To always feel way more ravenous after swimming than after any other exercise?

[OrlandoTheCat]

Just that.

Annoying really as swimming is my favourite exercise but I always seem to undo all the good by downing a hearty meal after....

Same here. I think it's the keeping yourself warm thing, but also that you use an awful lot of different muscles. I actually find cycling makes me ravenous too, but running doesn't.

Yes weird isn't it! I call it hollow tummy. Absolute emptiness even if you've had a snack beforehand....

Yep it's because you are burning calories keeping yourself warm as well as doing exercise. So eat away!

Sorry min but that's not correct! It's because your brain thinks that it's easier to up with food than to expend fat on it. You dont actually burn more calories I'm afraid because your body weight is supported by the water

I have a vague memory that it's something to do with swimming being the only exercise where your body temp isn't raised.
It is a thing

Is that right?

When I'm working out I will probably drink a pint of water an hour, with swimming this isn't usually practical so it may be you're actually thirsty? When I'm thirsty I often feel starving hungry too until I'm rehydrated

Some of these expectations are exaggerated...

People are talking about strong social cues they have to think they are hungry after swimming. I doubt very much that most of us are swimming hard enough to use 500 kcal in an hour. I only swim 1 km in 25 minutes and I sure don't work that hard.

I have the formula to calc how many calories used as a function of average heart rate, but I don't know how to adjust it for swimming (people have a different maximum HR due to the buoyancy of water). Ignoring the different swimming max HR...

Not swimming, A 5'6" tall woman, 30 yrs old, avg VO2Max, weighing 140 lbs (10 stone) would need to have an average heart rate that was 82% of her expected max for an entire hour to burn 536 calories. That's average over the entire hour. So a fairly hard pace, no chatting. If you can spit out more than a few words you certainly aren't working hard enough to burn 550 kcal/hr. 300-400/hr is probably more typical for most women, and most people don't do lanes so long as an hr.

A 20yr old 90 kg guy might burn 700 kcal an hour swimming in a normal way (ie, stopping a lot to gas away with mates)... because he's male, young, 90kg, etc. Hugely more if he's got an amazing VO2max and cuts the nattering time.

What strong social cues? Why would people have strong social cues to be hungry after swimming but not other exercise? When I took up running, I expected to be hungry after a run, but I never am, which rather goes against the expectation theory.

Here's another theory:

Question: "I'm always famished after I go swimming. What makes this happen?"
Answer: Researchers don't know exactly why this occurs, but they suspect that it's because the cooler temperature of the water causes your body to lose heat and the blood vessels in your skin to constrict. This prevents the release of certain hormones that suppress appetite during and soon after exercise, says Rudy Dressendorfer, PhD, an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta's Human Performance Laboratory in Edmonton.

Yanbu. Even when i take the dc swimming which is more supervisory-watching-them-swim and just general splashing, I'm starving afterwards...the proper 'I must eat NOW' feeling which I never get otherwise. It's not thirst either because I always have a hefty drink before and straight after, even if we've only been in for an hour.

This is why leisure centre's have vending machines

Eolian, is there a vending machine selling yummies every time in sight when you enter & leave your running area, and do lots of people you've been running with mostly go get snacks out of it?

Load of people on here mention a childhood vending machine (or cone of chips or special crisps) habit post swimming.... Associations & Social cues.

The other obvious thing is... if you're going for a fitness swim you probably start with a relatively empty stomach. By the time you finish, meal time is probably overdue. No wonder folk wanna eat.

yeah whenever I go swimming always want to eat chips after!!!!!!!!

Yeah I always feel I undo the work as once I am out and dried I am starving and could eat a small cow.

Eolian, is there a vending machine selling yummies every time in sight when you enter & leave your running area, and do lots of people you've been running with mostly go get snacks out of it?

No. There isn't one when I've been cycling either, but cycling makes me really hungry. I don't associate swimming with vending machines or cones of chips. Different kinds of exercise have different effects on me. Long walks make me hungrier than running too. It seems to be the longer, less intense types of exercise. It's not a problem - I go home and have lunch/dinner as normal, I don't go and stuff myself with snacks and don't find that I eat more when I'm doing regular exercise. I hate swimming anyway.

Eolian a lot of people do associate swimming with vending machines though.
It would never occur to me to buy something from a vending machine after a swim because I never did when I was a child, we couldn't afford it. I just go home and have a meal, a regular size meal that I would have had anyway. I also never drink when I swim and that can be up to 90 minutes. No one would have dreamt of taking a waterbottle to the edge of the pool when I was a kid
Also lljkk is right. Most people overestimate how many calories they use when swimming.

I think it's the thirst and loss of heat. On the days I swim and then sauna, I'm not as hungry.

That's exactly why they always have fish and chip shops near swimming pools.

Yes - only after swimming!