exercising can make you fat

A question I have wondered myself.  Working out 2 hours a day is a lot.  Some people work out 2 hours a day and see no results, other people workout in 45 min and see greater results.  Why exercise that long?

I have gone into that rut a few times in the past, including very recently.  Long steady cardio sessions vs. shorter HIIT style sessions.

When you overexercise your body releases stress hormones.  Stress hormones make you gain weight in that “fight or flight” mode.  When you gain weight from stress it is usually in your stomach and butt/thighs.  Which is where mine is.

Before my marathon training, I managed to gain 10 pounds (just to compete in this event, I was underweight through past experiences with depression) and maintain it. When my milage went up into the 70s, that was when my weight started going up.  I decreased my intake, it somewhat stalled until 2 days post marathon when I immediately gained 10 pounds.  It started coming off when my milage was pretty low and built back up 2-3 weeks later, and then it went back up again.  This got me thinking….am I overexercising?

I have also noticed that my appetite is raging after I run, so I think this is also a culprit.

Currently I am doing hour long runs with lifting afterwards that take anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  But is this doing too much?  I have also debated very recently on cutting back on running to 5 days a week.  run 3 days in a row, short cross-train/rest day, run 2 days in a row, short cross-train/rest day.

Any insight on this would be nice.