Excercise an appetite suppressant??

cathyg18 · July 2011

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I work 4 10-11 hour days. I'm done with work about 5:00-5:30pm, I hit the gym for about an hour and come home and workout with the hubby on the 30DS. What I have been noticing is that when we are done, I don't have much of an appetite. Don't get me wrong, it's great because then by the end of the day I am under my calorie intake, but I don't want to be starving by morning and eat everything in site either. I find that I get really, Really hungry by 10-11am, about an hour before lunch. By then the temptation to eat anything and everything is strong. :grumble: We have tried eating first and then working out, but that doesn't work as well. We both feel that it's harder to get thru if we eat before as compared to after. Maybe we worked out too soon? If that's the case and we waited about an hour or so later, we would be working out about 8:30-9:00pm. I don't work out in the morning because I have to be to work by 7am. I live 1/2 hour away from my job wich means I leave the house at 6:30am. I'm up @ 5:30-5:45am to get ready and take care of our 2 dogs. 4:30am is just too early for me to get up and work out. LOL Just looking for any input, if maybe there is something else that I could try that I haven't thought about. Thanks everyone! :flowerforyou:

jacksamjack · July 2011

Have you thought about the fact that as you are up at 5:30 that your body actually needs lunch at 10:30 to 11:00!! You should be guided by your hunger to judge when to eat, not by the time on the clock!!! Amazing workout ethic you have btw -very impressive!!

stephicook · July 2011

What are you eating for breakfast? Maybe you need a snack at 9:30-10 before you get to the point where you could eat a horse. Something with protein. I wish I could be as driven with my exercise as you are. Way to go!

ktboehm · July 2011

I know how you feel! Well my life has changed so much over the past few years and so has my work schedule...I have noticed that it really does depend on when I get up on whether I am hungry at 10:30 a.m. for lunch or not until 1 p.m. On days I work and get up earlier and eat breakfast earlier, I definitely need an early lunch or at least a pre-lunch snack to tide me over. On days, I don't work I get up a little later, and my whole eating schedule is therefore pushed back. I say listen to your biological clock and eat when it tells you it is hungry and don't when you are not or eat something light if you need the calories. I know sometimes I feel constrained by time, feeling like I am "supposed to not eat lunch until noon," but it all depends on your personal schedule and lifestyle. As long as you aren't taking in too many or too few calories in the day, I think the time of day you eat your meals doesn't matter (again totally my personal opinion from experience!) And, yes exercise also acts as an appetite suppressant for me as well. I would say if you don't want a big dinner after working out just at least eat a little healthy snack to keep you satisfied through the night until breakfast. Good luck with everything!

KeyMasterOfGozer · July 2011

The research that I have seen says that the glucose spike in your blood happens 1.5-2 hours after you eat, so that might help you to time eating to get nutrients to your muscles for exercise.

Exercise is also an appetite suppressant for me, but I have plenty of body fat to provide energy. I find that exercise does make me extremely hungry about 1.5-2 hours after a workout, but only if I haven't had anything to eat yet that day.

mauryr · July 2011

I have had a similar experience, that changed over time.

When my BMI was high (>35) exercise had an appetite suppressing action, but when my BMI approached 25, the opposite happened.

The first week or two after I started exercise, my appetite was normal. Then, after a couple of weeks (still high BMI stage) I noticed that I was only hungry immediately after exercise, but my appetite was suppressed for the rest of the day. As the weight started coming off, I noticed that I was not nearly as hungry either after exercise, or the rest of the day. It was easy to "not eat back" exercise calories, and the weight was coming off at a steady predictable rate of 2 lbs per week.

When my BMI approached 25, I noticed that I suddenly got much hungrier, and the weight also stopped coming off. I plateaued for a long time (it seems that I might have finally broken that plateau just recently, but I'm not quite sure). I started eating back exercise cals, and increased my net cals from 1200 to 1450.

So, it's my instinct that BMI and the effect of exercise on hunger are related.

amberc1982 · July 2011

I am not hungry after working out either. I started P90X on Monday and I haven't been hungry in the least after each workout. I have been eating my dinner as soon as I walk in the door after work. I eat very little so that it doesn't make me sick while working out. I try to wait an hour after eating before I start my workout. And after the workout I drink the P90X recovery drink. Most of the time it takes alot for me to be able to drink that because I just don't want to eat or drink anything afterwards. Maybe you can snack on something when your leaving the gym and heading to your house. I eat three to four small snacks a day in order to keep my metabolism up.

cathyg18 · July 2011

Thank you for all your advise and input. I think that I'll switch things up a bit. I haven't been bringing anything as a snack just because I felt like I was always eating, but I will be rethinking that again. (at the time I wasn't working out as hard as I have been this last month) I'm so happy to have joined MFP! The people here are so fantastic! Thank you for all your support and encouragement! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Excercise an appetite suppressant??

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