Six Mike treated the faithful to a new type of whipping on Saturday at the AG workout. I haven’t jumped rope in perhaps 20 years, but loved the challenge and all the cardio.  I brought my 2.0 Seton (aka Svengali his given name from Barnabus/Let Me Run group) to share in the pain. Once home we chowed some steel cut oatmeal with strawberries, nuts and milk and a fruit smoothie to get a good mix of grains and protein to reFUEL.  Despite the good intensity, this held me till lunch. Why wasn’t I more hungry?

A recent article in the New York Times looks at the combination of neuroscience and exercise and has a potential answer to food drive. A new theory suggests that your brain, not your hormones, increases or decreases your appetite after a workout. Researchers at California Polytechnic State University studied different areas of the brain that control whether we want and like food and how these areas are affected by exercise or sitting still.

Scientists found that “responsiveness to food cues was significantly reduced after exercise.” Compared to sitting for an hour, exercisers were much less interested in food, even ice cream sundaes. The subjects in the study were in their 20s and fit enough to sustain strenuous exercise for an hour. This is in contrast to a study that found the same areas in the brain were excited in an overweight and sedentary population after exercise, causing them to want and eat more food.

Researchers conclude that exercise has a definite impact on how your brain responds to food.  I guess I continue to need doses of Six Mike’s pain smoothie to continue to quell my appetite.  Perhaps he will bring out the dreaded 10′ drainage pipes again at this weeks Gamucci. We’ll be discussing pie hole cravings at this weeks Fuel Session on Thursday night.