Overeating after athletics

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runeatrun15
runeatrun15 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello to anyone who is reading this! So, I was an athlete in college. I am now finished and am eating too much and gaining weight. Today I ate 4250 calories. Yesterday, 3700. This would be perfectly fine if I were still doing 3 hours of exercise 6 days each week but unfortunately I am not.

I do not feel full even though I am eating too much. I don't know what to do. Perhaps I need to go to the gym to do several hours of aerobic exercise tonight? But I do not wish to do that. I am not going to do that.

I am concerned that I will continue to gain weight. So far I have gained about five pounds. I am very lean so this is not a serious concern. Even if I gain 20 pounds I feel I will still be lean. However it is a concern if I continue to gain a pound or two per week for a very long while. My body mass index is nearly 19. However it very recently was 18. These indices are fairly low, and so I feel it is reasonable for me to eat according to hunger. But 3500 to 4500 calories a day?

One theory I have is that I remained lighter than normal due to sport. Without sport I revert to a more average sized self. If this is so then it may be healthy.

However I also see that it can become unhealthy for some athletes after leaving their sport.

Confusions: 1) Continue overeating? Hope that it resolves over time. Gain weight. 2) Put a cap on eating to stop gaining weight. 3) Resume habitual exercise to stop gaining weight.

I look forward to reading any thoughts on this matter. Thank you in advance.

Replies

  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
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    I can't see your diary, but one thing I do is to make sure every meal is made up of 50% non-starchy vegetables. That can be in a salad, soup, burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, nuggets (shred or chop finely), stew, chili, etc.
  • runeatrun15
    runeatrun15 Posts: 2 Member
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    Interesting. Thanks for your suggestion!
  • allenpriest
    allenpriest Posts: 1,102 Member
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    It is about what you eat. You can eat as much broccoli as you can stand at 30 cal per cup. and green beans at 44 cal per cup. Salads - just real easy on the dressing. The way you prepare foods matters too. Broil and grill instead of frying. Baked potato instead of french fries. Cut down on breads due to high calorie for the volume.
  • Chrysalid2014
    Chrysalid2014 Posts: 1,038 Member
    edited May 2015
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    It's clearly going to be a big dietary adjustment going from an athlete's rations to normal consumption. I know it can be a problem for athletes just to get enough calories in, so perhaps now you need to re-adjust your perception about what hunger and fullness are, and develop some level of tolerance for the former. (Have you actually calculated what your maintenance calories are?)

    Five pounds is nothing in the grand scheme of weight gain, but as you noted if you continue to gain 1-2 lbs per week then it will get out of control very quickly, so it's good you're taking steps now.
  • aggiekaela2016
    aggiekaela2016 Posts: 6 Member
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    .
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Don't continue eating more calories than you are burning. It is okay to stop eating before you are full. If you do this enough, eventually, you'll train yourself to eat less.

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