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With obesity being defined as a disease, primary care physicians now need to address the issue with their overweight and obese patients more diligently. Even though there are several new weight loss options, such as medications and surgeries, these methods might not be the safest way to lose weight. Researchers have continuously looked for new links between traditional exercise and healthy eating, and weight loss. In a new study, researchers found that vigorous exercise could lower appetite and lead to fewer calorie consumption.

In this small study headed by graduate student, Aaron Sim from the University of Western Australia, researchers found that 30 minutes of high intensity exercise was effective in lowering appetite. The researchers recruited 17 overweight male volunteers to partake in the experiment. The experiment included four different exercise groups. The first group rested and did not exercise. The second group did 30 minutes of moderate level exercise on a stationary bike. The third and fourth groups performed high and very high level of exercise respectively. These last two groups cycled with short bursts of speed as well as longer stretches of pedaling.

After the 30-minute session, all participants were given a meal in liquid form that had 267 calories. A little over an hour later, the researchers gave the participants oatmeal and asked them to eat until they were "comfortably full." The researchers found that groups three and four ate fewer calories in comparison to the first two groups. The researchers reported that group one ate 764 calories, group two ate 710 calories, group three ate 621 calories and the last group ate 594 calories. After a day passed, the researchers also discovered that groups three and four continued to eat fewer calories. The breakdown of calorie consumption was 2,600 for the resting group, 2,300 for group two and 2,000 for the last group.

Despite this find, the researchers are not sure if their results could be applied in the long term. The study was published in the Journal of Obesity.