Vigorous workouts may curb your appetite, for a short time at least

Researchers from the University of Western Australia recruited 17 overweight men to participate in three 30-minute exercise sessions on separate days, they performed a moderate, high, or very high-intensity interval training exercise on a stationary bike. In a fourth session, they rested for 30 minutes.

After each session, the subjects drank a liquid meal of about 270 calories. An hour later, the subjects were allowed to eat as much oatmeal as they wanted.

Results showed that the harder the men worked out, the fewer calories they ate, with the subjects consuming 200 fewer calories after the very high intensity training session than those who rested.

The subjects also ate fewer calories on the day after the highest intensity workout than they did following the other exercise sessions, consuming about 600 fewer calories than after the resting session.

The study was published online Thursday in the International Journal of Obesity.

A separate study published in the journal Metabolism found that perceived fullness was higher among subjects after 12 weeks of aerobic training, but not after resistance training for the same amount of time.