This Common Factor Could Be Making You Less Motivated To Work Out

Gut Feeling: So you don’t want to work out today. Or any day, really. Yeah, yeah: “discipline over motivation” and everything. While that’s a skill worth cultivating, what if some of us really do have the upper (or lower) hand when it comes to motivation? According to a new study published in Nature, a certain type of gut bacteria could play a role in how much we want to exercise. 

The Study: In experiments with mice, certain microbes in the gut produced molecules that signal the brain during physical activity, boosting dopamine, the brain chemical linked to reward and motivation. When this pathway was disrupted, the animals were less driven to run and exercised less. In other words, the researchers discovered a gut-to-brain communication pathway that influences motivation during physical activity.

The Takeaway: The findings suggest that the gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria living in our digestive system) could partly explain why some individuals naturally enjoy exercise more than others. In the future, scientists may even explore treatments that target gut microbes to help people become more physically active.

Bottom Line: The work suggests the mechanism might also exist in humans, but more research is needed before scientists can say for sure.