Many people report that after exercising, they feel hungrier and end up eating more, which can generate frustration and doubts about the effectiveness of exercise for weight loss. This pattern is common: after an hour at the gym, it's common to think about reward food and end up devouring a large meal, generating guilt for having "wasted" the calories burned.
However, science reveals that the relationship between exercise and appetite is more complex than it seems. In the short term, a session of physical exercise can actually suppress appetite. A meta-analysis of 20 studies found that exercise reduces the hunger hormone, ghrelin, while increasing hormones associated with satiety, such as PYY, GLP-1, and pancreatic polypeptide.
Despite this, this effect is temporary. A larger systematic review and meta-analysis indicates that in the long term, exercise can indeed influence the body's hunger and satiety signals in other ways. Science is still investigating these relationships to better understand how exercise affects appetite over time.
