Losing weight requires exercise. There’s really no way around it if you want to lose the pounds in a healthy way and stop them from coming back. A lifestyle of long term weight management demands that you stay active on a regular basis. However, as many people get started in building a healthier lifestyle in the hopes of burning fat, many hesitate to exercise too much out of fear of being more hungry.
It’s very commonplace to feel concerned that exercising too much can make you feel hungrier than you usually would. Though that may not sound very important, when you’re trying to get your weight under control, hunger management is a serious issue. After all, if you work hard to power through several workouts a week, then you want all that effort and sweat to count for something. The last thing you want is to eat all those burned calories – and then some – because your appetite has expanded with your time at the gym.
Good news. Recent research has shown that the majority of people don’t actually experience that symptom. While it may be an ever-present concern, particularly among people who don’t exercise very much, it may not be justified.
The research showed that despite the fact that many people feel exercise works against their efforts to lose weight due to its impact on the appetite, this is not necessarily true. The widespread belief is that workouts stimulate hunger and drive people to eat more. That said, after analyzing the data from a large sample of healthy male participants, researchers found that most people don’t experience that increase in hunger at all.
The data revealed that on workout days, only a small percentage of individuals actually experienced an increase in hunger. Very small. Only 4 percent of the participants were hungrier on the day of exercise than they would have been on a day without it. That said, 10 percent consumed more calories, despite the fact that some of them weren’t hungry. This means that only 4 out of every 100 people feel more hungry on an exercise day. Only 10 out of every 100 people will typically eat more on a day that they exercised when compared to a day that they didn’t.
These findings suggest that dieters don’t have much to worry about in terms of the impact of exercising on their appetite. Moreover, even among those who boost their calorie intake despite the fact that they aren’t actually feeling any hungrier, the numbers still remain low.
If you’re worried that you will be among the few who feel hungrier on an exercise day and you’ll be driven to negate your efforts by overeating, the key is to be prepared. Instead of trying to come up with a great snack to beat the hunger once your workout is done, bring a smart snack with you. Try to choose something with a touch of protein to help with your muscle recovery, but focus on something nutrient dense that contains fiber to fill you up without filling you out.
