Have you experienced increased hunger and weight gain when beginning training or increasing your training?
For some people starting training will cause an increase in their appetite. The increased energy expenditure from training could be increasing your hunger hormones causing you to feel hungrier throughout the day in turn causing you to eat more. Eating more can lead to weight gain if this is pushing you into a caloric surplus.
The chances are this will start to level out after a month or two of training as you and your body adapt to your new training programme. Whatever you do, don’t stop training!
First of all, it is important to understand you aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong. Everybody's body is different and will respond differently to any new stimulus it is given. You just need to learn about you, your body and how you can best manage any increase in hunger/eating.
Secondly, gaining weight at the start could actually be a good thing for you (albeit this may seem counterintuitive) as you gain lean muscle and start laying down a foundation for the body you look to build.
Let's tackle weight gain
Scale weight is a measure of your total body mass at that time, this includes muscle, bones, bodyfat, organs, water etc.
Scale weight alone therefore is not an accurate measure of body composition and not a great measure for your progress as it can’t distinguish between muscle, fat, water weight etc.
When you start a new training programme, especially a resistance training programme, you will likely build some lean muscle mass. This could account for scale weight increasing or not moving as much as you would like.
Is this a bad thing though?
Well, no is the short answer.
If you lose body fat and gain lean muscle mass the scale may show the same weight BUT how you look, how you feel, how your clothes fit will be significantly different in a positive way.
This is due to muscle being more dense than fat, meaning a pound of muscle will take up less space than 1 pound of body fat. Increase muscle mass and reduce bodyfat mass and you get a leaner, more toned body. That sounds like a win to me.
If the scales are not the best measure of success, what can you use as well as the scales to track what is happening with your body?
1 . InBody reading: If you have access to an InBody machine or something similar that reads muscle mass, body fat mass and body ft % these can really help track your body composition.
2. Measurements: You could use a tape measure and measure key areas of your body such as stomach (around the belly button), chest, hips, upper arm, upper leg etc. If weight stays the same but you lose inches from your body, what you are doing is working. Keep going.
3. How your clothes fit: You will know if your clothes start to fit better as you either lose or gain weight. This is a really good measure.
4. Pictures: You can also take pictures to assess body composition over time.
So, why may you feel hungrier when beginning a new training programme?
There could be a host of reasons. Below are some possibilities:
Increased energy expenditure increases the hunger hormone ghrelin, making you feel hungrier across the day and may cause you to crave more food
To help with recovery. The increased demand on the body whilst training can increase the need for more calories to support recovery
Lack of good quality nutrition. If your diet is lacking in certain nutrients this can lead to an increase in hunger so the body can get what it needs
Psychological because with an increase in physical activity it stands to reason you may feel you need to replace these calories with more food.
Training and weight loss
Whilst training has a whole host of amazing benefits and I believe everyone should train in some way, unfortunately it seems that weight loss is NOT one of those benefits.
Now before you ask what is the point in training then, here is a list (Not exhaustive) of all the reasons you should train:
Makes you stronger
Makes you move better
Makes you more robust
Keeps you moving/feeling younger for longer
Improves heart health
Helps manage your blood sugar levels
It feels really good
Helps improve your self esteem
Helps improve your confidence
Helps improve your mental well being
Learn new skills
It feels great to see progress
Makes / keeps your bones stronger
Basically promotes a better quality of life
Weight loss (though fat loss should be your main goal) is a simple calories in vs calories out principle. It is not as easy as that as there are lots of variables to consider but the principle is still key.
Whilst training may help you increase your calorie expenditure, this is often only a small amount of your total calorie expenditure (between 5 and 15%) throughout the day.
Basically calories burned through exercise pale into insignificance relative to how easy those calories are to eat/drink.
For example, 30 minutes of exercise could 'burn' 200-250 calories. A Costa latte and a muffin are 633 calories and take less than 10 mins to consume (5 if the latte is cool enough). That's a 383 calorie surplus in less than 10 minutes. It is just far too easy to consume a lot of calories very quickly.
A second point to touch on is that it is very easy to OVERESTIMATE calories burned in a training session and then REWARD yourself with a particularly high calorie treat/meal as you trained hard. As you can see from above this is a losing battle.
Managing your nutrition and caloric intake therefore is paramount for weight loss/fat loss success.
A final point to consider is that when you start training it is common for new trainees to react to training by moving less throughout the day, therefore reducing their NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis - a fancy way of saying the calories you burn during movement that is not organised exercise such as walking more, gardening etc ).
With this in mind if after you have trained you sit down more and move less than usual you are likely to offset the calories you burned during your training session.
Now the big question, what can I do about this?
Determine whether it is muscle gain or fat gain
The first thing to do is to determine if your weight gain is muscle or fat? You can do this with body fat readings, measurements, how your clothes fit around key areas or photos.
Secondly, understand what your weight gain is. If it is only a small amount, say 1 or 2 pounds or 0.5-1kg you probably have nothing to worry about. Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Track food intake
Using an App such as My Fitness Pal or Nutracheck works and gives you real-time calories and macros. You can also just use paper and pen, whatever you will stick to.
By simply tracking your intake you create an awareness of what and how much you are eating. By knowing this you can make any necessary changes to ensure you are progressing towards your goals. Ensure you are tracking weekends as well!!!
When starting tracking you can either use an online Calorie calculator such as https://tdeecalculator.net/ to give you a starting calorie amount or track for the first week or 2 how you currently eat. Take your weight and ideally measurements before you start tracking and again when you finish.
Assess the results from the 2 weeks. What was your average daily calorie intake? With that did you gain, maintain or lose weight? Did you get 1.5 to 2g of protein per day? Were you eating before going to the gym etc.
From here you can set appropriate calories for you.
Increase protein intake
Protein is essential to the growth and repair of muscles especially whilst exercising regularly. If you aren’t giving your body enough protein you may find that your hunger hormones ping more as the body needs more protein for recovery.
Protein also has a satiating effect. Meaning it will make you feel fuller for longer due to it taking longer to break down, digest and absorb. Another great thing about protein is its thermic effect of 20-30%. This is the energy needed to digest protein meaning you burn more calories digesting protein than you do fat and carbohydrates. Aim for 1.5 to 2g protein per kg of body weight. So if you are 70kg your target is 105g to 140g per day.
Increase Fibre intake
In the western world with diets made up of more highly processed foods a lot of the population don't get even the recommended amount of fibre which is 30g per day.
Fibre will help you feel fuller for longer and keep those hunger pangs at bay. Foods high in fibre are fruits and vegetables, oats, beans, pulses etc
Increase food density
Increasing food density is all about increasing the total amount of food you consume for the same calories. Whilst the 2 foods may not be comparable consider watermelon and olive oil.
You could fill a pint glass with about 100 calories of watermelon. Whereas you may just about cover the bottom of the pint glass with 100 calories of oil. Meaning the watermelon has a much higher food density. Finding foods that you are able to eat a large amount for a small amount of calories can be a really good way to stay fuller for longer and reduce the risk of overeating.
Add a meal before you train
A meal before you train is also known as a pre workout meal. This may be more of a snack than a meal with its goal of giving you some nutrition before a training session. The usual choice here would be something that contains carbs and protein but low in fat. A small bowl of porridge and protein shake 60-90 minutes before you train for example.
The goal here is to not go into your session already hungry, leave the gym feeling even hungrier which may cause you to grab something to eat whilst you are preparing your meal as you feel so hungry.
Create a consistent routine
Aim to create a consistent food routine, especially in the first couple of months as this will help you minimise overeating.
So keep training, assess your progress and if you are ever struggling or have questions, drop me a message and we will be happy to help.
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