Comparison of the effects of the different exercise types on appetite, calorie intake, calorie consumption and food liking in girl students

The regulation of energy balance in humans is a complex and ambiguous issue. Various studies have shown the relationship between physical activity and creating a negative energy balance in the body. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of the different exercise types on appetite, calorie intake, calorie consumption and food liking in girl students.

Based of this semi-experimental study,10 girl students were randomly and voluntarily chosen among all university students. The subjects performed two protocols of swimming and running (80% of the maximum heart rate up to exhaustion), and one protocol of resistance training (80% of a maximum repetition up to exhaustion) during three sessions. Appetite, calorie intake and food intake were recorded by a standard questionnaire. Energy intake also was recorded by 24-hour physical activity form. Analysis of variance with repeated measures and LSD tests were applied to analyze the data at the significant level of p < 0.05.

The tendency to food had a significant increase immediately after the resistance training compared to running (p= 0.001). Feeling hungry had a significant increase (p = 0.001) compared to running training immediately after swimming training, while the feeling of satiety and the ability to eat at four times, did not showed any significant difference between the three types of exercise (p < 0.05). Moreover, between the effect of one session of swimming, running, and exhaustive circular resistance training there was no significant difference in the tendency to food, calorie intake and calorie consumption (p < 0.05).

There was no significant difference between different training activities in terms of calorie intake, calorie consumption and appetite. This means that regardless of the type of activity, exercise can causes a negative caloric balance; a change that probably cannot be compensate during short term.