How to deal with exercise hunger?
SarahStarr86
Posts: 121 Member
Hello everyone!! I have been on this site for years now but only in the last 3-4 months have I had success. I learned that my eating was number 1. In the past I would go over my calories consistently but try to exercise those extra calories away and it wasn't really cutting it. I was yo-yo-ing for the longest before I started getting on the forums here and really learned that I had to be tight and accurate with my logging. After doing that, I have been successful in losing 20lbs. Thing is, I lost that all with minimal exercise...not purposefully but I was just really busy. Fast forward to now, I still have 30 lbs to lose and just really started back exercising and WHOA!! I'm absolutely starving, like ravenously hungry. I have been doing Insanity Max 30 but was thinking that I may just need to do some less intense exercise to help with the hunger. I also was looking at starting a running program and to do that instead. The program I was looking at is only 3-4 days a week. I love exercising for my mental health and physical health but I literally have gone over my calories almost everyday this week because of how hungry I've been. I'm almost to the point where I don't know if exercise is worth right now if I can't get myself under control. Does anyone have tips or suggestions? Thanks!
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Replies
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I don't know when you exercise, but I do mine before I eat dinner if I can. Even if I'm super hungry, I exercise first. That way, I eat the same amount. I don't know if that helps or not. I do feel your hunger pains though!1
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What's your current weekly caloric intake?
What's your goal weight?
When are you doing insanity?0 -
Dan_Rollins_ACE_PN wrote: »What's your current weekly caloric intake?
What's your goal weight?
When are you doing insanity?
Hi! My daily calories are at 1340 (1 lb a week setting). My goal weight is 135, I'm 5'3. I do Insanity most days in the morning at around 10 AM. If I can't fit it in at 10AM, I will do it in the evenings around 6PM. In a perfect world, I would like to get up and get it done at 6:30 but I just haven't made the commitment.0 -
LegallyBrunette1 wrote: »I don't know when you exercise, but I do mine before I eat dinner if I can. Even if I'm super hungry, I exercise first. That way, I eat the same amount. I don't know if that helps or not. I do feel your hunger pains though!
Hmmm, never thought of it that way. I hate exercising hungry though and here lately I've been counting down the minutes until dinner haha! Do you find that exercising beforehand reduces your dinner appetite?
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Do you sit most days at work?
Are you generally sedentary besides insanity?
Here's basic numbers to maintain 135lbs
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1705
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1954
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2203
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2451
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2700
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Maybe you set your calorie goal a bit higher and lose more slowly? I think the exercise is good; it becomes quite helpful for maintaining weight loss.
But, I think we can all relate.1 -
Save some calories for after you exercise, and have a protein bar, protein shake, or a hard boiled egg.1
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Thank you everyone! So hunger is normal and expected? Gotcha! It just threw me for a loop
I was used to eating at meal times with no problems and then BAM, I'm constantly checking the clock for my next meal time. It definitely caught me off guard, haha!
@vingogly I will up my protein too, that may help. Thanks!
@Dan_Rollins_ACE_PN Does that mean I can eat up to 1705? I've never looked at my goal weight calories before. Hmm, that's interesting. Yes, I work from home at a desk for most of the work day. I do take my children outside for bike rides and walks more so here recently because the weather in GA has been nice in the afternoons. But other than that, I would consider myself sedentary. That's what I have my MFP set to.
@GiddyupTim Yes, I would definitely like to continue, I just didn't want to ruin the work I've done so far. My body composition also looks better too when I'm working out. But now seeing that it's not just me feeling hungry makes me feel a bit better.
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Are you eating back your exercise calories (or half)? It might just be that you're not eating enough i.e. that your deficit is too aggressive/you're trying to lose too quickly. How's your intake of protein?1
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SarahStarr86 wrote: »LegallyBrunette1 wrote: »I don't know when you exercise, but I do mine before I eat dinner if I can. Even if I'm super hungry, I exercise first. That way, I eat the same amount. I don't know if that helps or not. I do feel your hunger pains though!
Hmmm, never thought of it that way. I hate exercising hungry though and here lately I've been counting down the minutes until dinner haha! Do you find that exercising beforehand reduces your dinner appetite?
Maybe I'm weird, but if I'm hungry when I start exercising, the hunger is usually gone by the time I finish.3 -
Are you eating back your exercise calories (or half)? It might just be that you're not eating enough i.e. that your deficit is too aggressive/you're trying to lose too quickly. How's your intake of protein?
Hmm, yes, good question. My polar strap has been acting a little wonky, I need to order another one. So I've just been using my Apple Watch but I don't really know how accurate it is so I was only trying to eat an extra 100 calories or so. When I had my polar, my burn would be anywhere between 300-450 for the 30 minutes. And that's been probably what I've been I've been going over in my daily calorie allotment. I'm just so used to losing with my 1300 that it makes me a tad bit nervous to jump to 1600-1700 calories but I definitely get what you're saying there. And yeah, my protein is pretty weak. I will definitely pay more attention to that.
