When your appetite does return, which is usually a few hours later, it doesn't mean that just because you've worked out hard you can devour everything in sight. "A lot of people use exercise as an excuse to eat more food," says Spalding. "Of course, you should be eating more during the day if you do exercise, but you shouldn't go overboard. "

Appetite, whether increased or suppressed, is influenced by a lot more than your exercise regimen, says Irma Ullrich, M.D., an endocrinologist at the West Virginia University Medical Center. Illnesses, such as depression, or social circumstances, such as how you feel about yourself, will affect your appetite, says Ullrich. "There are so many variables that affect our appetites that it's hard to say exercise alone can heavily affect it. It's really an individual experience."

Gender, too, can affect your appetite. "An intense workout will usually have a more suppressive effect on men than women," says Ullrich. "Women are more likely to have a normal appetite after a vigorous workout." For instance, many women experience an increase in appetite before their period. An increase or decrease in estrogen and progesterone may influence appetite, says Ullrich, and women may feel less up to exercising.

The key word here is "vigorous." Only when you increase the intensity of your exercise to a very high level is appetite affected, says Ullrich: "After an extreme workout such as a marathon, the stress hormones that are released during the high intensity exercise affect the central nervous system and cause an inhibitory effect on your appetite." In essence, your body will be too exhausted to feel hunger.

The bottom line: If you take in more calories than you expend-whether you're male or female, a weekend jogger or a marathoner-you'll ultimately gain weight.

Bookmark:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed