Should I keep eating?

The only way to know is to monitor your weight and measurements over time and then re-evaluate. Lifting weights doesn’t burn that many calories purely as a workout, but having muscles and maintaining them does take more calories.

My daily TDEE is roughly 2.200, and I tend to work on a weekly average. I also get v hungry on heavy lifting days but I find my appetite tails off on my rest days. So I might have 2,600 one day and 1800 the next.

For reference, I’m also 161cm and 57.5kg - with a fair amount of muscle. I would personally slowly bulk on 2,400 every day, but on days I just NEED to eat, I do.

What are you actually eating? I find that I want to eat different foodstuffs when I’m in a really heavy lifting stage. So I naturally crave protein rich foods or big bulky carbs like jacket potatoes. If I eat lower volume foods I will stay hungry.

Your snack with the oatmeal and carrots sounds higher in carbs than protein. If you’re ravenous, try swapping for a hard boiled egg, a tin of tuna and some reduced fat mayo (it’s higher in protein) and see what happens to your appetite. If you eat carbs without protein or fat, you might just be experiencing a blood sugar spike then crash. The crash feels like you’re starving.

Other foods to try are milkshakes (watch the sugar content) with a chicken leg or handful of nuts.

You might still consume a lot of calories, but you might find that changing what you eat helps with the hunger. I try and have a protein shake straight after training as that helps with the hunger.

Okay, so I think you just need to monitor weight and measurements for 4-6 weeks and see what happens. The white sugar could be causing a sugar rush then crash but it might not - you might just be an outlier who needs those extra calories.

If after a month or so you’ve put weight on, then you can calculate your actual TDEE and work from that. I don’t know about fibre affecting nutrient absorption but usually people find fibre filling, and it’s v good for gut health. So keep going on that.

You might also find this is a blip and your appetite adjusts over time. Ultimately it will be about finding foods which are filling, meet your nutritional requirements and fuel your workouts. To be honest that is the holy grail and I don’t get it right even after 7+ years of tracking!

eatyourtoast wrote: »

Thank you for replying. It helps me a lot to have someone with similar stats to compare myself to.

2400 kcal is what I've been averaging during the past three weeks. There was a day when I ate 4000 kcal and several ones where I ate over 3000 kcal.

My hunger has been bothering me so much that I had a nightmare about being so hungry that I ate a piece of plastic and had to get X-rayed twice (nonsensical dream).

I visited the doctor because I thought it was abnormal that I was eating such large amounts of food (and also sleeping poorly). My blood work came back fine but I had once again lost weight.

Today I have eaten 2772 kcal and I've been weighing everything I eat.

To be honest, if you're losing weight without wanting to, that's something you should look into with your doctor. Do they know you're continuing to lose weight even though you're not trying to? Most doctors would be quite worried about that.