Really really hungry after swimming?

Essentially, your body wants you to eat to help it warm up. By chowing down on food, the body literally burns through energy to digest the intake and metabolize it into a form your body can use or store. And as a result, your body's core temperature naturally increases. Until you reach a nice and comfy body temp, your body will shoot "I'm hungry" messages to your brain which, in turn, will have you reaching for a cinnamon roll. Intellectually, you know you don't need that baked good, but that's not the message your stomach's telling you.  (By Alicia Kendig, CTS Sports Dietitian)

eta: spelling errors

Yup, I usually have a breakfast bar or granola bar after swimming even though I eat my regular breakfast (which normally gets me through to lunch) before I swim. 

X2!!!!!

I  recall from back in my life guard training days that the body loses heat 25 times faster in water than in air.  Which is why we were taught to get as much of the body out of the water if you were ever shipwrecked or whatever.  Even if the air is colder than the water,  the body heat loss is much greater in water.

So it is no surprise that, after spending an hour or an hour and a half in the water that we are short of energy.  You've burned a lot of energy just to stay warm.  Amounts well above and beyond that used to propell you through the water.

At the olympics, Michael Phelps reportedly was eating 10,000 calories a day.  You sure can't burn that many exercising for 6 hours, the amount he also reporrtedly swam per day.  He had to eat that much because he was burning so much staying warm.

Very true, particularly after a run, I am usually disinterested in eating for at least and hour or so.  Also, I have to run on pretty much an empty stomach or I feel terrible while running (been working on gels, though, and that is going well), so there is usually a period of a few hours during the middle of which I run that I'm not hungry. 

After a swim, I get quite hungry.  Last week I got home from a swim, got dinner (my husband had cooked and already eaten) and started eating.  I looked up and he was staring at me with what I call his "look of disgust".  I asked "what?"  He said, "Could you sit down and maybe use a fork and plate?"  I was standing at the kitchen counter eating a grilled zuchinni and grilled piece of marinated chicken breast off the cutting board he had used to get the food off the grill...with my hands.  Ooops! 

Slightly off subject, but even worse, I always have to pee really badly as soon as I get out of the pool.  It is immediate, as soon as I stand up and everything settles back into place after being horizontal in the water.  I must swallow a lot of water when I swim!