I wouldn't really say exercise makes one overeat as much as the extra activity and exertion might make one hungrier than normal. This piece highlights a couple of studies that show how exercise affects different people's brains. Interesting indeed. Please share and comment. – Best, Chad

By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times

Some people respond to exercise by eating more. Others eat less. For many years, scientists thought that changes in hormones, spurred by exercise, dictated whether someone’s appetite would increase or drop after working out. But now new neuroscience is pointing to another likely cause. Exercise may change your desire to eat, two recent studies show, by altering how certain parts of your brain respond to the sight of food.

In one study, scientists brought 30 young, active men and women to a lab at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo for two experimental sessions, where they draped their heads in functional M.R.I. coils. The researchers wanted to track activity in portions of the brain known as the food-reward system, which includes the poetically named insula, putamen and rolandic operculum. These brain regions have been shown to control whether we like and want food. In general, the more cells firing there, the more we want to eat. To continue reading, please click HERE.

I guess we can change their names to smartbells. Exercise can not only make your body run well, but it's also great for your mind. Read on and please comment. – Chad

By James S. Fell, L.A. Times

Actor Jesse Eisenberg's character in the movie "Zombieland" extolled the virtues of "cardio" as an apocalyptic survival tool. It probably didn't cross his mind it was making him a more scrumptious target for the walking dead.

All supposing a better-functioning brain is also a tastier one, that is. A growing body of evidence shows that regular exercise — be it resistance training or aerobic — helps ward off a host of cognitive impairments and enhances brainpower all life long.

"It's a medium-sized effect — but since we're talking about the brain, medium is good," says Michelle Voss, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa and lead author on a 2011 review of the effect of exercise on cognition.

I'd say very good.

Voss and her team examined more than 100 studies on the topic and discovered some interesting things. Here's one: The brain benefits of resistance training (such as lifting weights) seem to differ from those you get from aerobic exercise. "Aerobic exercise improves ability to coordinate multiple things, long-term planning and your ability to stay on task for extended periods," she said. Resistance training, which is much less studied than the aerobic side of things, "improves your ability to focus amid distracters."  Read the rest of this entry »

This is a great article about what happens to the human body after the age of 40.  But guess what?  Exercise can help delay or prevent losing muscle mass, keeping us strong through into our twilight years.  Please read, comment and share.

Chad

Aging Well Through Exercise

Is physical frailty inevitable as we grow older? That question preoccupies scientists and the middle-aged, particularly when they become the same people. Until recently, the evidence was disheartening. A large number of studies in the past few years showed that after age 40, people typically lose 8 percent or more of their muscle mass each decade, a process that accelerates significantly after age 70. Less muscle mass generally means less strength, mobility and among the elderly, independence. It also has been linked with premature mortality.

But a growing body of newer science suggests that such decline may not be inexorable. Exercise, the thinking goes, and you might be able to rewrite the future for your muscles.

Consider the results of a stirring study published last month in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine. For it, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recruited 40 competitive runners, cyclists and swimmers. They ranged in age from 40 to 81, with five men and five women representing each of four age groups: 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70-plus. All were enviably fit, training four or five times a week and competing frequently. Several had won their age groups in recent races.

For more on this article please go here.