Author Archives: Jenny Paxman

People often believe that exercise makes you hungry, with many recreational swimmers reporting that they feel ‘ravenous’ during and after swimming.

Professor David Broom now at Coventry University worked with researchers from Loughborough University to put this theory to the test.

The team examined the effects of swimming versus cycling and resting sat down on appetite with a group of 32 healthy adults. The participants – 17 males and 15 females – were all under the age of 40 years old and had the ability to swim and cycle at a recreational (rather than elite) level.

The participants were provided with a set breakfast which they ate at home between 8.45am and 9.00am. They took part in three trials (separated by at least 4 days), where they rested throughout except when performing a total of 60 minutes of cycling or swimming on the trial day. The exercise sessions began 90 minutes after breakfast, and the researchers measured the participants’ appetites using a scale at multiple times throughout the day.

Thirty minutes after exercise – and at the equivalent time in the resting trial – the participants were allowed to eat as much pasta as they wanted until “comfortably full and satisfied”.

The results revealed that participants ate more during the swimming trial, with an average of an additional 142 calories being consumed than in the control trial. This is equivalent to a 25g packet of crisps or two digestive biscuits.

The reason for the appetite-stimulating effect of swimming is not yet understood and Professor Broom will be exploring this in future studies.

Swimming may not be as effective as other types of exercise for weight management and these findings support this claim. However, this is not to say that people should stop swimming if they are trying to lose weight. Swimmers just need to be mindful that they could potentially eat more and should resist the temptation to eat readily available snacks, or eat a smaller portion at their next meal.

One thing remains clear: it’s always important to be physically active, especially through activities you enjoy and will do regularly.

Read the team’s latest article in The Conversation to find out more.

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) has released a report on trends in children’s body mass index 2006 to 2007 and 2018 to 2019 accessible here

Included:

• Analysis of the trends in obesity, excess weight, and severe obesity prevalence (NCMP),
• Changes over time by age, sex, ethnic group and deprivation quintile

Highlights:

“The findings show that prevalence of obesity and excess weight are showing a downward trend among Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) boys. However, Reception girls and Year 6 (aged 10 to11 years) boys and girls are seeing an upward trend in the prevalence of obesity and excess weight. Prevalence of severe obesity is increasing among Reception girls and Year 6 boys and girls. Inequalities continue to widen in obesity, excess weight, and severe obesity across all age and sex groups in the NCMP.”

We hope you find this useful.

Suzanne Zaremba (Lecturer in Nutrition, Centre for Public Health Nutrition Research, University of Dundee) and Miriam Clegg (Lecturer in Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading) have recently published a thought-provoking article in The Conversation highlighting the paucity of studies linking appetite measures to weight control endpoints and the need for more research in older adults.  This article has also been picked up by The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/health-and-wellbeing/diet-nutrition-satiety-hunger-body-mind-a9453641.html

You may remember Miriam from our launch event.

The Healthy Weight and Physical Activity Community of Improvement YH will soon be starting work on a project with ‘Sustain’ to test the advertising restrictions policy developed by the Mayor of London’s office and Transport for London.

They are seeking an evaluation partner to work with them to assess the impact of providing a regional approach to the reduction of exposure to foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods). Although funding has not yet been secured to support the evaluation, PHE would be keen to work with the evaluation partner to identify potential sources of funding.

Approximate project timeline:

January funding granted
February initial audit of council policies and contracts to provide baseline information for project.
February/ March identify evaluation partner and secure funding for evaluation
April/ May- CoI meeting for background to project and briefing for how LAs are going to be involved and how to start collecting the evidence
May- September LAs start collecting information eg detailed policies and contract information; photographs to make the case for implementing policy changes
October – Sustain start project implementation work with local authorities

Further information

If you would like further information. please contact

Nicola Corrigan Health and Wellbeing Programme Manager (Healthy Weight & Physical Activity)
Public Health England. Tel: 0113 8557289 Mob: 07584 336 319. nicola.corrigan@phe.gov.uk

Background to the project

The Yorkshire & Humber Association of Directors of Public Health (Y&H ADPH) Network have agreed to support an advocacy project from the Healthy Weight and Physical Activity Community of Improvement (HW&PA CoI).  This provides a regional approach to the reduction of exposure to foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods).  It also supports the 7th commitment in the Local Authority Declaration on Healthy Weight (LADHW) commitment to:

‘protect our children from inappropriate marketing by the food and drink industry such as advertising and marketing in close proximity to schools; ‘giveaways’ and promotions within schools; at events on local authority controlled sites’

A high profile restriction on HFSS food advertising has been put in place by Transport for London (TfL) supported by the charity Sustain, who assisted in the development and implementation of the policy with the Mayor of London’s office.

By working with Sustain the Y&H ADPH Network will get the best learning and practice in relation to this emerging area of policy development and implementation.  Sustain would provide bespoke support to the Y&H region to replicate the TfL approach, which would include:

• A workshop with members of PHE’s Yorkshire and the Humber food subgroup to support interest, adoption and implementation across council advertising spaces
• Support to explore or implement an equivalent advertising policy across the Yorkshire and the Humber transport networks
• Support 2 (new) Yorkshire and the Humber councils to adopt an equivalent advertising policy
• End of project progress report to PHE Yorkshire and the Humber
• Short briefing paper on learning/recommendations from programme (public)

Broom et al’s paper – ‘Acute effect of exercise intensity and duration on acylated ghrelin and hunger in men’ was the Journal of Endocrinology’s highest downloaded non – gold open access paper in 2017. It has now been acknowledged as one of the journals most highly citied in 2019.

Broom’s previous work showed that acute exercise transiently suppresses the orexigenic (appetite stimulating) gut hormone acylated ghrelin, but the extent to which exercise intensity and duration determine this response was not fully understood.

The effects of manipulating exercise intensity and duration on acylated ghrelin concentrations and hunger were therefore examined in two experiments.

In experiment A, nine healthy males completed three conditions being 1) resting control, 2) moderate-intensity running and 3) vigorous-intensity running.

In experiment B, nine healthy males completed three conditions being 1) resting control, 2) 45-min running and 3) 90-min running.

In both experiments, participants consumed standardised meals, and acylated ghrelin concentrations and hunger were measured throughout.

In experiment A, acylated ghrelin concentrations were lower than resting control in both running conditions and to a greater extent in the vigorous-intensity running condition. In experiment B, acylated ghrelin concentrations were lower than control in both running conditions. Hunger ratings were lower for longer after 90 minutes of running.

Exercise intensity and duration are key determinants of the acylated ghrelin response to acute exercise with a clear dose response effect. The higher the intensity and the longer the duration the greater the suppression of hunger and acylated ghrelin.

Research in this area is needed to identify effective doses of exercise to encourage weight loss and maintenance.

This work was in collaboration with academics from Loughborough University. We have recently submitted a paper examining swimming as a mode of physical activity which anecdotally increases hunger. Findings to follow once published.