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Anecdata: exercise massively reduces my otherwise constant craving for processed sugars, deep fried and smoked or cured things, alcohol and smokes. I'm not les

Anecdata: exercise massively reduces my otherwise constant craving for processed sugars, deep fried and smoked or cured things, alcohol and smokes. I'm not less hungry, but I'm less hungry for nasty stuff, so from my perspective there seems to be a lot of truth in this! Context: I'm natively extremely lazy (phisically, not intellectually), I find any phisical activity a pain an a nuisance, I derive zero pleasure from any kind of sport and phyisical exercise (except hiking and skidiving, but not the phisical effort aspects of them), the release-endorphines-on-effort circuit is 100% broken for me or I just lack the receptors for those endophins... eg. 100%-lazy-cat except not fat because genetically I come from a line of people slim-no-matter-what-we-eat. (Probably more average or atletic people's bodies just don't work like mine...)

feet 4y ago
My guess would be that's related to endorphins. They help feel satisfied, happy, content, and more positive mood in general
pdimitar 4y ago
Yeah I found the same. After I did the exercise grind for a bit of time I suddenly found out that my cravings for usual unhealthy foods have been reduced. My trainer and doctor say that we have various receptors in our bodies tuned for our current way of life and that diet and exercise re-program these receptors which, yeah, is what I observed as well. RE: your lack of motivation for working out, I found it is related to the type of exercise. The start of my journey was a series of train wrecks. I constantly stumbled on 22-year old boys whose wisdom was "get on the bench press, bro!" which didn't work for me. It was almost harmful even. After going to physiotherapy for a while I then started training under the tutelage of the same people and I am already better. They are very careful not to over-strain me, give me just enough cardio to keep my heart pumping but not to make me wanna die, exercises are carefully tuned to strain me a bit but never too much. They don't give me big pauses between exercises (60 - 90 seconds) however. Some exercises are mostly stretching and "activating" a certain muscle (meaning just exercising it a little without any strain). Not sure I can translate that to a workout strategy for you but these items might help: - Do 3 series of each exercise. If it's too much then 2; - Do more reps per series; - Rest until your heart calms down slightly but not beyond that; - Introduce a hard cap on the workout session -- mine is 1 hour. This was a huge struggle because I wanted to do all the exercises but there's no way to fit all in 1 hour (did that mistake several times); - Start with slight cardio -- 5 or 10 minutes. Don't make it the focus of the session, it's just to start you off (a mistake I made many times); - The moment you start feeling a tormenting strain is the moment where you train for 2-3 more minutes and cut the session short; - If that moment doesn't come, still stop at your time cap. The main point is to feel energetic and rejuvenated after the workout. Not "OMFG I wanna die!". My trainer / physiotherapist / masseur told me this is an extremely common problem for men because a lot of them just hang out in the gym and their main motivation is show-off and competition with others. He says there's a million ways to make yourself feel better by exercising and honestly? I believe him because it is happening to me. Finally, it's the most normal thing in the world to fine-tune the exercise session to your specifics and you shouldn't try and imitate other workout regimes if they don't work well for you. My trainer quickly found out I have strong arms, shoulders and upper back and is rarely giving me exercises for them -- just for maintaining them a bit. But my legs, abs and lower back are weaker so 80% of my exercises focus on that. Works great. If you are willing to press on, I wish you good luck. I am exactly like you, I view physical maintenance as nuisance and it's not easy to change the mindset. But I already started having that little little voice in my head that's sometimes nudging me to do a session because I know it makes me feel a bit better after. In programming terms, I'd say reduce the size of the program/tests until it's manageable for you. My trainer said it's much better to train every day for just 35-40 minutes compared to two workouts of our and half a week.
- kybernetyk 4y ago
  I'm 40 and I recently started Stronglifts 5x5. It's stupidly simple and makes me want to come back for more as the weights increase every training. So there's always a personal record to break. It also doesn't take a lot of time. About 45 - 60 minutes, 3 times a week. I can do it in my home gym as everything I need is a barbell, some weights and a bench/squat rack. First time I actually have fun weight lifting/going to the gym.
  - Nathanael_M 4y ago
    I started with Stronglifts! It’s the program that finally gave me a degree of health and made lifting enjoyable/satisfying. Eventually went to something a little less leg heavy (although squats will always be my favourite exercise) with a better system for breaking plateau’s and more accessories, but Stronglifts was what finally made the gym fun.
    - kybernetyk 4y ago
      Yeah, people in online forums tend to dunk on Stronglifts because it's not sophisticated, very leg heavy, the author is very opinionated, etc. But the simplicity is what made me stick with it in the beginning. It's a beginner's program and it's great at that. I'll be switching to something more elaborate later down the road but for the time being SL is pretty good.
- Bjartr 4y ago
