When eating becomes a chore…

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claireychn074
claireychn074 Posts: 1,338 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Firstly, I know that for many people being able to eat lots of calories would be the dream. But sometimes I get fed up of having to eat. I had a decent brekkie and snack this am but had to stop my workout halfway through as I just gassed out. I’ve now inhaled about 850 calories and I’ll have to digest before finishing my workout this afternoon (I’m in a heavy volume stage of my training cycle).

Sometimes I’d like to just be able to store calories and not have to eat so much so often (whinge over).

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    If you don't mind me saying but that sounds like an odd disparity between intake and what you could be burning during your training (olympic lifts if I recall correctly?).

    As you of course know you do store calories very effectively (fat and glycogen) and you should really have enough onboard to see you through hours of training. I wonder if you have thought about fuelling like other long duration exercisers and keep topping up your carbs little and often.
    e.g. a sports energy drink, energy bars or even that old favourite - banana.

    I'm pushing my fatigue/recovery limits (in a very different sport) at the moment and I'm getting gassed during the higher intensity parts of my training but that's really fatigue and not fuelling.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,338 Member
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    @sijomial thanks - and yes I defo don’t burn that many calories in one session (although I do seem to need more calories than most people my age and size).

    Without going into huge detail, I do have blood sugar issues following adrenal cancer, but over the last 6 months I’m finding I run out of energy if I train mid morning ie if I can have my usual breakfast, 2nd breakfast, snack then lunch, I can go all afternoon and train for 2-3 hours. If I “only” have breakfast and a snack then I just can’t finish the session. I do usually refuel halfway through with sports drink / dried apricots or jelly babies, but I just don’t know what’s changed in the last few months. There are issues re the previous cancer and I’m undergoing more endocrine tests but I really, really hope it’s not that.

    I’ve experimented with different breakfasts to try protein or fat heavy vs carbs, but it feels like I need to eat a tonne of food in order to get through a heavy seas.

    What are your thoughts?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    First thought - "second breakfast" makes me think big hairy feet! :D:D:D

    Second though - hugs.

    Third thought - Some nice carby snacks in there.
    For extended (or high performance) sessions I tend to load up the slower release carbs from my meals (porridge or granola mostly) but then keep up a steady intake of quicker energy simple carbs (sipping sports drink mix mostly, glucose and fructose) throughout the session.

    The other thing you could experiment with is a bit of a deload / recovery spell perhaps?
    I've been on a steady three month ramp up from a fitness low point (illness and winter reduced training volume) and was fine until recently despite no sudden jumps in training load. My ancient body is now telling me quite clearly I need a bit of a recovery break, did an 80 sec sprint today and although I hit a PR my legs also never recovered, reasonably high fitness but also high fatigue.

    Hope you find a good solution, you are one of the inspirational characters on here.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,338 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    First thought - "second breakfast" makes me think big hairy feet! :D:D:D

    Second though - hugs.


    Hope you find a good solution, you are one of the inspirational characters on here.

    Ahh shucks ☺️ And yes, my OH keeps on checking to see how hairy my feet are!

    I have wondered if it’s age related, and that would be really annoying. I do have regular deloads; I am pushing v hard just at the moment as I have a comp in 4 weeks so I’ve got three weeks heavy volume then deload for a week. It might just be that I need to rethink the breakfast volume to try to eat more at that point.

    In my martial arts days I could exist on carbs or whatever I fancied - sadly a Cadbury Mini Roll just is no longer enough.
  • LaBellaHarris
    LaBellaHarris Posts: 63 Member
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    I'm not a bodybuilder or on a bulky diet, and I still think eating is a chore sometimes🤷🏻‍♀️ My dad's the same, so I think it's something I got from him. Sometimes we just "forget" to eat or can't be bothered to. Skipping meals doesn't necessarily mean I'll get hungry, and often, even if I do get hungry, it's more like that a bored-hunger? So ignoring it for a little bit will make it go away entirely. My dad has been underweight his entire life, and he used to joke that he's been trying to put on 15lbs for 40yrs. Honestly, some meals I eat purely because I'm stubborn and don't want to be like him in my old age: a skeleton with bad teeth.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,147 Member
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    claireychn074 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    First thought - "second breakfast" makes me think big hairy feet! :D:D:D

    Second though - hugs.


