Hungry on weightlifting day

You are eating too little I'm guessing. 1200 cals for someone that is 5'10 is low. I'm female, 5'9, 152lbs, lift weights, and lose on at least 1650, not counting exercise.

What are your health goals?

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

kettiecat wrote: »

135 lbs then switch to maintenance or just below and try to drop my body fat below 20%.

1200 is about an 800 calorie deficit for me. I've lost 5lbs in 3 weeks which seems right on target. If I was hungry everyday I'd be more concerned that 1200 + exercise was too low, but it's only weightlifting days.

800 calorie deficit is too aggressive for your weight, in my opinion.

This. You are within 20lbs of goal, so your weightloss goal should be .5-1lb a week. Too aggressive of a goal can cost you lean muscle whether you are weightlifting or not. Most it should be is 250-500 cal deficit a day. So yes, you need to increase your intake whether you're hungry or not. Or eat more on weightlifting days to make up for low intakes on off days.

I agree with others that you should eat more each day. But, if you feel that you don't want to increase your calorie intake on non-workout days, then eat to maintenance or slightly above on workout days and set yourself an aggressive protein goal.

I've been basically on a 2 year recomp. I went from a size 8 to a 2. Aggressively cutting calories isn't a good idea; like someone else said, that's more likely to end with "skinny fat." If you are lifting (with progressive overload), I wouldn't get stuck on the #s. When I lift, I think MFP gives me a 100 calorie burn (that's during the activity), but there's an afterburn that isn't being taken into account; and an eventual increase in muscle will require more calories to sustain it anyway.

I started by eating at a small deficit (generally around 100 calories), worked back-up to TDEE, and started playing around with reverse dieting; I've been able to add about 100-200 calories/day over TDEE. Of course, this was all while heavy lifting with progressive overload. It's a slow process, but I think you would be happier in the long run with a slower recomp.

Don't let people scare you off your plan. I believe your goals are fine, and not to aggressive. Just make sure you maintain your discipline in bringing your body off such a deficit and don't rebound. Look up the principles of reverse dieting, its a great way to come off an aggressive weight loss and not gain much rebound weight.

Also, you could look into two options related to your workout days. Work in a refeed day every once in while, or time your daily meals differently to ensure you don't get too hungry. I'm on an "aggressive" weight loss plan as well right now, and I time 70-80% of my carb intake around my workout time to help with energy and hunger.

Your body telling you its hungry means nothing as long as you can deal with it, and you KNOW you have given it what it needs. You can either suffer through it, or rebalance food intake to minimize it either in timing each day, or considering refeed days.

Binges are not diet induced, but mentally induced. Only she can know if she will binge after an aggressive diet. Its about discipline, and only she knows herself.

If she feels she can do it, then I believe she should be supported and encouraged, not told a binge is likely in her future - because it doesn't have to be. Plenty of people diet aggressively and maintain their discipline in their recomp.

I get the fear, because a lot of people succumb, but then a lot of people don't as well.