Exercise is helpful for weight control on many different fronts and helping you eat less should be added to the list. New research conducted in a group of 18 normal weight and 17 overweight women found that 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise blunted the brain’s appetite-stimulating responses to pictures of foods. It is well-documented that seeing food images can stimulate the brain’s appetite center, and the researchers were curious to see if a bout of exercise could alter the typical response. Both groups of women viewed pictures of appetizing foods after exercise and after a period of quiet rest. In both the normal and overweight women, the brain’s responses to food images were reduced after the bout of exercise relative to the period of rest. The investigators also noted that despite the fact that the subjects burned more calories on the day they exercised, they did not compensate by eating additional calories. (Medicine and Science in Sports in Exercise, October 2012)