Fluctuating hunger levels?

mynameiscarrie

I need help!

Whenever I don't workout, I go over my 1200 calories--usually from anywhere between 30-100 calories over.
When I DO workout (5-6 times a week) I can barely eat 1200 calories, much less have a net of 1200.

Does this happen to anyone else?
What can I do?
I'm seriously so full right now and I still need to get in about 300 calories in order to hit 1200 intake calories. I plan on going to bed in the next hour or so and I don't want to be eating too little!

catcrazy

I wouldn't worry too much if youre likely to make them up tomorrow. No point stuffing yourself. If you know you have a workout planned then plan higher calorie foods so you don't run into this problem, if workouts are done as and when then dont worry about carrying over your calories to the next day.

KateCon912

The same thing happens to me! I think maybe on days when you don't exercise you might be getting bored and eating more than you need. That's my thoughts.

And don't be afraid to eat less than 1200 calories every once in a while, you will be fine.

MacMadame

Sometimes working out depresses hungry. There's no reason you can't eat the extra 300 tomorrow when you are hungry and don't happen to be working out.

We don't really have to balance out at the end of each day. Heck, some of our food takes more than 24 hours to digest anyway so it's not even possible. We just need to average whatever our calorie goal is over a 3-4 day period.

Some people even only balance it over a full week but I found 3-4 days works better for me.

Newfiedan

working out is a natural appetite suppressant of sorts, so it is quite normal to not want to eat as much on days you workout, but my advice is to override that and get in a good protein shake with some fruit in it to make up cals post workout. It is not hard to eat 1200 cals net, you just need to plan for those days and spread the cals out over the day so you are not left with a ton of cals post workout. Caloric dense healthy food is easy to find if you know where to look. On days that you are not working out the body is trying to recoup so that is why you usually eat more on those days and that is also quite natural. So my advice is to override the bodies full feeling and feed it on the workout days for proper recovery. Of course protein powders are not required to feed the body but they are convenient which is why I use them to make up for caloric/protein deficiencies on workout days, it is pretty easy to make a 500+ cal protein smoothie with some skim milk, protein powder and fruit.