hunger during exercise

NewLeaf

New member
Ok.. so I wanted to get all of your opinions on this one. I had heard years ago during an areobics class, something about if you got hungry during exercising, it wasn't a good sign. That you were burning sugars not fat.

Is this accurate? I ask because the last two mornings, I've found myself STARVING during my work outs. :eek: Normally, 5:30 is a little early for me to be so hungry. Of course ya think teh scale would be going down for me.. :rolleyes:

I'd love to hear if anyone else has heard about this.. or am I nuts? :)
 
i havent heard that. i am ALWAYS hungry during exercise! :eek: but i always thought that was a GOOD thing because it meant your burning your fat reserves and not just your temporary carb storage. i still think its better to exercise on a completely empty stomach. ok, i did a little reading and i thought i'd drop this link by so you can see for yourself. personally i feel eating beforehand defeats the whole purpose (for weightloss anyway) of the cardio or whatever your doing. plus it might cause you to get a stitch in your side if you eat too much right before.
 
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Well my hunger will come on mid-exercise. Since I hit the gym at such an early hour I never eat before. And I do agree with the article as far as fuel before hand for competitive events. As I've trained and run many races including a marathon, things like that and knowing what your body response to is very key as far as pre-event foods etc. Personally I just couldn't stomach, it because I'd be queasy .. except for long running.. Anyhow.. just curious.. if any other people had heard that.. :)
 
I have not heard anything like that, NL. I think it is very normal that you get hungry during your morning exercise. As you exercise, your body wakes up, your stomach is empty, and since you are using up a lot of energy, it gives you signal to eat. Also in the morning your carbohidrate stores and blood sugar are depleted, and the body is forced to use other sources of fuel(hopefully fat and not muscle). If you get too hungry, you may want to eat a small snack, like a cracker, before exercise. It may take the "edge" off and keep your body from over-demanding (thus making food impossible to resist).
 
I hear my tummy grumble at me sometimes on the tredmil in the mornings~ o.o

but I'm usually so into my workout I don't want food =P
 
I know it's good to work out on an empty stomach but how do you know your stomach is empty? I mean, how long should I wait after eating before working out. I have lunch then go to P.E. where I run and play around, so is this running and everything virtually useless? I have lunch around 11:30, P.E. from 12-1:30 and then I work out again around 4:00. Are both these workouts negated from lunch?
 
My 2 Cents

I heard if your going to exercise first thing in the morning, your should have a little bite to eat. To get your furnace going, you will make sure there is fuel in your car its the same thing. Of course you should always eat breakfast. Its the one meal never to skip.

Ocire, Of course its not useless, your doing awesome. Keep doing what your doing, if your being healthy about it.

chip
 
all in all, what I've read from the studies conducted, it does not really matter "THAT MUCH" for weight loss purposes when you're exercising, and whether you eat before, after or in between, as long as your total amount of calories burned during the day is higher then total amount consumed. All of these "details" are for us to maximize calories burned during the workout. If you have a big meal before working out, your performance and abilities go down, hence the number of calories you burn during that work out goes down too. If you don't eat at all, and you're really hungry during that work out, you are not able to work out as hard as you possibly can, and again, the calories you burn during workout goes down.
 
A lot of people get hungry during excercise but I don't think that I've heard anything to say that it wasn't a good sign - in SELF they had a thing about it saying you just needed to replenish youself but healthily like an apple or something, no starch-y foods.
Though I have a question, when I excercise, I don't get hungry, I get sick-like and can't eat anything for a good 3 hours after my workout, is that a bad sign?
 
That does not sound good, although you should elaborate on what you mean exactly by "sick". Is it dizziness, fatigue, head spinning, sick to your stomach (feeling like throwing up)?, or just not-hungry?

People respond differently to exercise, and different type of exercise. Theoretically, when you're exercising the blood flow to your stomack decreases and blood flow to muscles, arms and legs increases. Due to that phenomenon, you may not feel hungry during and right after exercise, but 3 hrs seems like too long. Personally I usually don't feel very hungry during challenging exercise, but anywhere from 15-min to 1 hr, the hunger kicks in.

If you feel sick during and after exercise, you should check it with a doctor, as there may be something wrong.
 
Tigny said:
A lot of people get hungry during excercise but I don't think that I've heard anything to say that it wasn't a good sign - in SELF they had a thing about it saying you just needed to replenish youself but healthily like an apple or something, no starch-y foods.
Though I have a question, when I excercise, I don't get hungry, I get sick-like and can't eat anything for a good 3 hours after my workout, is that a bad sign?

Getting "sick-like", can you further describe that? If you feel queasy and nauseated I would say it sounds like you are overexerting yourself. My reason for this is, that as a runner during races at the final stretch of the race, there is a tendency to push one's self even harder. I have done this many times, to beat my old times, etc. These bursts of extra speed and overexertion lead me to feeling very sick to my stomach. Its very common in runners or other althetes.. So that's just the conclusion I'd draw from that..
 
by sick I mean a really tight stomach and not necessarily nauseated but if I were to eat something I would be...like you know when you're sick and you just can't eat cause you think your body would kick it back, but you don't feel like throwing up just then?
lol, I always thought it was a good thing but then I kept hearing people talk about how hungry they get so I got kind of worried.
 
Hi, reading this post made me remeber something. Last year I was working with a trainer and she said that you should not eat within half an hour 45mins after exercise, Otherwise you just burn up what you ate then instead of going into your fat reserves, which defeats the purpose a bit. She did say you should eat about half an hour before hand.
 
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