Starving Yoga

[ElDee]

I think I've posted on this before but whats the deal with a consistent yoga practice and eating? I for one am not a person who likes to starve. I don't like being hungry and I get cranky as hell and really unreasonable if I don't eat regularly. Plus my IBS plays havoc if I don't eat the right foods at the right times. So when I started practicing most days I thought it was a fluke at first that I found it hard to eat enough. I mean this is me! I'm the original comfort, celebration, relaxation, consolation and stress eater. I love food! Not in a weird way but I do love to cook and read about cooking and I love to eat. I like to eat alone and with friends and family. When someone in my family goes for a meal we phone each other to discuss what everyone had, course by course.....yes, we are very exciting people;)
Now when I was in my teens and early twenties I would have loved to have to force myself to eat just for the sake of fueling my body. But it's 8 months into my yoga practice now and its not a fluke. Yoga kills my appetite!
Lately I have started to log my food intake on Fitday, not to reduce calories but to make sure I get enough! I get to evening, look up my count for the day, sigh and then prepare something to consume to make up for the 800 calorie deficit I seem to have for the day. I realize I may not garner a whole load of sympathy for this but I do really want to be hungry again. There are other things that I am no longer so hungry for too, but I don't think I need to talk about that here;D
So while pondering on this I remembered something I read recently about different forms and intensities of exercise and their affect on hunger. The gist of it was that low intensity exercise results in an increase in appetite which sometimes exceeds the calorie burn of the activity. However high intensity exercise, for example competitive cyclists and long distance runners have a deadening of the appetite and find it very hard to replace the calories burned during the activity. Interesting, no?
So is Ashtanga yoga a very high intensity activity that deadens the appetite, or is it the mindfulness about what you put in your body (maybe on a subconscious level?) that reduces the drive to eat? Or maybe I have some kind of persistent stomach problem from working in a high stress environment? Is it obvious that my major was Science and that I'm a Virgo? :D
I would love to hear what others have experienced in regard to this...but I know its a quiet time of year so I'm not going to get insulted if nobody comments.....really;(

[ElDee]

Wonderful to be reminded that research and statistics are very rarely applicable to the real world and real people!:)
You may be right about my body knowing what it needs. Maybe I just need to trust myself more and allow whatever is happening to happen without trying to analyze every last bit of it.

[Steven]

" I'm the original comfort, celebration, relaxation, consolation and stress eater." Sounds like yoga has replaced food as a source of comfort, celebration, etc. and food simply retains its purpose as nourishment. This might seem like not getting enough to eat in comparison to before, most likely your body knows how much it needs. As a competitive cyclist, I don't find it hard to replace the calories burned due to lack of hunger - I get plenty hungry during the season!