Why are my muscles smaller?

jackielou867

Have you ever wondered why you often get hungry a few hours after what seemed to be a large meal? Maybe you get a cookie craving 3 hours after a large pasta dinner? Well there's a very good reason for that. It has to do with how the body processes carbohydrates and it's related to one of the body's most important hormones - Insulin.

"When we eat a carbohydrate rich meal, blood sugar levels increase as the carbohydrates are broken down into their base molecules - sugar. As blood sugar levels increase, insulin is released in response. Insulin is a hormone which moves glucose (sugar) from the blood into the muscles and fat cells for storage.
insulin reacts to an increase in blood glucose levels. After the ingestion of a carbohydrate rich meal, blood glucose levels increase rapidly. Once the body detects these elevated blood glucose levels it releases insulin.
blood glucose levels peak and then fall off and insulin does the same, however insulin levels peak later than blood glucose. Once blood glucose levels reach normal again, you can see that it takes insulin a little bit longer to reach normal again. It is this lag time in normalization of insulin levels which gives us those sugar cravings after carbohydrate rich meals. This is because blood sugar levels are normal but we still have insulin present in the blood and that insulin needs something to do - without sugar to store it gets bored! So it has the effect of asking the body for more sugar. That's why we get hungry even though we just ate a few hours ago.
So what can we do to eliminate or at least reduce these hunger cravings? We have to learn how to control the insulin response to some degree. If we can decrease the amount of sugar we dump into our blood, thereby decreasing the size of the peak in blood glucose levels, the insulin response will decrease accordingly. By levelling off the peaks and valleys in insulin during the day you'll be able to exit that 'hunger rollercoaster' that plagues millions.
There are a couple of ways we can do this, some of which are detailed in other sections of this website so I'll just touch briefly on them. The first way is to choose your carbohydrates wisely - see Good Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins. Another good plan is to try to include carbohydrates, fats and protein in every meal and snack throughout the day. Fat and protein will slow down the release of insulin. Also, carbohydrates that have a higher fibre content do not cause as large an insulin response as those which contain less fibre."

Copy pasted all that. But its true, I had a 2 day binge over Christmas and it took me 2 weeks to stop feeling hungry. I also went through the whole I need to bulk, oh no I need to cut thing for several months. Currently lifting heavy ( for me heavy) on maintenance and seem to be doing OK. I put on a little weight, mostly on holiday sadly. I am feeling a bit fluffy now but I am going to stick with it , maybe increase calories a little over. I think true results are only going to happen with some long term commitment. If you binge, then drop calories too much you will inevitably suffer some muscle loss. The trick is a very slow cut, to minimise muscle loss as you lose fat. Or so I read, am going to try this year to put it into practise, but not for another couple of months.

You say you get hungry 2-3 hours after eating. Have you considered eating every 2-3 hours. I do, smaller more regular meals seem to work for me. Even just a milky coffee will help me if I am starting to feel peckish.

Low carb may be fine for some people, but I think if you are working out, you need enough carbs, it is counter productive to do a big workout then not refuel your body. It just doesn't have to be sugar cake bread and ice cream.
Not that I am an expert, I am still learning. I google a lot of stuff, and a lot of information is conflicting. In the end you have to figure out what is best for you. I am still working on it but I feel things are starting to fall into place. It has taken me a year though!