People exercise for many reasons, to lose weight, stay fit, or to attain a toned body… if you wind up your round of exercise with an eating binge, the exercise means nothing, and many of us, many a times have done it, still do it. To get good the desired t results, combine exercising with right intake of food, at right time & the right quality of it.
The biological connection between working out & overeating has (surprise, surprise!) psychological roots! People feel hungry after a workout only until the time (i) they have not set themselves up in a routine, (ii) when they are new to exercising or don’t do it on a regular basis or (iii) have increased the time of exercise. Once you set your body’s system by refuelling it with fruits and veggies post exercise, instead of high calorie diet, it will get used to this new routine.
Sometimes people feel an emotional hunger for food, sometimes they want to reward themselves for having gone through such a tough set of exercise… reasons are many. But the result is not good for your health. Research reported that people were eating less prior to taking up exercising but post-exercise hunger pang made them eat more and wrong food affecting their bodies adversely. People tend to overeat when they are starved, so the secret is to not starve yourself.
People also tend to overeat because they are emotionally not feeling connected to exercising and its consequences, including the way it is making them feel. These are the people whose exercise routines are erratic. They exercise because they have been asked to, they aren’t convinced that for best results they have to enjoy the process of looking good and feeling healthy. Therefore it is important that you take your time and choose the activity you’d like to take up as an exercise to become fit and continue to do so. If you hate to exercise and do it for the heck of it, don’t expect results; because you will look for excuses to compensate the suffering by eating.
Understand this – if you replenish calories through food intake every few hours, your sugar levels will remain steady pre and post work out, this will help you to steer clear of strong hunger pangs. Keep meals limited to 500 calories or less and snacks less than 200 calories, thus stopping total calories intake at 1,600 to 1,800 a day.
Include Protein in Your Diet: Protein increases satiety and controls your appetite by stimulating gut hormones which are responsible for the feeling of stomach fullness. You can get your daily quota of protein by including the following in your breakfast, i.e. milk, soy milk, yogurt, oatmeal etc. Likewise, include nuts, whole grains, low fat dairy, and beans, by way of snack or as part of your meal.
Small, frequent, nutritional meals routine with a regular round of recommended exercises for 21 days will set the clock right!
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