  > The main point is to feel energetic and rejuvenated after the workout. The only thing a workout has ever made me feel is sore and tired. Light or heavy, long or short, cardio or strength. Doesn't matter, that only changes how sore and how tired I am after, and how long those feelings last. I'd exercise way more if I ever felt "energetic and rejuvenated" after a workout. The only thing keeping me doing it is knowing how critically important it is to me long term cardiovascular health. Some context: I'm overweight and could definitely stand to be more active. But I do value exercise and a couple of months ago started going to fitness classes, have played sports casually but regularly in the past, used to regularly go to a gym, and have dabbled with a few different kinds of home workout, including running. The game aspect of sport is fun, but the physical activity involved still only left me sore and tired.
fnands 4y ago
Interesting. Yeah, some of my running buddies report no appetite for about an hour after running. I on the other hand am usually ravenous soon after exercise. When I run more than 20 km I get the kind of bottomless hunger I used to have as a growing teenager, but I try to fill up with reasonably healthy stuff (sometimes it's fried chicken though).
- nradov 4y ago
  Fried chicken isn't necessarily that unhealthy, depending on the oil used.
  - nickff 4y ago
    I think you're bringing up one core issue, which is that people disagree about what 'unhealthy' means.
  - dorfsmay 4y ago
    Are there any oil that is healthy once it's been brought up to very high temperature?
- x0x0 4y ago
  +1 anecdata: cardio (though I take my heart rate to 175 bpm for 10+ minutes) absolutely makes me not hungry for hours. Lifting doesn't affect hunger, though I make sure I get enough calories.
- Arrath 4y ago
  >When I run more than 20 km I get the kind of bottomless hunger I used to have as a growing teenager I can't say I'm surprised!
michaelgrafl 4y ago
I'm the same. After weight lifting I get a craving for nutritious foods and a disgust of highly processed foods.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
markus_zhang 4y ago
I envy you! I'm no less lazy and hate any physical activity maybe except for the ones that give other funs (hiking to collect fossils eg), but I'm so overweight...
kybernetyk 4y ago
>exercise massively reduces my otherwise constant craving for processed sugars, deep fried and smoked or cured things, alcohol and smokes. Can confirm your findings in me. After the lockdowns and the birth of my son I got a _lot_ fatter. Started exercising just 3 months ago. My cravings for fast food and snacks disappeared. My love for Bourbon is still there but I can control myself better and I don't drink anymore. Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week ... which was becoming very worrisome to me. > the release-endorphines-on-effort circuit is 100% broken for me I'm also the laziest person I know. My brother who's well read into this stuff tells me that once I keep up the exercise routine for some time the circuit should come back.
- mmmpop 4y ago
  >> Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week Now that you exercise, I'd hope this seems less excessive? When I take time off from running, I cut back on the alcohol hard else I feel like absolute shit. Cardio and beers are what life is about.
  - kybernetyk 4y ago
    Haven't touched alcohol in over 3 months. Not really tempted to, either.
  - pcthrowaway 4y ago
    A bottle of whiskey per week is excessive to the point that it might shave decades off your life, regardless of whether it comes with exercise. I drink. Sometimes (rarely) maybe even the equivalent of a bottle per week. But let's not kid ourselves
- catchclose8919 4y ago
  > and the birth of my son [...] Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week It's also the getting used with the little monster, can state that from experience... to me at least alchohol was a must-have drug to reduce & control rage and aggresiveness induced by the little one and all the people that had to be around and be interact with... not a peoples person and my natural reaction to demanding people is to want to make them go away one way or another, with a great temptation to do so violently and permanently. (to clarify, was never angry or enraged when alone with the baby himself, taken alone the little thing was sweet af... only with all the people that seemed to suddenly go crazy and become extra "caring", "attentive", "demanding" or what not... I like babies, but I find other peoples' excessive reactions to them utterly disgusting... "baby brain" is a real thing apparently and it makes people uttely unsufferabe...)
fny 4y ago
I suspect that your distaste for junk food specifically has a psychological component as well. The molecules discussed here are formed immediately post exercise. From what I gather, they are responsible for a short term antihunger effect not a long term effect.
- NickM 4y ago
  Just because the effect might not be caused by the one specific molecule discussed in the article doesn't mean it's necessarily psychological.
  - fny 4y ago
    I have been to enough beer runs to question OP.
Tenoke 4y ago
Anecdata: I'm way hungrier later in the day after exercising. If you look for reddit posts on cutting/dieting you can see a lot of people reporting that the extra food craving from exercise can frequently be bigger than what you burn with it.
- Sakos 4y ago
  I've noticed that I'll massively overeat if I don't get enough protein, salt and nutrients. So I'll chug something isotonic and eat a bunch of protein mixed with a food-replacement powder after running and weightlifting. I end up not being hungry the rest of the day.
  - mikepurvis 4y ago
    This is my experience. I'll swim lanes for an hour, or maybe do a 2-3hr bike ride, and afterwards I'll do a protein smoothie or maybe bacon and eggs if I haven't yet had breakfast, but overall I avoid using the exercise as an excuse to eat an "extra" meal.
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  Also anecdata: I'm hungry after I exercise, but this is almost entire resolved by drinking something cold with a electrolytes. A big chug of coconut water for example
- randomdata 4y ago
  For me, cardio-type exercises leaves me wanting to eat stupid amounts of food afterwards, but strength exercises not so much. Perhaps the triggers are more nuanced than an overarching concept of exercise?
