Chocolate Fitness

Regular ingestion of chocolate has been recently associated with healthy weight, according to a study involving 1,000 adults done at the University of California at San Diego.

Dr. Beatrice Golomb, who led the research which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, said: “People have just assumed that because it comes with calories and it’s typically eaten as a sweet… it would inherently have been one way: bad,”

This particular study involved 1,000 mostly middle-aged adults who had their dose of exercise thrice a week and had their dose of chocolate twice every week. Those who had more chocolate usually had lower body mass indexes.

It’s no surprise that chocolate makers will lay out the benefits of chocolate, and so will fitness trainers. Many personal trainers are now linking chocolate to fitness, especially when you eat it after a strenuous workout or right after exercising.

Blake Raun, a trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Chicago, said: “Chocolate can increase one’s resting metabolic rate,” He added: “Having a higher resting metabolic rate means better metabolism and the more calories one can burn.”

The resting metabolic rate (RMR) refers to the minimum amount of calories that the body requires in backing up the basic physiological functions. Nevertheless, fitness trainers are not suggesting chocolate to be a separate supplement to their client, but they know that chocolate really packs a lot of benefits in exercise performance.

Golomb also acknowledged the benefits of chocolate in fitness. She also mentioned how chocolate milk is so popular as a sports drink during and after a strenuous workout in this time and age. She cited the results from the research that involved lab rats.

She said: “Chocolate essentially acted as an exercise magnet, allowing rats to run farther and increase muscle mass,” She also said that the research involving rats have indicated that these animals had a noticeable  increase in their endurance, thus giving a reason to anticipate this pattern in humans.

The next time you want to hit the gym, you might want to have some chocolate with you. You can share it with your gym buddies, as well!