Why Am I Famished After I go HAM At The Gym?

October 27, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

After last night’s transgressions, you payed penance today to the treadmill deities.

Well done. But… now?

Now you’re sweaty and peckish and the gobble gargoyle is perched on your paunch again, begging for more.

(Actual photo of me guarding my vegan burrito post gym)

Why is it that we get so hangry after an intense, long workout?

It’s awfully hard to lose weight when your viscera sounds like a vacuum and its gastric demands are insatiable. And it’s awfully unfair that that sets in just after the gym. I dunno about you. But, sometimes, I do better at handling life’s innumerable little injustices by understanding the science behind them. And the science’ve this one’s pretty simple. Basically, you have a set amount of glycogen in your muscles. It’s stored there from your previous meals. And, if you haven’t eaten for several hours before you hit the gym, your body calls on that glycogen to use for fuel. That’s good and all, but, after that it starts going after your protein. (That’s why too much cardio can lead to atrophy – though most people don’t take it that far.) But the ultimate result is a dip in blood sugar. Your glucose goes low, your tummy grumbles, and you’re back at square one – wanting more than one (or even three) not so square meals.

So what’s an aspiring fit chick to do with this?

Fortunately, I’ve found a few workarounds to maintain the burn we spend so long earning for ourselves. Unfortunately, I had to find it by trial and error. (Emphasis on the “error”…) First rule? Don’t do what I did after my first high intensity hot yoga class. Don’t stop at the gas station en route home, purchase a pail of trail mix and face plant in it, ingesting the whole thing in one sitting. Not only will you feel massively ill; you’ll also feel guilty and bummed you’ve undone all that fat blasting. And, before you raise your pointer finger to claim I champion anorexia, lemme stop you right there. ’cause I def don’t mean ignore those hunger cues altogether.

Rather (and this is my next tip), have a combat plan ready. You’re going into hunger battle. Viet-nom. And what’s one thing a soldier should have on his hip in the midst of hot war? A water filled canteen. Have those agua bottles at the ready the second sweat class lets out or you hop off that butt pumping machine. Chug at least a liter before even thinking about dinner. Half the famished feelings you’ve got are just dehydration. So, replenishing those levels will help heaps at keeping your hanger at bay.

And soldiers can’t go to war with water alone, can they? That’s not a very effective defensive device when you’re getting shot at with hunger bullets. You’ve gotta shoot back. Indeed, a nice dietary gun is good to have when the enemy’s in sight, right? (The only way to stop a bad food is with a good food.) That’s why we wanna fill that cooking clip up with some good macro ammo. So, when you do eat, make sure you’re restoring those bodily requirements you just took away. Your hard won workout didn’t just gobble up carbs, fat, or protein alone. It took some’ve each. That’s why you’ll wanna eat a clean, green, macro balanced meal to bring your flesh vessel back to its badazz status. And don’t make the mistake of thinking, “I did that hard workout; I’ll just have a smoothie”. Aside from the fact that a lot’ve those are super imbalanced and full of sugar, studies are showing that between meal supplements actually pack on the pounds. It’s ironic, considering that we deprive ourselves of a real meal for the sake of weight loss. But the opposite actually happens half the time.

So just enjoy true food in its OG form, and balance it out.

(Remember your ratios: first one’s to slenderize, second’s to stay the same, third’s to swoll-ify…)

Hopefully that light science lesson helped lessen your angst about hanger post cardio.

Just remember to hydrate before enjoying your macro friendly plate, and weight loss will come.