  - ReenD 4y ago
    [dead]
- mgh2 4y ago
  Could it be an evolutionary adaptation to fight or flight? After the exercise period, the body is still in 'active' mode, so it may seem that the period to use energy is still on (hunting & fleeing, not eating). However, after this ends the body switches back into 'inactive' mode to store energy for future 'active' modes.
Zababa 4y ago
> Context: I'm natively extremely lazy (phisically, not intellectually), I find any phisical activity a pain an a nuisance, I derive zero pleasure from any kind of sport and phyisical exercise (except hiking and skidiving, but not the phisical effort aspects of them), the release-endorphines-on-effort circuit is 100% broken for me or I just lack the receptors for those endophins It's good to know that I'm not the only one, it's a bit sad to know that there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.
- kayoone 4y ago
  > It's good to know that I'm not the only one, it's a bit sad to know that there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. Not sure you should see it so negatively/defeatist. Maybe you just have not found the right thing yet that gives you joy. I discovered my love for road cycling only in my mid thirties and now derive immense pleasure from long rides totally exerting myself and burning 2000+ calories in many of those rides. Lost 10kg of weight and am fitter at 40 then I ever was before.
  - Zababa 4y ago
    Thanks, that helps.
gruez 4y ago
I don't know, it seems equally plausible that the two are caused by a common factor. Specifically, "you being motivated to be healthy" causes you to want to exercise more and gives you stronger willpower to resist eating unhealthy foods.
mmmpop 4y ago
I'm still prone to overeating when I'm in a lifting phase and since those come and go in spurts, I've never been able to tame that. On the other hand, I've been a 3+ hour a week cardio guy for a decade and when I first got started at 20+ mile a week running, I would eat away any caloric "gains" by 2x. I no longer have those issues and, like others have pointed out, I tend to lose my appetite for awhile after a run/ride. The harder the effort, the less appetite I'll have.
- 121789 4y ago
  Yep. Cardio makes me less hungry for a short period of time after exercise, then ravenous later in the day. I don't notice any effects on hunger from lifting
FollowingTheDao 4y ago
And it will always be anecdata since the creation of lac-phe after working out is dependent on both your CNDP2 genetics and your intake of manganese which is the cofactor for that enzyme.
AlbertCory 4y ago
I wrote a three-part series of articles on "50 Years of Running" [1], and the issue of motivation is specifically addressed, since how else would you keep up something for 50 years? It's not at all about eating, and I'm honestly not sure it'll help you, but the tag in the first article is: If you can't find time to exercise, you'll have to find time to be sick. [1] https://albertcory50.substack.com https://albertcory50.substack.com
- catchclose8919 4y ago
  This is one of the least helpful advice one can give... We all know that "if you can't find time to exercise, you'll have to find time to be sick", but in practice we're either wired to overfocus on short term rewards, or we don't really have any connection or emapthy with our future self ("let that bastard rot and die if he ain't got a currage to put a bullet in his head when it gets too nasty") etc. etc. It's easy to talk from the high horse when you've been blessed with a mind not made up of pieces that are always fighting with each other or always prone to focus on other more stuff more important than your health (yes, there are more important problems in the world than you and your health!)...
RajT88 4y ago
More anecdata: For moderate exercise (like maybe an hour on an elliptical) I feel the same. Going past that, into the a few hours of exercise or possibly 90 minutes of really intense exercise, I might feel ravenous again. Running a marathon? Eating a horse.
dylan604 4y ago
Anecdata^2: nothing reduces my craving for smoked meat. not sure excersise was the cause of my disintereset in fried foods, or just the realization of negative health benefits. excersise however most definitely does not reduce the cravings for alcohol. hell, i've been on soccer teams that was just an excuse to hang out to drink beer after the game. this wasn't world cup level, but we definitely worked out during play. in other words, to me, there's just too many differences to make conclusions
kbouck 4y ago
(Anecdata): The past few years I've oscillated between periods of consistent exercise and then periods of inactivity and I definitely notice a pattern wrt hunger. recent periods: 1. a period of months of inactivity. 2. a period of multiple months of morning exercise (running soon after waking, before any food) 3. a period of multiple months of inactivity 4. a period of multiple months of running again The pattern I experience is clear: during the periods of exercise, after morning running, I don't feel any need/urge to eat breakfast. Easily skippable. During periods of inactivity, my body craves breakfast. Not skippable without significant willpower.
11235813213455 4y ago
one simple way is to just not buy nasty stuff. Sometimes I spend 5-6 days with one meal max per day (rice, and raw garlic sometimes, that's all I eat), and these intermittent fasting are extremely regenerative, no exercise even needed
mbrodersen 4y ago
Try this: step by step reduce your daily total carbs and your carbs hunger will go away. It worked for me. I went from 230+ g carbs a day to 50g a day and my carbs hunger disappeared. I also lost 9cm waist and 8kg as a nice bonus. Without eating fewer calories and without feeling hungry.
- R0b0t1 4y ago
  Definitely works. As I read about it and as I think it was originally studied, the link is feeding bacteria in your gut that release an SSRI-alike chemical that is addictive. When you don't give them carbs they don't/can't produce it.

