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.