Dehydration vs. Hunger

For one of my classes at SDSU, I am part of a group who has to debate the topic that “Increased levels of exercise stimulate appetite that will slow weight loss.” For this debate, my group was chosen to be against this statement and had to come up with five points to further argue our side. One of our points that I had to further research is that “Improper care of hydration levels may cause the body to become dehydrated from exercise, thus being mistaken for hunger.”
I think this is a huge misinterpretation people have when they start exercising and it is a major player in causing people to overeat after exercise. I think that it is important for people to become more educated about proper hydration levels when they begin an exercise program because there are many risks that can come from being dehydrated. Dehydration occurs when one’s water intake is less than the water they are losing from sweating. When increasing one’s exercise levels, one must also increase the  amount of fluid being taken in, in order to keep up with the amount of sweat they are producing. Therefore, if one does not alter there fluid intake when they increase their level of exercise, they are likely to become dehydrated from exercising.
This dehydration can oftentimes be misinterpreted as “hunger.” According to an article “How Dehydration Effects Metabolism”, it is stated that “As we get older, we lose the ability to tell the difference between hunger and thirst. At times, when we think we are hungry we actually need water. We can not tell the difference, so we eat.” So it is not exercise that is stimulating our appetite which is slowing weight loss, it is actually dehydration that is being mistaken as hunger. Therefore, exercise is not necessarily the reason for an increased appetite and if one can maintain a properly hydrated body by ingesting enough fluids throughout the day, then it is likely that their “appetite”, or what they think is their appetite, will decrease, thus helping improve weight loss efforts.