    Hope you find a good solution, you are one of the inspirational characters on here.

    Ahh shucks ☺️ And yes, my OH keeps on checking to see how hairy my feet are!

    I have wondered if it’s age related, and that would be really annoying. I do have regular deloads; I am pushing v hard just at the moment as I have a comp in 4 weeks so I’ve got three weeks heavy volume then deload for a week. It might just be that I need to rethink the breakfast volume to try to eat more at that point.

    In my martial arts days I could exist on carbs or whatever I fancied - sadly a Cadbury Mini Roll just is no longer enough.

    I don't know if it's age related. Also, people talk a lot of what I personally think is cr*p about the effects of age, what we can do, can't do, shouldn't do, blah blah blah.

    I don't see most of the changes in myself (yet, at 66) that some people say "happen when you get old". OK, well, maybe curmugeonly-ness increase.

    Really, the only thing I do notice is just that small difference, gradually, in resilience. I used to get away with a lot of slap-dash stuff that probably was never smart, but it comes home to roost a bit more now. It's not big drama, not saying that. But I do better if I'm a little more wily nowadays about any and all aspects of stress and recovery. Fueling is a part of that.

    I'm not a lifter like you - I admire what you do. I do find, though, that there are cases where a small, well-timed snack seems to make a tiny but observable difference in energy level and after-exercise recovery.

    For example, when I was doing back to back spin and kettlebell classes at my Y for a while, a small carb-y snack in between (just a small no-sugar applesauce packet, usually -70 calories) really felt like it helped my energy level in the kettlebell class (placebo effect? could be. don't care.). Something like one of those shelf-stable kid-sized chocolate milk cartons afterward seemed to help with muscle recovery, make the next classes go better (they were both Tu & Th, about 10" apart on those days, so there was 48 hours between repeats) .

    Aging? Imagination? Dunno.

    YMMV.

    P.S. Sadly, I can always eat more, up to around twice TDEE, anyway. It's just not a great idea.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Don't think it's age, then again as an old fart I would say that!

    My exercise capacity is probably higher than ever (biggest month last year was 62 hours of cycling plus strength training). I do need to think more about recovery more than I used to and am probably more sensible than the younger me (I wasn't at all kind to my body with my choice of sports and ignoring multiple injuries).

    When I hit a sudden fitness issue last year at what should have been a fitness peak after a well planned and faithfully executed training plan it felt like a virus and knocked me back for three months. One thing I do these days is monitoring my resting pulse as a check on general (as opposed to muscle) stress/fatigue.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,338 Member
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    Nailed it! Had a cooked breakfast, a slab of flapjack, a protein bar, mug of coffee, mug of tea and a load of water and I was able to do the whole workout yayy! So I basically just need to eat as much as possible before and I’m good to go - competition here I come 😀
  • Firecrafter209
    Firecrafter209 Posts: 2 Member
    edited April 2022
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    This is something I'm still getting used to as well. I recently started a bulk and it is a lot harder for me that I would have though. I actually haven't had good luck with seeing any weight gain either. I'll tell you what though, I don't get a lot of sympathy from people when they hear I have to eat over 3k calories a day just to maintain weight...
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,338 Member
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    Got the totals I needed so British Masters in 2022 here I come! 😀 (food still not fully sorted as I existed on sugar all day but I’ve got time now to get it right)
  • SuzanneC1l9zz
    SuzanneC1l9zz Posts: 451 Member
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    Congrats!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,147 Member
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    Congratulations on reaping the fruits of your steady, hard work! On to the next challenge, yay!

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