feet 4y ago

My guess would be that's related to endorphins. They help feel satisfied, happy, content, and more positive mood in general

pdimitar 4y ago

Yeah I found the same. After I did the exercise grind for a bit of time I suddenly found out that my cravings for usual unhealthy foods have been reduced. My trainer and doctor say that we have various receptors in our bodies tuned for our current way of life and that diet and exercise re-program these receptors which, yeah, is what I observed as well. RE: your lack of motivation for working out, I found it is related to the type of exercise. The start of my journey was a series of train wrecks. I constantly stumbled on 22-year old boys whose wisdom was "get on the bench press, bro!" which didn't work for me. It was almost harmful even. After going to physiotherapy for a while I then started training under the tutelage of the same people and I am already better. They are very careful not to over-strain me, give me just enough cardio to keep my heart pumping but not to make me wanna die, exercises are carefully tuned to strain me a bit but never too much. They don't give me big pauses between exercises (60 - 90 seconds) however. Some exercises are mostly stretching and "activating" a certain muscle (meaning just exercising it a little without any strain). Not sure I can translate that to a workout strategy for you but these items might help: - Do 3 series of each exercise. If it's too much then 2; - Do more reps per series; - Rest until your heart calms down slightly but not beyond that; - Introduce a hard cap on the workout session -- mine is 1 hour. This was a huge struggle because I wanted to do all the exercises but there's no way to fit all in 1 hour (did that mistake several times); - Start with slight cardio -- 5 or 10 minutes. Don't make it the focus of the session, it's just to start you off (a mistake I made many times); - The moment you start feeling a tormenting strain is the moment where you train for 2-3 more minutes and cut the session short; - If that moment doesn't come, still stop at your time cap. The main point is to feel energetic and rejuvenated after the workout. Not "OMFG I wanna die!". My trainer / physiotherapist / masseur told me this is an extremely common problem for men because a lot of them just hang out in the gym and their main motivation is show-off and competition with others. He says there's a million ways to make yourself feel better by exercising and honestly? I believe him because it is happening to me. Finally, it's the most normal thing in the world to fine-tune the exercise session to your specifics and you shouldn't try and imitate other workout regimes if they don't work well for you. My trainer quickly found out I have strong arms, shoulders and upper back and is rarely giving me exercises for them -- just for maintaining them a bit. But my legs, abs and lower back are weaker so 80% of my exercises focus on that. Works great. If you are willing to press on, I wish you good luck. I am exactly like you, I view physical maintenance as nuisance and it's not easy to change the mindset. But I already started having that little little voice in my head that's sometimes nudging me to do a session because I know it makes me feel a bit better after. In programming terms, I'd say reduce the size of the program/tests until it's manageable for you. My trainer said it's much better to train every day for just 35-40 minutes compared to two workouts of our and half a week.

