Ridiculous hunger?
kgeyser
Posts: 22,505 Member
Hi. I am hungry. Very, very hungry. I'm not pregnant. I'm not a place in my cycle where hormone fluctuations would make me hungry. I'm getting plenty of protein and my calorie goal (which I have been doing a bang-up job of exceeding lately, tyvm) is in line with all the calculators. But I have been ravenous the last week or so - this is week 6 of the program for me. I'm also starting to fail on most of my lifts, so things are heavy.
Is this normal? Did anyone else go through this? Please help before small children and neighborhood pets start disappearing into my gaping maw. :frown:
Is this normal? Did anyone else go through this? Please help before small children and neighborhood pets start disappearing into my gaping maw. :frown:
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Replies
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I would like to know too! I'm at week 8 and for the past week or so and I've been ravenous too!!! Except I haven't starting failing on any of my lifts yet. Last week I think I went over on calories almost every day!0
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I've been doing this program for about a year (although anyone lifting for awhile will be similar), but you really have to decide on your goals at some point or another. I LOVE lifting. I've gained so much strength. BUT I realized that I can't go hard at the weights and still try and lose weight. So I changed the program to work for me after I met my bodyweight deadlift goal while eating around maintenance in the spring. I know only lift twice a week and make sure to rest plenty between sets because cutting makes me so much more weaker when lifting. I'm still lifting and upping my weights (I do 3x5 and up the weights every couple weeks), but I'm losing weight, which is my ultimate goal right now.
last winter I played around with meal timing with when I lifted (mornings before work) and that seemed to help a lot. I would lift on an empty stomach, have a piece of toast with peanut butter when I got home, then took a protein shake with me to drink at work and that helped. But the above is what I've experience.
ETA: you can also try making your deficit smaller so you can eat more but still lose weight (although much slower).. For me, this didn't work because I tend to eat right up to my goal and usually a little above it so that would just erase my deficit...even a year in I'm still learning how lifting fits in with losing weight.0 -
Please help before small children and neighborhood pets start disappearing into my gaping maw. :frown:
yeah, we can't have that. you need to leave some for the rest of us too.
i'm the same way. my calorie-intake record over the past couple of months has looked like a roller coaster. deadlift days in particular . . . they just turn me into a one-man zombie apocalypse. i live a mile from the gym and i can come straight home and clean out the whole fridge.
i'm trying to try out mark rippetoe's claim that you can keep making (i assume modest) strength gains from a deficit if you emphasize getting your calories from carbs on the days when you lift, and go for protein on the days you're resting. it's hard to tell if it's had any effect because i'm not lifting very consistently atm. but i thiiiiiink it's helped a little to level me out.0 -
I am always hungry.
Always.
Hungry.
If you were to think, hm, I wonder if Michelle is hungry? The answer is yes. Even if I have just eaten.0 -
I am always hungry.
Always.
Hungry.
If you were to think, hm, I wonder if Michelle is hungry? The answer is yes. Even if I have just eaten.
^^ this is me haha!
I started to get a similar feeling a couple of weeks ago. I ignored it. I put it off. I kept at my deficit, I was failing on lifts, I was really hungry most of the time whilst hitting all my macros really well. Then I dropped form during a squat and tweeked my back. I took a week off as a rest week, ate at maintenance and then came back at a slightly de-loaded weight and I've been really enjoying it more since. I also don't feel as hungry now and I feel like I'm stronger. Its weird! Maybe you need a longer period of rest? or more calories?0 -
I am always hungry.
Always.
Hungry.
If you were to think, hm, I wonder if Michelle is hungry? The answer is yes. Even if I have just eaten.
^^ this is me haha!
I am also always hungry. Well...more that I could always eat more. I used to have an issue with binge eating. Like real binge eating where I couldn't stop myself and would eat 4k calories worth of whatever. I would physically hurt, but keep eating. Not to make light of binging, but I'm pretty sure I could eat that much now and not even be uncomfortable. One day after deadlifts we ate dinner my bf's parents. I had 8 ounces of filet, fresh cut french fries, and 6 ears of corn. I felt fine, and my bf teased me for wanting ice cream.0 -
I am feeling a lot better with eating at maintenance the last 2 weeks. I have the strength to do heavy and add weights every other lift (even getting DOMS all over again). Not grumpy all the time. With lifting you can't lose weight as fast as without. I have come to terms with the scale, I broke up with it and kicked it out of the house. :laugh: I will let it back in after awhile. I would add 100 or 200 calories to see if that helps you.0
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Constant hunger? Yeah, that's me! Well, mine's a little intermittent; the worse the DOMS is, the hungrier I am. I'm doing 5/3/1 and the third week of the cycle is the heaviest weights and for me, the hungriest time! I have no good advice on how to conquer it, though. I'm doing a diet break and eating at maintenance for right now.0
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Please help before small children and neighborhood pets start disappearing into my gaping maw. :frown:
yeah, we can't have that. you need to leave some for the rest of us too.
Indeed. Don't be greedy with the small children and pets.
I am also ravenously hungry. I combat it by setting my calorie goal lower, and forgiving myself if I go over by 100-200. I am at goal weight, so am okay with not losing, I just don't want to gain a lot of unnecessary fat. It's basically a mind game for me. I set my deficit at 1 lb per week, but usually end up at 1/2 lb or maintenance. It makes my mind think I've over ate, when I really haven't.0 -
I eat a lot, especially the morning after deadlift day. The bad news is I need to do a lot of LISS to keep at or below maintenance and I get made fun of at work for the 4 giant containers of food I bring into the office. The good news is I tend to not be hungry (because I am always eating.)
