Famished to the point of insomnia

nickyfm

Hello again guys
You might remember me from having written a month ago about not seeing progress.

Well just to let you know, I may only be seeing a slight change physically, I have gotten A LOT stronger. Recorded my legs day max, and I have doubled, and im some exercises tripled, the weighs I started with.

Anyway, my problem now is that I am struggling to eat at 1,500 cal per day, with eating about 1,700 on legs day. Every 2 weeks like a clockwork, the day after legs day, I get so famished that either I get a terrible headache, dizziness and fatigue, or I cannot sleep for consecutive nights. At this point, I am so famished, that I just want to eat any food at all, but mostly I crave fats and proteins at around midnight.

If I do 'give in' to the hunger, It is always healthy food. I eat very little sugars as that stimulates appetite. So if it is late night food, it is always a high protein meal. Sometimes cottage cheese on toast, Peanut Butter, a low carb protein bar, or nuts.

My stats are:
Weight: 125 pounds
Height: 5'5
BF%: Roughly 23%
Exercise burn: Between 250-400 cal

Routine: 2x Pole dancing, 1x Legs day, 1x Back day, 1x Arms + HIIT (Roughly 60 mins each)

I have a history of PCOS. I used to be very underweight in high school, and used to eat around 1,200 cal a day and weighed 110 pounds. Periods went from irregular to completely absent for 2 years. However the past 3 months I have had periods consecutively.

I also used to crash diet between 2009-2012. And by 'crash' i mean eating about 1,250 cals a day, with high amounts of cardio 6x a week, with burns up to 500 cal at a time.

My friend suggested I bump up to 1,700 cal a day. If I am interested in losing fat, is this a good idea?

Thanks guys

SideSteel

Tagging

chrisdavey

kgs please?! :laugh:

When was the last time you had a diet break? I think you are already at a very low weight for your height so eating a bit more and continuing with the strength training and pole would be a good idea IMO.

Just a FYI, my GF (you can facestalk me if you want ) is 1" shorter than you, 6kg heavier and under 20% BF. Heavy lifting is the key Just have to be patient and you can't be in deficit forever.

Also, what time is your last meal and is it a large one? That is one of the reasons I like IFing as I have the majority of cals at night and sleep best that way. Although, if I'm on very low cals for some reason, it is pretty much inevitable that I'll wake up hungry at some time.

nickyfm

I spose i had a 'diet break' when i was overseas last year july-september, but i wasn't exactly counting calories, and i do recall watching what i ate for a fair amount of the trip.

PS You and I both know that I stalked you forever ago, Chris XD

chrisdavey

:laugh:

I'd say you are long overdue for another one then. I'd go 2 weeks at around maintenance cals. See how you feel. Weight will probably go up but I'd pay more attention to measurements and take a few pics. You are definitely at the stage of not worrying about scale numbers IMO

nickyfm

Well ill be in Hawaii for two weeks on June 18th. Wont be tracking calories then, so Ill see what happens!

neandermagnon

what do you eat post-workout? Personally, if I don't have a decent post-workout meal then I have issues with blood sugar dropping (feeling dizzy etc) and extreme hunger later in the day.

Also, don't be afraid to eat more. Maybe you burn a lot more calories on leg day, or you need more calories for the recovery process the day after leg day.

nickyfm

what do you eat post-workout? Personally, if I don't have a decent post-workout meal then I have issues with blood sugar dropping (feeling dizzy etc) and extreme hunger later in the day.

Also, don't be afraid to eat more. Maybe you burn a lot more calories on leg day, or you need more calories for the recovery process the day after leg day.

I have a protein shake straight after (2 scoops musashi low carb, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/4 banana)
And normally followed by a sandwich with chicken or tuna, salad, and hummus on GF grain bread, or some eggs, cottage cheese and a GF grain roll

neandermagnon

what do you eat post-workout? Personally, if I don't have a decent post-workout meal then I have issues with blood sugar dropping (feeling dizzy etc) and extreme hunger later in the day.

Also, don't be afraid to eat more. Maybe you burn a lot more calories on leg day, or you need more calories for the recovery process the day after leg day.

I have a protein shake straight after (2 scoops musashi low carb, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/4 banana)
And normally followed by a sandwich with chicken or tuna, salad, and hummus on GF grain bread, or some eggs, cottage cheese and a GF grain roll

that sounds like a decent post workout meal Maybe it's just the overall number of calories for the whole day... you may be burning more than you think on leg day.

Sarauk2sf

Tagging

nickyfm

what do you eat post-workout? Personally, if I don't have a decent post-workout meal then I have issues with blood sugar dropping (feeling dizzy etc) and extreme hunger later in the day.

Also, don't be afraid to eat more. Maybe you burn a lot more calories on leg day, or you need more calories for the recovery process the day after leg day.

I have a protein shake straight after (2 scoops musashi low carb, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/4 banana)
And normally followed by a sandwich with chicken or tuna, salad, and hummus on GF grain bread, or some eggs, cottage cheese and a GF grain roll

that sounds like a decent post workout meal Maybe it's just the overall number of calories for the whole day... you may be burning more than you think on leg day.

I war a HRM so it usually gives me the caloric estimate, but it's probs all the recovery burn that I don't take into consideration. 2 days later and I'm still crippled from legs day!! Haha

Sarauk2sf

what do you eat post-workout? Personally, if I don't have a decent post-workout meal then I have issues with blood sugar dropping (feeling dizzy etc) and extreme hunger later in the day.

Also, don't be afraid to eat more. Maybe you burn a lot more calories on leg day, or you need more calories for the recovery process the day after leg day.

I have a protein shake straight after (2 scoops musashi low carb, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/4 banana)
And normally followed by a sandwich with chicken or tuna, salad, and hummus on GF grain bread, or some eggs, cottage cheese and a GF grain roll

that sounds like a decent post workout meal Maybe it's just the overall number of calories for the whole day... you may be burning more than you think on leg day.

I war a HRM so it usually gives me the caloric estimate, but it's probs all the recovery burn that I don't take into consideration. 2 days later and I'm still crippled from legs day!! Haha

HRMs are not accurate for strength training.

Sorry for the delay in responding - this one fell through.

whierd

I breezed through your OP, but I didn't notice any mention of a pre-workout meal. If you aren't doing this, it -may- help with the extreme hunger.

Sarauk2sf

I would have fun on vacation, eat what you want, but without going crazy. When you get back, set your calories at 1,600, but allow yourself an additional 200 - 400 hundred on days that you are really hungry (it only seems to occur infrequently so should not cause an issue for weight loss). Track your weight and see how you do at that level.

Sarauk2sf

Locking so we can keep track of active threads. When you wish for the thread to be unlocked so you can update us or have further questions, please feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel, including a link to this thread and we will unlock it so you can.