I get this question a lot. Why is it that when I work out I'm so hungry afterwards?
It's a pretty simple answer but it's good to know the science behind it.
Imagine filling up your car with fuel till it's full and then getting in your car and you take a really long road trip the car is working really hard to get you From point a to point B. After driving in the car for many many hours and many many miles you happen to look down at the fuel tank and noticed that your warning light is on your almost empty you better find a gas station quick. Fortunately you do without incident but you pull over and fill it to the top once again.
Our bodies are so very similar to this, we wake up in the morning we eat breakfast and then we spend our day doing x y and z and by the time lunch rolls around our fuel tank is about halfway empty so you eat again and then you decide after work that you might go for a work out even though you're feeling a little bit hungry. All of that exertion all that activity burns calories it uses up all the food you had throughout the day and now your tank is on empty and you go to work out and now you really are running on fumes having used up every last bit of fuel your body could possibly find.
So by the time you leave the gym you are famished. It's really just about fuel and burning that fuel and replacing that fuel and how quickly you do it how slow you do it how quickly you burn calories and how quickly you replenish them.
Some people don't have an appetite at all after they work out and that's usually because they worked out so hard they’re in the fight or flight mode when you're in the fight or flight mode you go into an auxiliary state of utilizing sugars as a last ditch effort we also know this as ketosis. But once that person comes out of that fight or flight state and into the parasympathetic nervous system which is the rest and digest state their appetite will kick in and they will be like a zombie locked in an empty meal cooler!
In this moment of starvation and desperation just make sure you make the right choice on your "fuel". That workout was hard right? Why ruin it with a burger, double portion of french fries and a chocolate milkshake.......! Have plan on what you're eating before you get the desperation mode.
Tip. Have something small and nutricious 20 minutes before you exercise, and again after you exercise. A tablespoon of almond butter is always my go to, full of protein and good fats, keeps your fuel tank ticking away.
Samx