VERY Hungry After Lift Days

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IndyInk
IndyInk Posts: 212
in Food and Nutrition
I always take a recovery day after lifting weights.

I eat back exercise calories on days I lift. On recovery days (non-exercise days), I eat 1580 calories.

The problem: I'm miserably, RAVENOUSLY hungry all day after I lift. (I only have 114 calories left for today and my stomach is growling. I've been so hungry that I've eaten a lot of junk food, but this happens even if I eat healthy.)

Thoughts? Advice? Apologies if this topic was previously posted.

Replies

  • nickyrobinson
    nickyrobinson Posts: 161 Member
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    Have you thought about eating the extra calories not on your lift days, but on your off-day following? It's a little more annoying to track, since you have to remember "oh today, I get to go 350 over because yesterday I was 350 under from the exercise".
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    You probably need to eat more, protein specifically. When you weight lift heavy, or to overload, or however you want to describe it you're creating small tears in your muscle. Your body then uses amino acids (from protein) to patch over those tears and subsequently the muscle gets bigger because you've added those extra amino acids. Healing of any kind uses calories, and muscle repair needs calories and specifically amino acids to repair the muscle. It is why resting in between lifting is so important. Your muscle doesn't build while you lift, it builds while you repair afterwards.

    For that reason, you probably need to eat more on days after you've lifted than you currently are. Listen to your body. :)
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
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    I eat my face off the day after lifting...I make sure I eat lots of fish, nuts, veggies and fruit. If I don't, I binge on crap and that's totally counterproductive lol I don't really worry about going 100-300 calories over on non-lift days either, as long as I go over with clean food, not crap. It's tough, but you'll get the jist of it.
  • IndyInk
    IndyInk Posts: 212
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    Thanks for the advice, guys. After one user wrote on my wall, I spent some time recalculating my TDEE and BMR, and as it turned out, all previous settings were for a sedentary lifestyle. (I sit at a computer four days week.) I'm working out about four days a week from 30 minutes to an hour at a time. Bumping up to "Active" added another 300 calories, which is wonderful.

    I will try all of your suggestions: eating clean definitely, incorporating even more protein, and splitting my extra exercise calories between workout day and rest day.

    Thanks for your help!
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
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    After I started lifting, i bumped my calories up 300 from what MFP had me set at...it's still 300 calories lower than what New Rules of Lifting suggested, but so far I'm doing ok. If I stop losing I'll bump up my calories again to see if that works. It's hard to get use to eating more at first, but after awhile it becomes normal routine.
  • aproc
    aproc Posts: 1,033 Member
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    You should probably eat more on rest days. Muscles are still recovering and building while you are resting so it is still important to FEED them. I don't switch up my calorie intake based on work and rest days. I eat the same lifting days and resting days. Especially if it's a rest day before a major muscle group day. If you don't have that surplus, you won't build anything. ;P

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