Less hungry after heavy exercise

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rosebette
rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This doesn't make any sense, but if I don't exercise or exercise only "lightly", for instance a 30 minute walk, it's actually harder to stick to my calorie goal. I'm hungry after dinner, even though I've eaten my entire calorie goal for the day. But if I do a heavy workout like zumba or kickboxing or hard aerobics, I have a hard time eating back all those calories. I don't even feel like eating all that food. It seems as if I want to eat around 1300-1400, even though my calorie goal is only 1200. With heavy exercise, I can get sometimes up to 1700, but unless I eat super fattening food, I have trouble eating that all back.

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  • ggluvbug1
    ggluvbug1 Posts: 87 Member
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    You are not alone! Exercise always kills my appetite. I want to snack all evening on days I don't exercise, but I can't ever get all my calories in on a day that I take a jog or do some kind of semi intense workout. I thought I was the only one.
  • PJPrimrose
    PJPrimrose Posts: 916 Member
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    I don't eat it all back. I will eat some back based on how hard my workout was. If I'm doing some light contact sparing with kids or women I'm not going to burn as many calories as when I'm full contact sparing with one/more of male instructors or doing a bunch of drills. I'm just starting maintenance so I might have to start eating MORE of my calories back to keep my weight up. My calorie count can go as high as 2900. That seems a bit much!
  • asianrunner
    asianrunner Posts: 42 Member
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    I only have an appetite loss immediately following a hard workout, especially long runs. When runs are over 10 miles, my stomach feels queasy for a bit and only gatorade and water sound good!

    But I make up for it by eating a lot the rest of the day. Although I do struggle keeping cals low on non-workout days because I'm used to eating a lot!
  • jeeplovin
    jeeplovin Posts: 96 Member
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    Exercising at night, as soon as i get home, kills my appetite, and takes away any urge to binge. If i do not exercise, or do some light exercise, i eat all night long.
  • ggluvbug1
    ggluvbug1 Posts: 87 Member
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    I only have an appetite loss immediately following a hard workout, especially long runs. When runs are over 10 miles, my stomach feels queasy for a bit and only gatorade and water sound good!

    But I make up for it by eating a lot the rest of the day. Although I do struggle keeping cals low on non-workout days because I'm used to eating a lot!

    I don't normally run during the day (on Spring Break this week) but I did today. After about 5 hours, my appetite has come back with a vengeance. I guess that is another reason I like exercising in the evening better.
  • scraver2003
    scraver2003 Posts: 528 Member
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    I do, too!! After 5k's - when they have food out, I almost never eat it b/c I am really, really not hungry. I usually find it is the day after a hard work out that I am hungry! It's my recovery day when I want to eat all the foods!
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    Man, not me. I eat close to or up to my calorie goals every day . I am so hungry after working out.

    This morning after a 5.5 mile run I thought about eating my cats but got to the oatmeal with peanut butter and banana just in time.

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