Struggling with large quantities of food after exercising- mental hunger again? advice please

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I am thankful for everyone who posts here and thankful for this web site. I think you all are an amazing group of people. I am 13 mos post op. Starting Weight 337 Today I weigh 178 (up 8 lbs since 10/30) . For the past several months from March to November 5 I trained for my first marathon. I was eating a lot of food. I was jogging 45-60 miles every week. On Saturdays I was jogging sometimes in Sept/Oct 21 miles in one day. I am happy that I finished my Marathon 26.2 miles 5 hours 43 minutes avg pace about 13:30. Most people finish in 4.5 hours. I am a slow jogger not a fast runner, I am 51 years old. Now that the marathon is finished, I have no desire to continue jogging 45-60 miles per week just to keep my weight down. I have just started training for my first Sprint Triathlon Fathers Day June 2017. In a sprint triathlon in this one( they are all different) 750 meter swim in open water (the river) and a 12 mile bike race followed by 3.2 mile run. So I am starting early. I am at the pool swimming every morning at 5:00am, then I get on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then stationary bike for 30 minutes. On Sunday afternoon I ran an additional 10 miles outside in the afternoon.  So I am still exercising about 90 minutes per day, but not burning the same amount of calories. I am hungry/ravenous all of the time. I am tracking my food in My Fitness Pal for breakfast almost 800 calories, a  protein bar before I exercised, a whey protein shake, grapes, a quest protein bar  and a chocolate deluxe protein bar. When I exercised I feel like I am starving.  When I have posted before the response I get is "mental hunger" I know that I need to control my eating I am just finding it very difficult. Does anyone who exercises have any suggestions or ideas. I am thinking if I am this hungry now what will happen when I start training a brick exercise where you bike for an hour and then jog for an hour w/ stopping? All advice greatly appreciated! Does anyone else struggle with hunger the way I do 13 mos post op I am concerned because I have weighed about 174-175 and then in Oct my weight dropped to 170 and now mid November I am back up to 178 -  I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday- Thanks for letting me vent :) 

I don't exercise like that. Or, you know, at all. But I'm very active. I average about 13,000 steps a day, and do some heavy work. But not exercise. 

But I have seen a lot of studies that show heavy exercise, particularly running, leads to weight gain. It's almost universal among newer marathon runners, though it seems very counterintuitive.

If eating certain foods is a trigger to eat more and gain weight, we need to be prepared to change that behavior, or accept the gain. Same thing goes for exercise and gain. All I can suggest is, find a way to balance your activity with gain, or take the consequences.

THANKS! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I had my WLS 6 months ago, and also work out a lot. 6 days a week or about a total of 8 to 9 hrs. a week total. (I thrive on the activity)

I have to watch my carbs closely, and find when I eat the wrong kind, or too many to the ratio of total calories, my hunger also is stronger.

I am working out to not just lose weight, but getting in shape and training for some bike races this spring and summer. I think I am rare in that I need to and can eat about 1600+ cals a day to maintain my workouts, but still keep my carbs to about 20% max (80 grams max)

Also, I find that spreading my meals out pretty equal into 5 meals a day helps fend of hunger, and since most my workouts are early AM, I eat my first smallest meal with some carbs about an hour before working out. It improves the workout energy, and I really have no real hunger when time to eat again after the workout.

Good luck. . .

Thanks for the response. Good Luck with your races.  I am eating about 1600 calories per day also. Happy Thanksgviing

I exercise 60 minutes to 2 hours a day (work permitting), including running (I run half marathons), spinning, kick boxing and weightlifting.  In my mind, eating 800 calorie breakfasts is insanity.  Even training as much as I do, my daily calories very rarely exceed 1000 for the day. On heavy workout days, I maybe add an additional snack (and I'm talking a serving of almonds, a tbs of peanut butter, an extra hardboiled egg, you get the idea.)  Maybe it's what your eating.  While protein bars give you the needed protein, they don't stay with you and, in my opinion, are likely why you are feeling hunger.  Swap out the protein bars for dense protein.  When I train, I eat a "meal"  beforehand comprised of carbs and protein.  Greek Yogurt with peanut butter, oats and Greek yogurt, graham crackers and peanut butter (carb heavy but fuels my run).  Honestly, this should be enough to fuel your workout.  After the workout, eat dense protein.  Chicken breast, eggs, ham, etc.  Such foods will keep you full longer.  I think you're walking a dangerous path with the protein bars.  And, Grim is right, there is evidence that runners gain weight while marathon training because they overestimate the amount of food they need to consume and the amount of calories they burn.  I don't eat back my calories, but you burn 100 for every mile you run.

Anyway, I would hate to see you walk down such a dangerous path.  If you keep consuming the amount of calories that you are, you will need to maintain, if not increase your activity just to maintain.  As you can see by your gain, that's difficult to do and not always successful.  Maybe switching up what you eat is the answer.

Thanks StacyRG-  I agree I need to eat fewer calories and more dense protein. I will try to eat more chicken, eggs, and ham. When you eat the Greek Yogurt do you eat the Plain with just 9 grams of carbs or the regular greek yogurt ( i think it has 20 grams of carbs?)  I will try to remember that I am only burning 100 calories for every mile.  I am not sure how many calories that you can burn while swimming slowly for 45 minutes. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!  As far as greek yogurt goes, I use both.  I will use the plain and add flavored syrup to it, or use Plain in more savory recipes.  I typically will eat the Dannon Light and Fit which, I think is 9 carbs, 12g protein and 80 cal.

Good luck!!