kybernetyk 4y ago
I'm 40 and I recently started Stronglifts 5x5. It's stupidly simple and makes me want to come back for more as the weights increase every training. So there's always a personal record to break. It also doesn't take a lot of time. About 45 - 60 minutes, 3 times a week. I can do it in my home gym as everything I need is a barbell, some weights and a bench/squat rack. First time I actually have fun weight lifting/going to the gym.
- Nathanael_M 4y ago
  I started with Stronglifts! It’s the program that finally gave me a degree of health and made lifting enjoyable/satisfying. Eventually went to something a little less leg heavy (although squats will always be my favourite exercise) with a better system for breaking plateau’s and more accessories, but Stronglifts was what finally made the gym fun.
  - kybernetyk 4y ago
    Yeah, people in online forums tend to dunk on Stronglifts because it's not sophisticated, very leg heavy, the author is very opinionated, etc. But the simplicity is what made me stick with it in the beginning. It's a beginner's program and it's great at that. I'll be switching to something more elaborate later down the road but for the time being SL is pretty good.
Bjartr 4y ago
> The main point is to feel energetic and rejuvenated after the workout. The only thing a workout has ever made me feel is sore and tired. Light or heavy, long or short, cardio or strength. Doesn't matter, that only changes how sore and how tired I am after, and how long those feelings last. I'd exercise way more if I ever felt "energetic and rejuvenated" after a workout. The only thing keeping me doing it is knowing how critically important it is to me long term cardiovascular health. Some context: I'm overweight and could definitely stand to be more active. But I do value exercise and a couple of months ago started going to fitness classes, have played sports casually but regularly in the past, used to regularly go to a gym, and have dabbled with a few different kinds of home workout, including running. The game aspect of sport is fun, but the physical activity involved still only left me sore and tired.

fnands 4y ago

Interesting. Yeah, some of my running buddies report no appetite for about an hour after running. I on the other hand am usually ravenous soon after exercise. When I run more than 20 km I get the kind of bottomless hunger I used to have as a growing teenager, but I try to fill up with reasonably healthy stuff (sometimes it's fried chicken though).

nradov 4y ago
Fried chicken isn't necessarily that unhealthy, depending on the oil used.
- nickff 4y ago
  I think you're bringing up one core issue, which is that people disagree about what 'unhealthy' means.
- dorfsmay 4y ago
  Are there any oil that is healthy once it's been brought up to very high temperature?
x0x0 4y ago
+1 anecdata: cardio (though I take my heart rate to 175 bpm for 10+ minutes) absolutely makes me not hungry for hours. Lifting doesn't affect hunger, though I make sure I get enough calories.
Arrath 4y ago
>When I run more than 20 km I get the kind of bottomless hunger I used to have as a growing teenager I can't say I'm surprised!

michaelgrafl 4y ago

I'm the same. After weight lifting I get a craving for nutritious foods and a disgust of highly processed foods.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

markus_zhang 4y ago

I envy you! I'm no less lazy and hate any physical activity maybe except for the ones that give other funs (hiking to collect fossils eg), but I'm so overweight...

