Not hungry, but I worked out. Should I eat more?

I had a really good workout tonight.  I hadn't hit my calories for the day.  I was going to have dinner after working out.  Only I'm not at all hungry.  I ate my yogurt and felt satisfied.  I made myself eat an apple as well.  I'm only 200 calories below my target, but I burned over 500 calories. 

I don't want to force myself to eat more if I'm not hungry.  But since I burned off nearly half of the 1100 calories I ate today, I wonder if I should eat a little more...

Only if you get hungry - you have already "forced" food today.  You will probably make up for it tomorrow!  I am not hungry for hours afer I work out, but 10 hours later it seems I can't eat enough.

I can completely relate to not wanting to eat when you are not hungry.  Post workout, why not try a protein shake?  Someting like a zero-carb isopure with a little coffee and banana mixed in it.  You will get a few more calories and plenty of protein.

If you're eating 1100 cals in a day and doing a lot of exercise on top then you're sadly in 'crash diet' territory which would be pretty unhealthy if it happened on a regular basis.  If you're not hungry after eating so little food and working out then something is wrong.  Eat more.... a couple of slices of toast, a cereal bar... 200 cals is nothing.

For the future, check that 1300 cals a day is right for someone your age, size and activity level.  If you're going to be doing similar amounts of exercise on a regular basis 1300 would be far too low.

I agree, as usual, with gi-jane.  However, I am a fan of protein shakes.  Good, quality protein shakes.  If you are working out a lot, they are great for recovery.  And they don't really fill you up.  If you need to add just a few calories, mix about 1.5 scoops (enough to equal 30g of protein) with about 4oz of water, or blend with ice and water.  If you need more calories, use skim milk and "fillers" like some PB or fruit with it.  The protein in protein shakes is different than other proteins because it's pre-digested and therefore won't tax your kidneys the way some people say other proteins will.

Aside from jumping on the treadmill, I've a completely sedentary job and hobbies.  Even the nutritionist I saw said between 1200 and 1400 calories a day.  That's with doing several workout's every week.  So I'm not crash dieting.  Heck, most of the time, I have trouble keeping my calories from not going over 1400. 

I worked out after work and before dinner.  I KNOW that wasn't enough calories for that work out.  Which was why I was wondering if I should eat more food even though I wasn't hungry.  After my yogurt and apple, I was really full.  I had been intending to grill a steak.  But I didn't think I would be able to eat it.   

I did wake up at 1:00 am totally starving.  So I had another apple and half a cup of Japanese snack mix crackers.

Yes you should eat more.

Without knowing your stats it is hard to say how much but definitely at least a few hundred calories (assuming you are trying to lose weight). It is easy to take in a few extra calories without being stuffed. A glass of milk, peanut butter sandwich, heck even a handful of nuts will put you up to a healthier place.

It's true one day of too few calories won't kill you in and of itself but it could be the start of a bad habit hard to break later on. It isn't something you want to incorporate into your thinking.

And trust me, you are not sedentary. Someone who works out and functions normally outside the home is not sedentary.

We are not just trying to bust your balls, it actually isn't always in your best interest to eat the bare minimum of 1200 cals to lose weight. It is the minimum guideline but actually applies to very few people (generally people 5 feet or smaller and about 100 lbs).

This is from the Ask Mary section of Calorie Count by our Director of Nutrition Mary Hartley:

Why eating only 1200 calories doesn't work for losing weight

In the long run, you won’t lose weight faster by eating 1200 calories a day.  Under-eating deprives your body of essential nutrients and leads to muscle breakdown to provide energy.  With less muscle, you require fewer calories and you reach a weight low plateau more quickly.  Restrictive dieting also places you at risk for binge-eating which can lead to weigh gain and a life of yo-yo dieting. Use the Calorie Target calculator in the Tools section to figure out the right amount of calories for your specific stats.

Did your nutritionist know that you are working out this hard?  She was probably basing this on a sedentary lifestyle.  Also, learn to question professionals.  Just because someone is a nutritionist (and really should have a master's degree to do this not just a bachelors), a doctor, or a trainer, doesn't mean that they are always right.  It is important for your health to question things that don't make sense.  

On another note, I look at my weekly average for calories, and more importantly my weekly deficit.   If my goal is 1800 calories a day, somedays I may eat 2000, and others 1600.  It usually works out to around 12000 calories per week.  I also look at my deficit.  I try to have a deficit of 3500-5000 calories a week.  And my eating refects this.  So, if I work out really well, consistently, in the week, I tend to eat more like 2000 calories to keep my deficit within my goal. 

Just wanted to add in that I agree with jevw.  I was just about to say that looking at a single day, especially if it's an atypical day, might not be the best way to know what you should do in this instance.  If you end up averaging out to a 1300 - 1400 NET calorie intake per day at the end of the week (NET: how many calories you have consumed on average per day AFTER working out.  I.E. you ate 1500, burned 200 = 1300 net calories for that day).

If you add up your week and find you are averaging 1300 calories eaten a day, but 200 - 300 burned, you need to eat more, because you need at least 1200 net calories per day just to keep your normal bodily functions operating in a healthy manner.

I personally have days where I net 1800, and other days where I net 1100.  But I average out to around 1300 - 1500 over the course of a week, which is good for my small size and sedentary job.

If the treadmill told you you burned 500, you most likely burned closer to 300. Those calorie-burned calculators are notoriously inaccurate. I'm basing the 300 cals on the average discrepancy between my heart rate monitor and treadmills/ellipticals I work out on. Also, keep in mind that if you worked out for an hour and burned 300, a portion of those calories (maybe 50 or so) should be subtracted from your burn because they're what you would have burned had you just sat around. If you log your activity on CC, it will calculate this for you and give you an actual burned number.