 65 can hold diseases of aging at bay by adding a regular exercise plan to their lifestyle and switching to a more healthy diet.

"Our study reviews and presents the most up-to-date information showing the influence a healthy lifestyle may have on cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis," says Dr. Rivlin. "I also believe that the risk for other diseases, like diabetes and pulmonary disease, can also be avoided through later intervention. But, the earlier, the better."

By reviewing scientific literature the researchers gleaned the following information:

• lowering high blood pressure with improved diet and exercise had more dramatic health benefits for the elderly than for any other age group..
• older adults who adhered to a low-calorie diet with regular exercise had lower rates of cancer. In one study, risk was reduced by nearly 50 percent.
• weight training increased people's ability to burn calories and helped prevent osteoporosis.

Such simple and realistic lifestyle changes brought huge benefits for people, even over the age of 65. There are dozens of opportunities in West Michigan to walk, exercise, ski, snowshoe, or canoe with other like-minded folks. It's never too late to Get Off The Couch!

read the full report from Weill Cornell Medical College
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