kybernetyk 4y ago

>exercise massively reduces my otherwise constant craving for processed sugars, deep fried and smoked or cured things, alcohol and smokes. Can confirm your findings in me. After the lockdowns and the birth of my son I got a _lot_ fatter. Started exercising just 3 months ago. My cravings for fast food and snacks disappeared. My love for Bourbon is still there but I can control myself better and I don't drink anymore. Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week ... which was becoming very worrisome to me. > the release-endorphines-on-effort circuit is 100% broken for me I'm also the laziest person I know. My brother who's well read into this stuff tells me that once I keep up the exercise routine for some time the circuit should come back.

mmmpop 4y ago
>> Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week Now that you exercise, I'd hope this seems less excessive? When I take time off from running, I cut back on the alcohol hard else I feel like absolute shit. Cardio and beers are what life is about.
- kybernetyk 4y ago
  Haven't touched alcohol in over 3 months. Not really tempted to, either.
- pcthrowaway 4y ago
  A bottle of whiskey per week is excessive to the point that it might shave decades off your life, regardless of whether it comes with exercise. I drink. Sometimes (rarely) maybe even the equivalent of a bottle per week. But let's not kid ourselves
catchclose8919 4y ago
> and the birth of my son [...] Before exercise I would drink one bottle per week It's also the getting used with the little monster, can state that from experience... to me at least alchohol was a must-have drug to reduce & control rage and aggresiveness induced by the little one and all the people that had to be around and be interact with... not a peoples person and my natural reaction to demanding people is to want to make them go away one way or another, with a great temptation to do so violently and permanently. (to clarify, was never angry or enraged when alone with the baby himself, taken alone the little thing was sweet af... only with all the people that seemed to suddenly go crazy and become extra "caring", "attentive", "demanding" or what not... I like babies, but I find other peoples' excessive reactions to them utterly disgusting... "baby brain" is a real thing apparently and it makes people uttely unsufferabe...)

fny 4y ago

I suspect that your distaste for junk food specifically has a psychological component as well. The molecules discussed here are formed immediately post exercise. From what I gather, they are responsible for a short term antihunger effect not a long term effect.

NickM 4y ago
Just because the effect might not be caused by the one specific molecule discussed in the article doesn't mean it's necessarily psychological.
- fny 4y ago
  I have been to enough beer runs to question OP.

Tenoke 4y ago

Anecdata: I'm way hungrier later in the day after exercising. If you look for reddit posts on cutting/dieting you can see a lot of people reporting that the extra food craving from exercise can frequently be bigger than what you burn with it.

Sakos 4y ago
I've noticed that I'll massively overeat if I don't get enough protein, salt and nutrients. So I'll chug something isotonic and eat a bunch of protein mixed with a food-replacement powder after running and weightlifting. I end up not being hungry the rest of the day.
- mikepurvis 4y ago
  This is my experience. I'll swim lanes for an hour, or maybe do a 2-3hr bike ride, and afterwards I'll do a protein smoothie or maybe bacon and eggs if I haven't yet had breakfast, but overall I avoid using the exercise as an excuse to eat an "extra" meal.
PuppyTailWags 4y ago
Also anecdata: I'm hungry after I exercise, but this is almost entire resolved by drinking something cold with a electrolytes. A big chug of coconut water for example
randomdata 4y ago
For me, cardio-type exercises leaves me wanting to eat stupid amounts of food afterwards, but strength exercises not so much. Perhaps the triggers are more nuanced than an overarching concept of exercise?
- ReenD 4y ago
  [dead]
mgh2 4y ago
Could it be an evolutionary adaptation to fight or flight? After the exercise period, the body is still in 'active' mode, so it may seem that the period to use energy is still on (hunting & fleeing, not eating). However, after this ends the body switches back into 'inactive' mode to store energy for future 'active' modes.

