Exercise After Eating and Muscle Mass
Two-minute “exercise snacks” are sufficient to reap benefits.
The Chinese folk saying “if you take 100 steps after each meal, you’ll live to 99,” has science to back it up, and it’s not just about improved digestion. New research shows that exercise after eating also improves the body’s ability to use dietary amino acids to synthesize protein into muscle mass.
University of Toronto researchers studied whether breaking up prolonged sitting periods would improve muscle’s ability to repair or replace damaged proteins through use of amino acids. “Our results highlight the importance of breaking up prolonged sedentary periods with brief activity snacks,” said lead study author Daniel Moore, PhD, associate professor of muscle physiology at University of Toronto. “We believe they also highlight that moving after we eat can make our nutrition better and could allow more dietary amino acids from smaller meals or lower quality types of protein to be used more efficiently.”
In the study, participants engaged in prolonged sitting, interrupted every 30 minutes by 2-minute bouts of walking or body-weight squatting. The brief activity breaks improved the efficiency of dietary amino acids used for muscle protein synthesis.
The study on exercise after eating is published in Journal of Applied Physiology (2022; doi:10.1152/jap-plphysiol.00106.2022).
See also: Choose Food First, Then Hit The Gym
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