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SarahStarr86 wrote: »Thank you everyone! So hunger is normal and expected? Gotcha! It just threw me for a loop I was used to eating at meal times with no problems and then BAM, I'm constantly checking the clock for my next meal time. It definitely caught me off guard, haha!
@vingogly I will up my protein too, that may help. Thanks!
@Dan_Rollins_ACE_PN Does that mean I can eat up to 1705? I've never looked at my goal weight calories before. Hmm, that's interesting. Yes, I work from home at a desk for most of the work day. I do take my children outside for bike rides and walks more so here recently because the weather in GA has been nice in the afternoons. But other than that, I would consider myself sedentary. That's what I have my MFP set to.
@GiddyupTim Yes, I would definitely like to continue, I just didn't want to ruin the work I've done so far. My body composition also looks better too when I'm working out. But now seeing that it's not just me feeling hungry makes me feel a bit better.
I wouldn't suggest starting at 1700+ immediately.
Slowly add 50kcal a week till you hit that goal.
Managing NEAT is one of the best ways to lose weight. Walking, playing with the kids, getting up during commercials...Just moving more.
Usually if eating too little the body will down regulate Neat to conserve energy, then upregulate ghrelin to make you hungry.0 -
SarahStarr86 wrote: »Dan_Rollins_ACE_PN wrote: »What's your current weekly caloric intake?
What's your goal weight?
When are you doing insanity?
Hi! My daily calories are at 1340 (1 lb a week setting). My goal weight is 135, I'm 5'3. I do Insanity most days in the morning at around 10 AM. If I can't fit it in at 10AM, I will do it in the evenings around 6PM. In a perfect world, I would like to get up and get it done at 6:30 but I just haven't made the commitment.
So you and I have the same height and goal weight and pretty similar current weight (if I'm calculating losing 30 lbs from the goal weight you have here). I have my weekly deficit set at 0.5lbs instead of 1lb because I found I was too hungry when I set to 1lb - when I was heavier I could handle a 500 calorie deficit, but now that I'm running more and at a lower weight it was better for me to have a 250 calorie deficit. I'm losing more slowly, but I'm overeating less, so in the end it's actually faster since I'm not having days that I eat so much I negate days when I ate less.
Also, I look more at my deficit on a weekly scale - mostly because I find I'm more hungry the day after I run rather than the day I run. So I'm usually under on my run days and over the day after but it averages out to 0.5lb/week when I look at it on a weekly basis.1 -
Most exercise estimates go way over what is actually done (because intensity varies), but it's generally a safe bet to eat back 25-50% of those calories. It's okay to eat back those calories as MFP gives you a safe deficit before exercise. I'll also agree with @ACSL3 , if you have a hard time (always hungry, going over calories by a bit), bump back your loss a bit. It's slower, but more easily sustainable so you don't end up getting crazy and eating a lot one day because you just get tired of being hungry.0
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Some people say that if you eat while you exercise that you are less likely to eat too much after you exercise. 30 - 60 grams of carbs per hour while you are exercising should do the trick. You'll actually burn more calories than that, but your body can't process more than that.0
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Are you eating back your exercise calories (or half)? It might just be that you're not eating enough i.e. that your deficit is too aggressive/you're trying to lose too quickly. How's your intake of protein?
I second this. Never mind all the complicated details about meal timing, If you're persistently hungry the first question should be "am I eating enough?"1 -
Thank you everyone sooo much!!! Happy to have some new tips and suggestions 0
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SarahStarr86 wrote: »Thank you everyone! So hunger is normal and expected? Gotcha! It just threw me for a loop I was used to eating at meal times with no problems and then BAM, I'm constantly checking the clock for my next meal time. It definitely caught me off guard, haha!
@vingogly I will up my protein too, that may help. Thanks!
@Dan_Rollins_ACE_PN Does that mean I can eat up to 1705? I've never looked at my goal weight calories before. Hmm, that's interesting. Yes, I work from home at a desk for most of the work day. I do take my children outside for bike rides and walks more so here recently because the weather in GA has been nice in the afternoons. But other than that, I would consider myself sedentary. That's what I have my MFP set to.
@GiddyupTim Yes, I would definitely like to continue, I just didn't want to ruin the work I've done so far. My body composition also looks better too when I'm working out. But now seeing that it's not just me feeling hungry makes me feel a bit better.
Of course...you're expending energy...your MFP calorie target is your deficit before exercise...you account for exercise by logging it an getting calories to "eat back" to fuel activity that is unaccounted for in your activity level.0
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