The impact of dietary restraint and moderate-intensity exercise on post-exercise energy intake in sedentary males

Exercise is often used for successful weight management, particularly by males. However, exercise may have the potential to promote counter-regulatory eating, because of certain cognitive and psychological factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the unknown role of dietary restraint, BMI, and dieting status on acute and 12-hour post-exercise energy intake (PE-EI) in sedentary males following moderate-intensity exercise. The study consisted of two experimental conditions, exercise and rest, in a counterbalanced-crossover design on two days. Exercise consisted of walking on a treadmill for 60 min. Acute and 12-hour PE-EI were compared on exercise and rest days. Eighty males, mean age 30 ± 8 years, participated in the study and were categorized by dietary restraint level, BMI, and dieting status. The main effects of condition and group, and the interaction were not significant for acute or 12-hour PE-EI, suggesting that a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise did not influence PE-EI in sedentary males in reference to dietary restraint, BMI, and dieting status. Therefore, moderate-intensity exercise as a prescription for weight loss does not appear to promote counter-regulatory eating in sedentary males.