I also found that if I kept a bunch of carbs for 2 hours before I lift and right after things go better. For example I had 2 Spaghetti wraps for dinner at 530 , lifted just after 7 them nomed 2 pieces of toast with Nutella and a Greek yogurt. That should help me not wake up starving and I had the energy to get through my workout.0 -
Wait just a minute...what are pets and children for, if not to nom on? I keep a constant supply of cats for reasons other than company when I'm old and alone.0
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Wait just a minute...what are pets and children for, if not to nom on?
i had this chat conversation once with a dieting friend . . .
her: it's bring-your-kid-to-work day.
me: yay?
her: coworker's kid is eating all my healthy snacks that i brought to keep me out of the vending machine!!
me: well, that's not cool
her: :mad: if she keeps it up then i'm gonna eat HER.
me: sounds fair. how many calories in a small child?
her: h'mmm . . . say 500 per pound, about a hundred-pound kid . . . nah. over my limit today.
me: not if she makes you chase her.
her: :drinker: true!0 -
I have a meal with min 25g of protein every 3 hours, that's how I keep on top of it, in-between chew gum :bigsmile:
no small children around lol0 -
Ugh, my hungry goes in spurts as well. I've had days where I'll eat a 400-500 calorie lunch full of protein, carbs, and fat and then be ravenous an hour later. It was like the big meal just made me hungrier when I wasn't starving before the meal.
For me sometimes it just takes sucking up the extra calories for a few days or playing the mental battle of telling myself that I have eaten more than enough food and that it can take what it needs from the fat around my stomach.0 -
Yes it's normal as you can see...and yes as the weights get heavier and you are still in a deficit you will start to fail...and as mentioned that's when you start asking yourself...what do I want...to lose weight or gain strength...
I chose losing the weight and stayed in my deficit.
I am almost eating maitenance everyday...and today is a very hungry day...gonna go home and eat some foodz that is for sure...but I lifted on Sat, did a tonne of cardio (paintball) on Sunday, lifted yesterday and went for a walk...
I often will just look at weekly numbers and always have...as there are days that I am not that hungry (typically sunday) and can get away with a few hundred less...0 -
The game Hungry Hungry Hippos is actually a documentary about my life.0
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haha loving this thread . . . thanks for the lolz
like someone else mentioned, my hunger comes and goes. Not sure if it has to do w/ the intensity of a workout or what. I should start tracking that to see . . . anyway I usually just go with it. If I have lifted that day, I am always ok eating 1-200 cals more than maintenance. I usually make up for it on rest days anyway . . . usually. Some rest days I'm starving, too. On lifting days I'll usually eat a 3-400 breakfast before my morning workout. About 3 hours after eating that meal I typically get really hungry and usually have a 4-500 cal meal--it's the amount of calories that usually satiates me--usually a pb & j or pb & banana sandwich with a protein shake. I'm usually ok after that and tend to eat less later on in the day.0 -
This was me at dinner yesterday. I hit my calorie limit and I was hungry. SO walked in with fast food burritos and I chowed down on half of one before I felt satisfied enough to stop. Sadly, I could have eaten more. I was thinking "there goes my nice deficit".0
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I find that there is no longer a happy medium of "I might be hungry" or "I'm getting hungry." I'm either content or starving! Just an hour ago I thought," I may not need a mid morning snack"-- which made me happy because I like when I can save calories for later and have a huge meal... but only 30 minutes later, hunger hit like a ton of bricks and I was like "Where'z the FOODZ?!?!!"0
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Just reading this post has got me craving small children and cats.... Best breakfast ever!
I tend to think that if you're truly, actually hungry, you should eat something. That's your body telling you it needs nutrients. As long as you choose something that will satisfy you for more than an hour (= not Cheez-its *sigh*), then have a small portion and see if it helps. Experiment until you figure out what works and doesn't.
I'm still pretty new around here, so thanks for opening my eyes to what I have to look forward to. Makes me think keeping my lifting sessions at night is the way to go. I eat something when I get home and hit the hay. Of course, also wake up super hungry in the morning --
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First of all, thank you all for your replies and I'm glad I'm not the only one who is always hungry. :drinker:
Seconds after I posted this, I realized that I had just typed "I'm on my sixth week…." and that I hadn't taken a recovery week or a deload in six weeks. No wonder I was freaking hungry and feeling crappy on my lifts. And as a few of you pointed out, it was that dreaded point where you have to decide between improving the lift and fat loss, I just didn't expect it to happen so soon.
So I have decided to deload to where my lifts are somewhat challenging and work back up again, adding additional reps or sets to keep progressing between weight increases - I want to say Stef mentioned that in another thread as a suggestion. I have a feeling I am going to be doing that quite a bit until I hit maintenance, I'm just hoping I can progress a little further each time before deloading again.0 -
I'm also just crazy hungry this week. I decided to try to eat at maintenance and I gained 5 pounds in one week! I was just one pound from my goal weight going into the week <tear>. I know this is water, glyogen, etc. and also probably TOM-related, but it's driving me kind of nuts. And I'm still *really* hungry. I've been dong SL for 9 weeks now and I had to deload to work on form a couple of weeks ago, but I'm really enjoying it and working my way back up in terms of weight. I'm hoping not to gain too much, though. I'm afraid this hunger is going to be the end of me... Anyway, I'm 43, 5'7" 131 lbs (as of today, last Friday I was 126). Current lifts: squats 85 lbs, OHP 50 lbs, bench 70 lbs, deadlift 115 lbs. My plan for the weekend is to take my kids to visit my mother, eat when I'm hungry and make sure to get enough protein, and keep up with my running (will probably do two 45 minute runs and some bodyweight exercises -- won't have access to a gym there). If anyone has some words of moral support or any suggestions of things I need to change, I'd appreciate it!0
