Listening to your body is important, but it’s not the end-all-be-all, especially when it comes to sports nutrition. Longer bouts of intense exercise can mess with your hunger cues both during your training and afterward. In this case, if you listen to your body and don’t eat, it could lead to aches, low energy, and, worst of all, injury. But before we just start inhaling food after a workout, even if we aren’t hungry, here is why you might not feel hungry after an intense workout.
3 Reasons Why You Might Not Feel Hungry After an Intense Workout
Ghrelin
When you’re exercising, it is your body’s job to make sure your muscles work properly. To do so your body naturally redirects your blood away from your digestive tract to send oxygen to your working muscles. This lack of blood flow to your digestive tract suppresses ghrelin (the wonderful hormone that elicits hunger) killing your appetite during your workout and after.
Lac-Phe
Recently, researchers discovered a molecule known as Lac-Phe. This molecule, along with ghrelin is also responsible for appetite suppression during and after exercise. It was seen that the more intense the exercise, the greater the concentration of Lac-Phe. The greater the concentration of Lac-Phe, the more the appetite is suppressed.
Weather
Have you ever noticed that when you work out in the heat, you aren’t very hungry? But when you work out in the cold, your hunger is still there? You aren’t alone. Researchers have also found that participants who exercised in the heat felt greater suppression of their appetites compared to when they did so in the cold.
One of our favorite ways to refuel after an intense workout is with a smoothie. Try one of our EBOOST power smoothies.
