Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. Regular physical activity improves cardiovascular fitness, strengthens muscles, boosts mental health, and helps maintain a healthy weight. It’s also known to positively influence brain function and even extend lifespan. But did you know that exercise can also temporarily suppress your appetite, alter your gut microbiome, and even enhance your sensory perception, such as taste? These surprising effects highlight just how profoundly exercise impacts the body beyond its well-known benefits. But alongside these well-known benefits, exercise also causes some fascinating changes within the body—from altering hormone levels to improving sensory perception. Among these lesser-known effects, the way exercise influences taste is both intriguing and practically significant, particularly for those involved in endurance activities or working with fitness professionals.
Let’s take a closer look at how exercise affects taste, why it happens, and what nutrition coaches can do to help their clients harness this knowledge for better performance and recovery.
How Exercise Affects Taste
Taste, a sense we often take for granted, plays a crucial role in guiding our food choices and ensuring we meet our body’s nutritional needs. It’s divided into five primary dimensions: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Each signals something specific about the nutrients or substances in food—for example, sweetness indicates carbohydrates, and saltiness reflects electrolyte content. During exercise, our body undergoes significant physiological changes, such as increased heart rate, altered blood flow, and shifts in energy substrate utilisation. These changes can impact sensory perception, including taste.
Recent research has revealed that prolonged or repeated exercise sessions may alter taste sensitivity and preferences, particularly for sweet and salty flavours, potentially leading individuals to choose foods or drinks with stronger taste profiles during or after their workouts to better satisfy their energy and electrolyte needs. Understanding these effects can help fitness professionals and nutrition coaches optimise their clients’ training and recovery strategies.
The Study: How Taste Changes with Exercise
A recent study aimed to explore how endurance exercise impacts taste and odour sensitivities. Researchers recruited 20 women to complete a series of bicycle ergometer exercises interspersed with taste and odour tests. By examining both taste and odour, the study provided a comprehensive view of how sensory perception adapts to physical exertion. The participants performed four 60-minute segments of cycling at moderate intensity (60% heart rate reserve), each followed by a sensory evaluation. Taste tests included isotonic beverages at varying concentrations, while odour tests involved cocoa-related scents. Participants rated the intensity and preference of the beverages and odours throughout the experiment, allowing researchers to analyse shifts in sensory sensitivity under exercise-induced fatigue.
Key Findings
Changes in Taste Sensitivity
The study found that exercise significantly affected taste sensitivity. Specifically, the perceived intensity of highly concentrated isotonic beverages increased as participants became more fatigued. This effect was not observed for lower concentrations, suggesting that exercise enhances sensitivity to stronger flavours.
Interestingly, participants’ preferences also shifted toward sweeter and more concentrated solutions as the exercise progressed. Before starting, many participants favoured milder beverages, but by the end, their preferences aligned with stronger-tasting options. These findings can influence practical nutrition strategies for athletes by encouraging the use of more concentrated or strongly flavoured drinks during intense or prolonged activities. This can help athletes meet their hydration and energy needs effectively, as the body’s altered taste sensitivity may align better with such options. Nutrition coaches can apply this knowledge by tailoring hydration and snack plans to complement their clients’ sensory changes during workouts.
Odour Sensitivity Remains Unchanged
Unlike taste, odour sensitivity and preference were unaffected by exercise. Participants’ perception of the intensity and quality of cocoa-related odours remained stable throughout the sessions. This indicates that while taste may be influenced by physiological changes during exercise, odour perception appears more resistant to such shifts.
Fatigue and Energy Use
As expected, physical fatigue increased with each exercise segment, and energy expenditure peaked during the initial session before gradually declining. These physiological changes likely contributed to the observed shifts in taste perception, as the body adapted to its growing energy and hydration needs.
The Impact on Clients and Practical Strategies for Nutrition Coaches
Understanding how exercise influences taste offers valuable insights for nutrition coaches supporting clients, particularly those engaged in endurance training or long workouts. Here are some practical ways to help clients navigate these changes and optimise their performance and recovery:
- Tailor Hydration Strategies: Since exercise enhances the appeal of sweeter, more concentrated drinks, clients may prefer isotonic beverages with stronger flavours during or after training. Encourage them to try different options and identify what works best for them under varying levels of exertion.
For example, a client training for a marathon might start with a mildly flavoured sports drink early in the session and switch to a more concentrated option as fatigue sets in.
- Experiment with Flavour Profiles: If clients struggle to consume enough fluids or energy during exercise, consider incorporating products with a range of flavour intensities. For instance, offer recommendations for electrolyte powders or gels that cater to their shifting preferences throughout a workout.
- Educate Clients About Sensory Changes: Explain to clients that it’s normal for their taste preferences to shift during exercise. This knowledge can help them make better choices in the moment, ensuring they consume adequate carbohydrates, electrolytes, and fluids to sustain performance.
- Customise Recovery Nutrition: Post-exercise, clients may still prefer stronger flavours. Recommend recovery drinks or snacks with more pronounced sweetness or saltiness to support glycogen replenishment and rehydration.
For instance, a chocolate-flavoured protein shake might be more appealing than a bland alternative immediately after a strenuous session.
Embracing the Complexity of the Human Body
The human body is remarkably complex, and exercise unveils this complexity in fascinating ways. From boosting mental clarity to enhancing physical performance, each workout leaves its mark—sometimes in ways we’re only beginning to understand. The discovery that taste sensitivity changes during exercise is a reminder of how adaptable and interconnected our physiological systems are.
As fitness professionals, staying informed about these discoveries allows us to refine our advice and provide more tailored, effective support to our clients. By leveraging this knowledge, we can help clients not only achieve their fitness goals but also enjoy the process with nutrition strategies that feel intuitive and satisfying.
References
Narukawa, M., Nojiri, K., Matsuda, R., Murata, M., Sakate, S., Kuga, S., & Ue, H. (2025). Changes in taste and odour sensitivities during repeated bicycle ergometer exercises. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 22(1), 2441769. Click here to review the full research article.
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