Heavy lifting and HUNGER
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I have been doing very well maintaining a 50 pound weight loss for like two years. I'm very proud of myself and I'm terrified of regaining. I did this mostly with IF and peloton. I have been trying to incorporate strength over the last few month but have struggled with the fact that when I get on a roll with lifting and lifting heavy specifically, I get HUNGRY. And then the scale starts inching up, so I pull back on the strength. Rinse and repeat.
How do other people deal with this? This is not just snacking to snack this is like, my body telling me I need to eat. And when I don't (which I successfully am able to do most of the time, until I finally break and eat like 5 pieces of pizza one day), I get SO run down and just cranky and tired. Is there a way to lift without gaining? |
Anonymous
without gaining what? Muscle- no. There isn't. What is the purpose of heavy lifting if not to increase metabolically active tissue and increase lean muscle mass? Did you think you would just get toned, which is a misnomer because people equate it with ballerinas or pilates instructors (that's genetics at work OP not IF and Peloton) but it just means having well-established muscle which requires both significant lean mass to body weight and lower body fat. EAT to fuel your body. The binging is a sign that you are not eating enough. Do you need some accounts to follow who lift heavy and also promote sustained and activity-dependent food intake? |
Anonymous
|
IF doesn’t go along well with strength training. Either move your workout to later in the day and eat both before and after the workout, or decide to not do IF on the days that you strength train so you can eat before (and after) your morning workout.
It also sounds like you’re not getting enough protein and possibly also carbohydrates and total calories on the days you strength train. |
Anonymous
|
Water - tons
Plus lean protein and vegetable: Chicken and broccoli Fish and cauliflower rice Shrimp and zucchini noodles Eat as much as you need, as all are full of good carbs and protein |
Anonymous
| Agree that you will probably have to increase both your calories and the percentage of them that come from protein if you want to lift heavy. Even if you gain a little, that doesn't mean you are less healthy, if you have good strength, balance, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, blood work... weight is just one thing, and while it often correlates with health it's not a perfect correlation. What do you want your body to do? If your answer is "be x weight" you need to act accordingly, and if you answer "lift y weight" you need to act accordingly to that. |
Anonymous
Without gaining weight. I love the gain of muscle, its why I keep trying to do it. Whenever I get on a roll I start to see definition and I love it, I love how strong I feel, all of that. But it took me a long time to go from morbidly obese to just 'overweight' and all the statistics about everyone regaining in 5 years and weight loss being essentially impossible have made me just militantly vigilant about the weight. I got to the point where what I normally crave/eat during my window is totally fine and satiating and I don't crave anything. And the lifting really just has thrown that into disarray. I actually usually do workout during my window, but it was so easy with cardio I would actually prefer not to eat before cardio. Now I am just either hungry and cranky and depleted or feel like the scale starts ticking up. For me, getting psycho about counting macros/calories/whatever will just lead me to fail or really spiral mentally. Which is why its so frustrating because I was at a really good balance with exercise and food and just am struggling to find that balance but still incorporate strength training (which in addition to the aesthetics, I want to do for my long term health/strength/etc) |
Anonymous
| Not only does muscle weigh more than fat, you can temporarily retain water after a heavy lifting session while the muscles repair and grow, which causes the number on the scale to appear larger while you'll actually end up looking leaner and tighter. This is called body recomping. I encourage you to look up some before and afters. Women who do rigorous strength training and up their calories by quite a bit can end up losing inches and appearing to be smaller, while weighing up to 15 lbs more than their starting weight, due to all the muscle they now have. |
Anonymous
| The hunger is probably caused by you not consuming enough protein to repair your muscles. A recommended range for women strength training is between 120-150g per day. Try drinking a 25g protein shake before and after your workout to see if that helps the hunger. I like the Koia vegan shakes at Wegmans. |
Anonymous
|
wow so much misinformation on here...
1. fat and muscle weigh the same, muscle is more dense and thus takes up less space, but a pound is a pound. 2. The only weight to gain fat or muscle is to eat in a calorie sur plus. If you eat at maintenance or in a deficit you can not gain muscle, that is the law of thermodynamics. Now you can do as someone mentioned above you can do some body recomp, that is trading fat for muscle, but this take a while. Like when you see people who weight more but are smaller because of muscle it has likely taken them year to see these results. Now things there were correct.. when you start lifting heavy the scale will go up because you will retain more water. This it not the same as gaining fat and will level out after a few pounds vs continuing to increase. If you are more hungry then focus on protein. Binging on other foods like pizza when you follow hunger cues typically means you are overly restricting which lead to this sort of binge behavior. Oddly enough lifting does not make me as hungry as doing a lot of cardio, but everyone is different. |
Anonymous
NP - that’s because you’re lifting hard enough to damage your muscles and they NEED fuel to repair themselves stronger. You’re doing heavy lifting right. PP is correct, though, that IF and heavy lifting are a poor combination, unless you want to tailor your eating window around your workouts. The other option is to lift less heavy, but that won’t lead to the same kinds of strength gains. You can be strong enough for your health with less intense lifting methods; it really comes down to which trade-offs you prefer. I’ve done all kinds of strength training and there’s nothing like heavy lifting for getting strong AF. But to do that, you’ve got to fuel properly and IF usually ain’t it. |
Anonymous
| You need to eat more clean protein and fiber. Cottage cheese, for example, is super satiating and low cal. |
Anonymous
|
Have you been taking your body measurements to track your progress? Tried using an inBody scale to measure your body fat/muscle?
I cleaned up my diet about 6 weeks ago and weigh myself weekly at home on a regular digital scale and on the inBody at my gym. I weigh exactly the same as I did six weeks ago, but I lost 8 pounds of fat and gained 7 pounds of muscle. My clothes fit completely different. It's not just your weight, it's your body composition. Don't focus on what the scale says, and don't fast until you end up binging. |
Anonymous
No, no you did not. It is nearly impossible to gain 7 lbs of muscle and get real body recomp in in 6 weeks. |
Anonymous
| I find it interesting no one here has mentioned fat. Fat is critical to satiety. I lift (48 yo woman) and eat plenty of protein. But my "hunger" (carb cravings) goes haywire if I don't get enough fat. I put olive oil on my salads, Kerrygold on my green beans, and have full fat coconut milk over frozen blueberries as ways to incorporate healthy fats. |
Anonymous
This. Add a protein shake If you lift heavy, your body wants to build muscle and you have to fuel the growth. You don't need to increase calories. Just increase protein. You won't bulk if you are still restricting calories. |