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If you're on a diet, maybe you should try skipping. A recent study conducted by researchers from Waseda University, Tokyo Gakugei University and Kyoto Pharmaceutical University in Japan found that skipping rope worked as an appetite suppressant - as well as the obvious benefit of keeping you slim.

According to the Daily Mail, the study was conducted with 15 volunteers. They were rather young, with an average age of 24, and each had fasted for 12 hours before the study. Then each of the volunteers performed one of three activities: they skipped rope for 30 minutes, with two 5-minute breaks chopping up 10-minute exercise sessions, then rested for two hours; they used a stationary bike for 25 minutes with three 5-minute breaks, followed by another two-hour rest; or they simply rested for 160 minutes.

The researchers found that skipping did not simply serve as a great aerobic workout. After skipping, the volunteers were less likely to crave a snack. Exercise in general serves as an appetite suppressant, but skipping seemed to have a stronger effect that the stationary bike.

Interestingly, skipping lowered the levels of some hunger hormones, like ghrelin, which is responsible for notifying you when you feel hungry. However, overall, researchers said that there was very little difference in the hormone levels from the different activities. That must mean that there is another reason that skipping is more effective at suppressing hunger than cycling is.

Researchers suspect that the reason lies in the nature of the skip. By jumping up and down, skipping forces the body's major muscles to bear repeated impact. Jumping up and down - like with skipping or running - may disturb the gut and interrupts the hormonal process that makes you feel hungry. Cycling, on the other hand, is also a good method to get and stay in shape, but because the exercise is not weight-bearing, it does not suppress appetite as well as skipping does. Still, both exercises lowered appetite more than simply resting.

The study was recently published in the journal Appetite.