Dh and I were walking 4 miles a day, 6 days a week. we recently added some running (well, jogging) of 3 miles for 3 of those days. On the running days, I am not hungry at all. I don't have cravings and it's easy to stay within my calories. On walking days, I feel my normal, slightly uncomfortable hunger all day long. What gives? Has anyone experienced this?
It's a funny thing. For some people exercise is an appetite suppressant, for others, it increases hunger. Count yourself lucky to be in the suppressant camp. I am ravenously hungry after vigorous exercise--particularly when I'm returning to it after a break.
Im so jealous of my sister because running suppresses her hungry and it makes me completely ravenous. I just want to eat everything and anything after running. I found drinking a low-cal gatorade helps a lot, but not totally.
There's a lot of studies that say increased body temperature when exercising increases the biologically induced appetite suppressant. However, if you exercise and your body temperature remains lower, it's not activated (hence the ravenous appetite). When you swim, it's almost ALWAYS lower (because of the water temp) so a lot of people report being starving after swimming.
Intense exercise like running makes me ravenous. Walking, even if it's further in distance, doesn't have the same effect. That's why I've waited until I lost most of the weight I want to lose before I started up running regularly (more than once or twice per month) again. Now I need to really watch myself to make sure I maintain what I've already lost as I ramp up my running distance.
Running vs walking and hunger
