Have been consistently losing weight over the last two years or so - down from 105-107 to around 73kg, but over the past two/three months have tried to be as strict as possible on the whole food/gluten free thing. I have also severely restricted red meat to kangaroo maybe once/twice a week.
Find that I am consistently hungry - like, feel like you can’t get enough in. The day after long or particulary intense rides, I feel like I am hungry consistently. Not the crazy starving you get when you get in after maybe not refuelling enough - more like a slow burn that just seems to melt food away.
Anyone have an issue with this? I note that I was stable for a long time between 78-82kg, and since changing the diet have leaned out considerably.
Would appreciate any thoughts. Am 187cm, if that’s relevant!
Me too. Always hungry always eating… when I’m training. I go weeks without weighing myself and think there no way I’m still lean with all this food. And yet the scale always says the same thing. When I’m training.
Not so when I’m injured or when I take a break over the winter. Then I gain weight easily unless I’m careful with food.
The trick is to eat calorie dense food while training. Nuts. Nut butters. Chocolate. Protein bars (GF raw ones with pea or soy protein… not all protein bars are created equal.) That does the job for me. Eating like that in between my three normal meals. Or else, the normal breakfast foods and home cooked meals are not enough. There just aren’t enough calories in fruits and veggies.
Hunger is your friend. I eat breakfast - fruit and waffles at 7:30am, lunch - beans and vegies at 4:00pm. And then I snack - peanutbutter and crackers and hummus and chips all evening. And lots of milk.
I have definitely started trying to include a fair bit of avo in my diet, but limit oils to cooking (in very small amounts) and tend to stick to eggs whites.
I find nuts a bit scary - I tend to be an ‘eat one, eat 50’ kind of guy with almost every nut. I love almonds and walnuts, so treat them like my ‘reward’ food when I am wandering around the shops or something.
Are you getting enough fat? Fat helps with satiety. As others have suggested, nuts, nut butters. xvoo, avocados, hummus, seeds are all good options.
This
Eat more fat. Chicken is the most overrated crap. I can eat 1.5lbs of Chicken and be hungry the next morning shortly after waking up but if I eat 1 lbs of grass fed beef I am good till 11:30 when I generally eat my first meal. Part of it is lack of calories, the other part is that Beef has way more vitamins and minerals than Chicken. Quit eating egg whites. Eat the whole egg. I’m assuming that you are only eating the whites due to Cholesterol. Don’t worry about Cholesterol. Most of what you hear about it is a lie. Many V&Ms are fat soluble so you need fat to actually absorb them. Quick rant and a bit disjointed but if you eat good real food (meat, veggies, fruits, nuts, tubers) you will not be as hungry.
Healthy fats are $$$. No real science to it - eat a balanced meal, just more. Count calories and plan your diets. Increase your veggie intake and water intake to keep you full. Lots of water, all day long.
Healthy fats are $$$. No real science to it - eat a balanced meal, just more. Count calories and plan your diets. Increase your veggie intake and water intake to keep you full. Lots of water, all day long.
Sorry, does this mean healthy fats are “money” (as in, the way to go) or healthy fats are expensive?
I guess it doesn’t matter, as the answer to both is yes.
They are expensive, but they are also critical, and it doesn’t sound like the OP is getting enough.
OP, don’t be afraid of fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Overeating calories makes you fat. Really, as another poster suggested, grass fed ground beef or kangaroo is great, whole eggs, healthy fats. Don’t use your xvoo so sparingly. Use it. Enjoy it. Try what we’re suggesting for a few weeks. See if you feel better and see how the scale responds. A few weeks isn’t going to blow you no matter what.
FWIW, I don’t think saturated fats are particularly evil, unless you have a family history that indicates you should restrict them.
Oh man - now you have done it… “THOSE CRUEL AUSTRALIANS!!!”
Skippy S’ghetti is a regular in my kitchen - makes the best bolognese sauce without a doubt…
I graze a lot (like a kangaroo) and have food stashed everywhere - my desk at work could probably sustain me for a month. I find the higher my training load, the harder I find it to get big meals in, but I’m still hungry so I just eat constantly. I also try and ram it in on rest days when my appetite seems to recover a bit.
I can’t say I’m a fan of the no gluten thing, but I don’t have any intolerance - I make a loaf of sourdough every few days, keep the treat tin well stocked and can get quite scary if a cake shows up at work. Elbows out and get out of my way…
Luckily I’ve got more of an issue keeping it on than getting it off, so possibly fighting a different battle to you. Unless there’s cake. I’ll fight everyone…
I have learned that hunger is as much a mental as a physical thing. An example: I can have a healthy, varied, large lunch and then I pass by a stand with nuts or cake or energy bar or … or… - and I just have to eat a bit. Also, it seems like my mind, when I am training, is constantly sending a signal to me about that I should eat.
I think that what is happening is that the mind and body together is doing the natural thing: ensuring that the mecanism get enough food.
However, what I am learning is that it is perfectly normal and okay to feel hunger and it does not mean that I have to eat. Same as when I feel tired I SOMETIMES sleep, but not always. So I am trying to eat only some of the times I feel hungry because eating all the time would mean that I either gain weight or at best stay where I am and do not achieve race weight.
That said, eating does happen but when it does I try to eat good food like veggies, lean meat, low-fat dairy, nuts, fruit etc. That will put a limit to the calorie intake.
In case anyone is interested - managed to absolutely fry myself on a ride on Saturday (182km, 3000m of climbing).
Was fine afterwards (just exhausted), but two days later I now feel like I just want to a) sleep, and b) find a way to eat while sleeping. Nothing I put in seems to put out the hunger fire!
Not the first time its happened, and was conscious about halfway through the ride that I was short on calories, but what can you do - just HTFU and get through it! Thought that I refuelled sufficiently when I got home, but it appears not.
Not much fun to deal with, but hey - you live and learn.
In case anyone is interested - managed to absolutely fry myself on a ride on Saturday (182km, 3000m of climbing).
Was fine afterwards (just exhausted), but two days later I now feel like I just want to a) sleep, and b) find a way to eat while sleeping. Nothing I put in seems to put out the hunger fire!
Not the first time its happened, and was conscious about halfway through the ride that I was short on calories, but what can you do - just HTFU and get through it! Thought that I refuelled sufficiently when I got home, but it appears not.
Not much fun to deal with, but hey - you live and learn.
This is pretty funny and I have the same issue 2 days after a 5-6 hour workout. The week after an Ironman I usually loose 5-7 lbs despite eating constantly. My advice is have lots of protein and some fat to help you feel full.
I have been know to have two dinners / day on bigger training weeks.
