dnuzzomueller

Does anyone here have any tips on dealing with the recovery day munchies?

To be more specific about my situation perhaps:

I just got back down to my goal weight and actually hit a little underneath it. Now I had been super strict about food intake and a vigorous training regime. I am now at a point though where I don't want to loose anymore weight but I intend to continue my training for the race season.

So normally I do some type of hard physical activity every day be that either a training ride or some type of trainer workout except for one day of the week during which I restrain myself from working out.

Problem is that on this day I find my hunger / desire to eat is noticeable higher, or atleast my brain keeps slipping back to food. I am not necessarily "hungry" though. Does anyone else notice this? If you do, do you find it is a good idea to "munch" throughout the day for the sake of recovery or do you find it better to restrain yourself from eating more because it is actually boredom/anxiety/emotional eating/ what-have-you?

gregf83 

Depends what you've got planned for the next day. If I have a hard workout >2hrs planned I don't like to go through the previous day hungry so I'll eat more. If it's just an endurance ride or an easier workout I might go hungry but in your case I wouldn't worry about it. I find as my weight gets lower there comes a point where my body starts to rebel and I'm always hungry. I've yet to fight though this point and assume my body has reached a comfortable equilibrium.

meanwhile

Eat stuff that digests slowly. Slightly green bananas, bran cereal, wholegrain rice. Throw in some nuts and some meat - or better, oily fish. Your bloody sugar levels should then come up to the "I'm busy digesting" level and stay there for a long time and your brain will no longer be interested in food.

eddubal

You might be dehydrated, or psychologically hungry. Try to keep yourself hydrated throughout your workout and keep drinking (water or clear nonalcoholic beverage) for a while afterward. The next day, try drinking first and then see if you're still hungry. Then try gum. The action of chewing supposedly has a psychological effect on your body that makes it think you ate something. If you are still hungry after that, you are truly hungry and need to get a snack. Eat a combo of proteins and carbs. The proteins supposedly make you feel full longer. It takes more energy to digest them, so it digests slower and satiates you longer.

dnuzzomueller

I have definitely tried all of the above. I think I am going with the psychologically hungry. I notice that if I break the rules and do some type of physical workout it becomes easier to manage the munchies. But then again exercise has always acted as an appetite suppressant for me. Time to find that shrink.....

Photocyte

Learning to recognize the difference between my hunger and my appetite was the biggest thing that helped me change my lifestyle and build.

this is a good article summing up the difference.

https://www.fitwatch.com/weight-loss/...unger-256.html

But the super-short-and-sweet of it is . . . if a huge bowl of steamed brocoli with a little steamed chicken sounds DELICIOUS you're hungry. if it's not so mouthwatering then you're battling your appetite.

kuan

There's a lot of data missing. Was your weight loss quick or was it more like 1.5lb a week? That might clue you in on what it was exactly that you lost be it fat or liquid or something else. If you are just plain glycogen depleted then that might answer a lot of things.

You can try eating during workouts. About 200 calories per hour or so.

Every athlete should keep a boatload of data just to have a baseline as to what's normal for them. O2 saturation, blood glucose, heartrate, blood pressure.

dnuzzomueller

Weight loss was generally slow between 1-2 lbs a week for about 2-3 months. Basically came down from a high of 175-180 to 145-150. The bigger confusion for me here is that I begin to get comments from family members worrying about my weight once I hit around 150lbs. Now for a 5'11" 22 year old male I am not sure if I should really be worried about my weight getting "too low" or not at around 145-150.

Since I am just finishing college I still see my parents very regularly and I receive alot of input from them which is that they are worried about my weight and as such they have been expressing concern over my low-fat, lean-protein, lots of vegetables, limited sugar style of eating.

I have never been to see a sports doctor so perhaps that would be the best move, but in the interim I have some people in my life telling me I should be eating a higher fat diet, and lots of calories during rest days in order to "build my muscles". I am not sure if that is really a "good" thing for my performance or a "bad" thing for it.

One specific example is that my Dad is telling me that he can "Tell my calves have shrunk" and is telling me that if I ate more they would become stronger. This is coming from both another cyclist and a guy who has just naturally remained an athlete his entire life and really does not struggle in the least with food. Sadly I am not gifted with his natural abilities, I train for them.

Photocyte

pretty much Ignore everyone who's concerned about your weight, as long as you know you're not literally starving yourself. It can be a number of things, but they remember the "old" you and now you don't look like yourself anymore (In a good way!). It could even be a bit of subconscious jealousy, or plain old not wanting someone rocking the boat and changing the status quo by actually doing what so many people WISH they could.

I experienced it all. Over the last year I lost 60 lbs, at about the same rate, and have been holding steady for almost 6 months. Everyone I knew FLIPPED OUT when they saw me week to week. "OMG are you okay?" "OMG are you sick?!?" . . . They've now gotten over it and most have switched to the "you're looking pretty good there" phase of acceptance

RE the calves . . . perhaps they're just not needing to be as bulky anymore. . . they're carrying around 30ish fewer pounds with every-step of every day!!! They've streamlined themselves to their new activity requirements. Eating more won't change that. Training while maintaining proper nutrition *will*

Eating protein doesn't build muscle, working them out under load does.

But hey, you've already proven you can adapt your diet and activity to successfully change your body . . . now you get to experiment! Bump up the protein while keeping calories constant and see how you react. You're not going to break anything or undo your hard work overnight. It's something I struggled with after the weight came off, constantly feeling like I'd loose my grip and undo it somehow. About 8 months in I started feeling some weakness in my limbs, and adding more salt and fat to my meals improved it and allowed me to keep expanding my capabilities. As a result I could train harder which in turn put about 8 lbs of muscle back onto my frame while keeping bodyfat essentially constant.

ericm979

I like that part of the season. Too bad it's so short.


I tend to eat close to the same on my recovery days as on training days. But if I am worried about my weight I'll ask myself if I really need to eat, and when I eat something I'll portion out a smaller portion, eat that, and then wait a bit and see if I need seconds or if I just had the munchies.

dnuzzomueller

Thanks for that tip ericm. I probably could stand to eat a bit more during my training days in general actually so perhaps that will help balance me out for recovery days.

kuan

Screw'em. You're doing well. Don't let them give you an eating disorder. Just eat during training about 200 calories per hour in carbs and then some good carbs and protein immediately after.

sjvcycler

+1 about eating while riding. If you are good shape and don't eat while you ride more than 60 miles you will bonk one day . I learned this the hard way. I always have an electrolyte drink with low sugar and plenty of carbs to eat. You don't have to eat meat for protein remember that beans are a go source as well .