Working out but not losing weight?

Avoid the post-gym binge. Photo: Getty Images

According to researchers from universities in Boston and Taiwan, people who follow strict diets are conditioned to count kJs and are more likely to view exercise as an entitlement to binge.

“Dieters have a greater need than non-dieters to justify food consumption and, as such, they have increased sensitivity to entitlement cues, such as exercising,” they said.

“Consequently, dieters will consume more food when the entitlement cue of exercise is involved in comparison to when it is absent.”

Related: Power foods to boost your immunity

As part of the study 103 students were split into three groups - people who ate after exercise, before exercise or didn’t exercise at all.

While watching television, participants were each given a 120g bag of crisps. Those who said they rarely diet, typically ate around 50g of crisps regardless of whether they exercised or not.

Those who considered themselves dieters ate an average of 79g of the crisps when they knew they were about to exercise, compared with just 28g when they did not expect to work out. While people who ate after exercise consumed around 48g.

Related: Four reasons you're always hungry

Interestingly, a further experiment looked at whether attitudes changed when the workout was considered fun, and this produced very different results.

Dieters who were told they were exercising for fun ate significantly less than those who didn't exercise at all and those who were told exercise was hard work.

Related: Can sugar kill your libido?

The research team believe that when exercise is viewed as fun rather than tough, it loses its status as an entitlement cue.

We believe people should view exercise as an opportunity to improve their health and wellbeing, which in turn helps to reduce the urge to binge.