Workout vs appetite

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HaoKaren
HaoKaren Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been working out 4-5 times a week and now I noticed I have significantly higher appetite. What can I do to keep my apetite down so I can lose some lbs? Please help!

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  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
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    For me strength training brings on appetite more than cardio (which sometimes zaps my appetite). Strength is usually a morning workout so I choose more protein over carbs (eggs over toast).
  • runningforthetrain
    runningforthetrain Posts: 1,037 Member
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    I have the same issue! It drives me nuts- waiting to hear from anyone with some pointers!
  • murp4069
    murp4069 Posts: 494 Member
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    If you're feeling hungry due to increased exercise, your body needs the calories for fuel. As long as you still stay within the calorie goals MFP has set for you (which will include extra calories for exercising) you will lose weight. Just don't expect it to come flying off simply because you are exercising - TBH exercise burns fewer calories than many people seem to believe, and in my experience MFP estimates of burned calories are extremely high. Make sure to fuel your body properly so that you can sustain your level of fitness.

    If your appetite has increased so much that you are eating yourself out of a calorie deficit, perhaps switch up when you are working out. For example, you may find that if you work at night instead of the morning your appetite throughout the day is more manageable.

    And final thought - you don't need to exercise at all to lose weight. Plenty of people on here can attest to that. Weight loss is simply calories in, calories out. So if you're goal is only lose weight, you can try shifting your focus from exercise to food.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    You need to find the balance between properly fueling your fitness and having a reasonable calorie deficit for weight loss. From my observations being on MFP for almost four years, people tend to inadequately fuel their fitness...they really don't understand the math and they don't understand that if you're doing more, you also need to eat more...you need fuel. People tend to just crash their diets and then go out and do incessant amounts of exercise...because again, they don't really get it or understand what the heck they're doing...so yeah...they tend to be hungry due to inadequately fueling their activities...and they also tend towards very aggressive weight loss goals.

    You should just figure out how much you would need to maintain your weight with all of your activity, including exercise...and then take a reasonable cut from that...like 500 calories or so...or if you're using MFP you should hit your targets, including eating back your exercise calories like you're supposed to (with some allowance for estimation error).
  • DrifterBear
    DrifterBear Posts: 265 Member
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    I always struggle with this. It's the challenge with a lot of exercise while in a deficit. It's much easier to estimate the calories burned from a 30 minute walk than a 60 minute run or weight lifting session. Because the calories in longer/more intense workouts are much higher so margin of error increases and also because the workouts themselves are hard to assess. The bottom line is when you workout, your body burns additional calories that need to be replaced. You're probably hungry because your body needs fuel to rebuild. You could continue to experiment with food. Try adding some more protein. Or cut back on exercise while loosing.
  • StacyChrz
    StacyChrz Posts: 865 Member
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    I agree with everyone above that your body needs fuel when you are exercising. At the very least we want to maintain our muscle while burning fat and to do that you need to feed your muscles. I have a Fitbit and have it synced to MFP. I eat back 75-100% of my exercise calories and sometimes more and am having good, consistent losses. Make sure you're meeting your macros and getting enough fiber, drink plenty of water and listen to your body.
  • nicole_j
    nicole_j Posts: 13 Member
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    Increase your protein intake (20-30g per meal) and eat complex carbs before and after your workout. I drink a whey protein shake immediately following my strength training and then a full meal (300-400 cals) within an hour. Don't exercise on an empty stomach and try not to go over 4 hours without eating.

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