Zababa 4y ago

> Context: I'm natively extremely lazy (phisically, not intellectually), I find any phisical activity a pain an a nuisance, I derive zero pleasure from any kind of sport and phyisical exercise (except hiking and skidiving, but not the phisical effort aspects of them), the release-endorphines-on-effort circuit is 100% broken for me or I just lack the receptors for those endophins It's good to know that I'm not the only one, it's a bit sad to know that there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.

kayoone 4y ago
> It's good to know that I'm not the only one, it's a bit sad to know that there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. Not sure you should see it so negatively/defeatist. Maybe you just have not found the right thing yet that gives you joy. I discovered my love for road cycling only in my mid thirties and now derive immense pleasure from long rides totally exerting myself and burning 2000+ calories in many of those rides. Lost 10kg of weight and am fitter at 40 then I ever was before.
- Zababa 4y ago
  Thanks, that helps.

gruez 4y ago

I don't know, it seems equally plausible that the two are caused by a common factor. Specifically, "you being motivated to be healthy" causes you to want to exercise more and gives you stronger willpower to resist eating unhealthy foods.

mmmpop 4y ago

I'm still prone to overeating when I'm in a lifting phase and since those come and go in spurts, I've never been able to tame that. On the other hand, I've been a 3+ hour a week cardio guy for a decade and when I first got started at 20+ mile a week running, I would eat away any caloric "gains" by 2x. I no longer have those issues and, like others have pointed out, I tend to lose my appetite for awhile after a run/ride. The harder the effort, the less appetite I'll have.

121789 4y ago
Yep. Cardio makes me less hungry for a short period of time after exercise, then ravenous later in the day. I don't notice any effects on hunger from lifting

FollowingTheDao 4y ago

And it will always be anecdata since the creation of lac-phe after working out is dependent on both your CNDP2 genetics and your intake of manganese which is the cofactor for that enzyme.

AlbertCory 4y ago

I wrote a three-part series of articles on "50 Years of Running" [1], and the issue of motivation is specifically addressed, since how else would you keep up something for 50 years? It's not at all about eating, and I'm honestly not sure it'll help you, but the tag in the first article is: If you can't find time to exercise, you'll have to find time to be sick. [1] https://albertcory50.substack.com https://albertcory50.substack.com

catchclose8919 4y ago
This is one of the least helpful advice one can give... We all know that "if you can't find time to exercise, you'll have to find time to be sick", but in practice we're either wired to overfocus on short term rewards, or we don't really have any connection or emapthy with our future self ("let that bastard rot and die if he ain't got a currage to put a bullet in his head when it gets too nasty") etc. etc. It's easy to talk from the high horse when you've been blessed with a mind not made up of pieces that are always fighting with each other or always prone to focus on other more stuff more important than your health (yes, there are more important problems in the world than you and your health!)...

RajT88 4y ago

More anecdata: For moderate exercise (like maybe an hour on an elliptical) I feel the same. Going past that, into the a few hours of exercise or possibly 90 minutes of really intense exercise, I might feel ravenous again. Running a marathon? Eating a horse.

dylan604 4y ago

Anecdata^2: nothing reduces my craving for smoked meat. not sure excersise was the cause of my disintereset in fried foods, or just the realization of negative health benefits. excersise however most definitely does not reduce the cravings for alcohol. hell, i've been on soccer teams that was just an excuse to hang out to drink beer after the game. this wasn't world cup level, but we definitely worked out during play. in other words, to me, there's just too many differences to make conclusions

kbouck 4y ago

(Anecdata): The past few years I've oscillated between periods of consistent exercise and then periods of inactivity and I definitely notice a pattern wrt hunger. recent periods: 1. a period of months of inactivity. 2. a period of multiple months of morning exercise (running soon after waking, before any food) 3. a period of multiple months of inactivity 4. a period of multiple months of running again The pattern I experience is clear: during the periods of exercise, after morning running, I don't feel any need/urge to eat breakfast. Easily skippable. During periods of inactivity, my body craves breakfast. Not skippable without significant willpower.

11235813213455 4y ago

one simple way is to just not buy nasty stuff. Sometimes I spend 5-6 days with one meal max per day (rice, and raw garlic sometimes, that's all I eat), and these intermittent fasting are extremely regenerative, no exercise even needed

mbrodersen 4y ago

Try this: step by step reduce your daily total carbs and your carbs hunger will go away. It worked for me. I went from 230+ g carbs a day to 50g a day and my carbs hunger disappeared. I also lost 9cm waist and 8kg as a nice bonus. Without eating fewer calories and without feeling hungry.

R0b0t1 4y ago
Definitely works. As I read about it and as I think it was originally studied, the link is feeding bacteria in your gut that release an SSRI-alike chemical that is addictive. When you don't give them carbs they don't/can't produce it.