HIT to Set Healthy Food Choices

High intensity training (HIT) is an exercise program that is performed with a high level of effort, for a brief yet intense period, in an aim to stimulate the body to produce an increase in muscle strength and size. Daniel Crabtree, from the University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom), and colleagues enrolled 15 lean healthy men, average age 22.5 years with an average BMI of 24.2 kg/m2, in a study involving two 60-minute trials: exercise (70% maximum aerobic capacity) and rest, in a counterbalanced order. After each trial, the researchers conducted fMRI during which the subjects viewed images of high- and low-calorie foods.  The team found that the insula – the area of the brain that is involved in the anticipation and perception of foods – was less activated during the exercise-phase of the trial.  The study authors observe that: “Exercise increases neural responses in reward-related regions of the brain in response to images of low-calorie foods and suppresses activation during the viewing of high-calorie foods.”