Reader Question: How Do I Prevent Hunger When Working Out?
When you’re on a fat loss diet, there is a very good chance that at some point during the day you are going to feel hungry. Since you must be in a hypocalorie balance in order to see fat loss occurring, this means you are taking in fewer calories than your body would ideally like. As such, it’s not surprising it starts to send out some – at times – fairly strong hunger signals.
During the day you might easily be able to do certain things to combat this, but what about when it’s happening during your workout? That can definitely put a dent in your overall session, so something you’ll want to take into careful account.
I recently had a reader question on this issue. Let’s have a look at what you can do to prevent hunger when working out.
Question:
Lately I’ve been finding that during my workouts I’m getting really hungry. Sometimes it’s so bad that I start feeling weak and lightheaded. I really do want to get through my workout but it’s hard when I’m feeling this way. Do you know of anything that I might be able to do so I won’t feel this way – or what could be causing this feeling?
Answer:
Feeling weak and hungry during a workout is something that will potentially hinder your performance – without a doubt. There are a couple of things that you can do to help remedy this situation, so consider which will work best for you.
First, look at your overall diet. Are you getting enough carbs? You mention that you start to feel lightheaded and weak during the workout which to me is strongly signalling dropping blood sugar levels. Are you eating some source of carbohydrate before the workout itself?
That is very important to elevate the blood sugars slightly since this will really influence the overall intensity you are able to work at. People who are suffering from drastic blood sugar drops (which is actually quite likely during a workout) are far more likely to get this weak feeling.
To solve this problem, consider either increasing the carbohydrates before your workout or change the type of carbs your eating. If you are eating a very simple sugar form of carb, this could be what’s causing a big increase in blood sugar levels followed by a fast drop. A slower digesting source may be a much better option for you.
A second thing you could do is have some form of quick digesting carb on hand during your workout for when you feel like that. Even as little as 5 grams of carbs taken in can make an impact on how you feel as you progress throughout the workout so it’s nothing too extreme to have to do.
This will be the better option if you are on a more strict fat loss diet and can’t just go adding more carbs before the workout (although it is still necessary to have some carbs before a weight lifting workout).
So keep both of these in mind. The best way to help reduce hunger is to make sure you are eating properly leading up to the workout. This might mean having a look at your overall diet and shuffling some of the calories to the workout portion of it and removing them from other times in the day.
In many cases that can mean the difference between a great workout session and one where you feel as though you’re dragging.
Have a question you’d like answered? Give me a shout here:
—–> Ask A Question
Related posts:
Leave a Comment