According to a new study, 60 minutes of strenuous aerobic exercises on a treadmill is better than 90 minutes of weight-lifting in suppressing the urge for food. By aerobics exercise, human body release two key appetite hormones called as ghrelin and peptide YY, while weightlifting affects only the level of ghrelin.

“The findings of the study may lead to the development of effective exercises which can help control weight,” said co-author of the study David J. Stensel of Loughborough University in Britain. There are several hormones to regulate the appetite but the researchers looked at only two major ones, ghrelin and peptide YY. Ghrelin that stimulates appetite, was discovered in Japan about 10 years ago.  Peptide YY suppresses appetite and was discovered less than 25 years ago.

For the study, 11 male university students were asked to do 3 eight-hour sessions. In the first session, they ran for 60 minutes on a treadmill and after that they rested for 7 hours. During second session, they did 90 minutes of weight lifting and then rested for six hours and 30 minutes. In the last session, they did not perform any exercise. In each session, the participants filled the forms in which they rated how hungry they felt at various points.

They were also provided with two meals during each session and the researchers calculated the level of ghrelin and peptide YY at various points. Researchers found that after the treadmill (aerobic) session there was a fall in ghrelin levels and increase in the peptide YY levels which means that there was overall suppression in appetite. However, a weight-lifting (non-aerobic) session showed mixed result. Ghrelin levels went down but peptide YY levels did not change significantly.

The survey forms filled by the participants showed that both aerobic exercise and weightlifting suppressed hunger, but the former produced a greater suppression of hunger.