Exercise Helps Short Term Overeating

Now who's been eating too much?

If you've been eating more than normal (like me) this Christmas and are have been piling on the pounds, here's motivation to keep your exercise going.

An recently published article in the Journal of Physiology found that regular exercise helps keep your blood sugar and fat cells in the healthy range even when you consume significantly more calories over several days.

The study looked at twenty-six men who over ate for a week. Some increased their calorie intake by 50% and did not exercise at all that week. The others in the study took in 75% more calories than usual but ran 45 minutes a day.

Both groups accumulated a large energy surplus during that week (from eating way too much). Even though both groups were considered to be "unhealthy" in their weight control in the short term, the runners handled the overeating much better than those who did not run (or exercise).

The runners had stable blood sugar levels and their fat cells showed less "undesirable" genetic changes. The inactive group had much worse blood sugar control and had alterations in several genes associated with nutritional balance, metabolism and insulin action.

The authors concluded that a daily bout of exercise during a period of overeating (very common during Christmas and the New Year) will prevent many of the negative changes from happening even though you are gaining weight. Well, if you have eaten too much and haven't exercised this past Christmas and have piled on the pounds, you can still remedy it by kick starting your exercise regime before the New Year holiday period.

Reference

Walhin JP, Richardson JD, Betts JA and Thompson D. (2013). Exercise Counteracts The Effects Of Short-term Overfeeding And Reduced Physical Activity Independent Of Energy Imbalance In Healthy Young Men. J of Physiology. 591: 6231-6243.

Who is not eating?

*Pictures by Aminah with her Canon Powershot