ELI5 - Why do people get hungry after swimming?

A bit of a tangent note:

Interestingly, back in the late 90's when I was on the swim team, I had learnt that, yes, while swimming certainly burns a HUGE amount of calories... and is likely great for your heart!

It still... alas... may not actually help you lose weight. :(

Essentially, as some of the articles back then put it:


"Swimming is not the Best Exercise for Weight Loss.

If you want to lose weight, lower cholesterol, or help to control diabetes, swimming is better than nothing, but not that much better.

A report from the University of Colorado shows that obese people who start a supervised swimming program do not lower their fasting blood sugar, insulin, total cholesterol, good HDL cholesterol and bad LDL cholesterol levels. They also did not lose weight or redistribute their body fat (Clinical Physiology, July 1997).

The results are better in people who start land-based sports such as running, aerobic dancing, racquetball or cycling. When you exercise on land, your body is surrounded by air which insulates you, causing your body to retain heat and your body temperature to rise for up to 18 hours after you finish exercising.

Increased body temperature speeds up your metabolism and helps you to lose weight and lower cholesterol. On the other hand, when you swim, your body is surrounded by water which is an excellent conductor of heat away from your body, preventing your body temperature from rising. Swimming is a wonderful exercise for fitness, but will not contribute much to a weight loss program."


Flash forward to today, 20 years later...

!!!

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread