Having a flat tummy and a stable and long lasting heart are the main factors many people name for starting to become more physically active. However new research from the Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver point to a less well known reason that may matter even more for long-term success especially when weight loss is one goal at the onset, happiness.
Colorado Health Sciences maintains the national weight loss registry, a group of individuals that after losing a significant amount of weight and keeping it off for over one year can become part of the ongoing study into just how they were so successful. While the men and women in the growing group of participants started their weight loss mission with losing fat and becoming healthier, those that succeeded in keeping the weight off also found increased happiness in their new chosen lifestyle according to new study results.
Exercise is known to enrich certain “happiness” factors such as brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), and “anti-aging” hormones such as growth hormone. It might be, according to some researchers that while each of these hormones raise immediately after or during intense physical activity to fall again after exercise that the pulsatile fashion of habitually active people has longer-term effects that modify the way the mind process information.
Research on mice and rats show that regular physical activity can make the animals offspring less prone to signs of depression, and research animals that are given access to running wheels and other “enriching” environments show less signs of depression than those that do not. How this work will translate to humans yet is not yet known.
However, this new research makes for compelling reasons to get out and be more physically active in a manner that is sustainable because of the health benefits of regular physical activity on the brain and overall well being.
New research is looking into exactly how the powerful set of hormones that are released during or after physical activity could actually change how the brain operates, and future work may then be able to develop specific programs that create the quickest and most lasting changes to the brain, therefore extending the fat burning and heart healthy benefits of exercise to the brain.
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Hamilton Erridge is a weight loss professional. New Lifestyle Diet helps people lose weight and stay healthy by providing information and resources that help people make a lifestyle change so that the extra pounds shed are never put back on.
A fitness and weight loss expert. I help people over come their weight loss hurdles by creating a new lifestyle.