Avoiding Pigging Out After Workouts

While checking out the July/August issue of Fitness magazine tonight, one of the cover stories caught my eye: How to Beat Post-Workout Pig-Outs.

You see, I recently realized that I kept coming home from the gym feeling starving and wanting to just shove food in my mouth – as of late, handfuls of cereal, dried fruit, and spoonfuls of peanut butter were my picks. Since I most often workout in the late afternoon/early evening and make dinner once I come home, I’m about to eat soon after I exercise anyways. But in the time it takes me to get home, prep dinner, and then sit down to eat it, I found myself eating unnecessary calories. Once I realized that this was something I’d been doing that I did not want to make a usual habit, I came up with a few minor adjustments to make in order to help reduce the amount of post-workout pig-outs I have (and then later kick myself in the butt about).

These things have been working out pretty well for me so far, but I was interested in what the Fitness article had to say. Here are some of the strategies they mentioned:

• Pack a snack to eat within 30 minutes of working out
• Avoid a reward mentality: don’t overeat because you feel that you’ve “earned it” because you exercised
• Consume more protein in your diet: Eating protein releases ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger and increases the release of a hormone that controls satiety
• Eat meals that are low on the glycemic index, which will prevent extreme blood sugar strikes and keep you from feeling ravenous

Question: Do you ever pig-out after you exercise? What are your strategies to prevent it from happening?