18: Dealing with Increased Hunger and Cravings

Full transcript of the episode:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the fueled triathlete. I’m your host, Andrea. Today we’re talking all about increased hunger and cravings. What to do if you find yourself just constantly feeling hungry throughout the day or at certain periods, or you’re having cravings, maybe for sugar, sweet, salty foods.

Working with clients, I know that some of the key times to have cravings are that mid afternoon energy slump. And then also sometimes in the evening, when you finally sit down and can relax. So we’re going to talk about what kind of causes that or what causes you to feel just consistently hungry through the day. There’s some similarities in the causes of that and then what you can also do about it.

So let’s get into it. So what are the possible causes? So one cause or one reason for this can be not eating enough, not consuming enough calories. So you may notice that your hunger increases or your craving increases as your training load increases. So as you start training more hours in the day and in the week, then you are expending more calories.

Your body requires more calories to not only fuel your workouts, but your bodies also requiring your calories just to keep your body alive. So if there’s a big disconnect in between how much calories you’re consuming and how much you’re expending. Then you will probably start to feel more hungry. You’re going to have cravings as well. And the reason we had to have these cravings, especially mid afternoon and evening is because our body’s just craving quick sugar things that are going to fuel our body, get our blood sugar up as quickly as possible, which again, kind of leads into sugar cravings or some salty cravings.

So we want to make sure there’s not a huge disconnect there. We want to be fueling our body properly later in the episode, we’re going to get into a little bit more about how to do that. And that’s not to say that, you know, there’s maybe times that you are in a slight deficit, maybe you are trying to lose some weight or change your body composition and there are certain times of the year where that may be something you can do healthfully and safely, but if there is a large deficit, then you’re going to start to probably feel some side effects. So your body is trying to tell you something when you’re feeling hungry and when you’re having some cravings.

So are we meeting our overall calorie needs? That can be one thing. And the other thing can be maybe we’re meeting our calorie needs or close to it, but what’s the timing like? I’ve heard the saying so much from clients, endurance athletes or not that, you know, I can eat so good through the day, but then at nighttime, like I just have no control. You know, I’m, I’m walking in the door from work and I just want to head straight to the kitchen, or I turn on the TV, watch TV at night and I could down a bag of chips, whatever that may be. And I think the thing is that, you know, sometimes when we think we’re be eating good, we’re not really eating enough or we’re not eating balanced meals.

So the timing plays a big role. I find a lot of times through the day is when people tend to be most active. At night we’re a little more sedentary. Again. It really depends when your training sessions are. But a lot of people maybe do their training in the morning and most of their calories though, are coming at nighttime at the end of the day. You want to make sure you’re spacing out your calories evenly throughout the day, or relatively evenly throughout the day, and make sure you’re having enough calories in and around your workouts. So it could be more so the timing of your calorie intake.

So do a checklist, you know, do I have a really small breakfast, a small lunch, big dinner, and then snacking through the night, then you want to look at shifting that a little bit more. And again, we’ll talk a little bit more about how to do that specifically, but I just want to talk about some of the possible reasons.

So when you’re not fuelling enough through the day and giving your body that energy, when it needs it to walk around through the day, to perform at work or school, get through your training sessions then by the end of the day, when you finally sit back, relax, then you feel that hunger.

We go through a busy day and we’re not in touch with those hunger and fullness cues until later on when we are more relaxed.

Okay. So sometimes maybe it’s not our overall calories, but it can be not enough protein in the day. So having protein at meals is something that helps improve the satiety of the meals, meaning it keeps us feeling fuller longer. Breakfast is a time that I notice people may not have a lot of protein there. Your needs are really gonna vary, but you may need anywhere from 20 to 40 grams of protein at breakfast, and you may not be meeting that if you’re having mainly oatmeal, or some toast with peanut butter or grabbing your granola bar as you’re heading out the door. So you want to look at having enough protein at your meals to help you feel full and feel satisfied.

Even if you’re having two eggs, that’s only about 12 grams of protein. You may want to also add some egg whites or some cottage cheese to that meal. If you are going to have some oatmeal, add in a scoop of protein powder with that, or make overnight oats with some yogurt mixed in.

If you’re going to have some toast with peanut butter. Pair that with some yogurt on the side, maybe a specifically Greek yogurt or SKYR yogurt, yogurt, which is going to increase the protein. We want to make sure that not just only at breakfast, but also lunch and supper as well. So with the key with protein is to space that out evenly throughout the day. We don’t want to have like a low protein breakfast, low lunch, and then just a ton at suppertime. So also with your lunch, make sure, you know, am I getting that 20 to 40 grams of protein? Your needs are going to vary based on your goals, your training, your body size.

Endurance athletes may need anywhere from about 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight, up to two grams per kilogram of body weight.

Again, depending how much training you’re doing, the more training, the higher on the upper end. You may need for you’re looking to build muscle mass, or if you are over the age of 40, if you’re in menopause or trying to manage your weight or lose body fat. Then you want to go higher on the upper end there.

So another thing could be okay when maybe not getting enough carbohydrates. Are you consuming enough carbohydrates to fuel that training? As a triathlete who trains regularly through the week, if your lunch tends to be some protein and a salad or just protein and vegetables, then that can lead to some cravings and hunger in the afternoon and later in the day, you do want to add some carbohydrates there. So you want to add some, maybe some rice, make a wrap, add some pasta, some potatoes, some sweet potatoes. Each of your meals, try to have some carbohydrates. And your carbohydrate needs are going to vary day to day. You are going to have higher carbohydrate needs on heavier training days.

So we want to make sure are we adjusting those carbs based on the types of training days that we are having, but it’s, if you consistently go through the day without having enough carbohydrates, it can maybe start to lead to your blood sugar levels dipping. And then that’s where those cravings for something sweet, something sugary can come in, because it’s going to bring up our blood sugar more quickly. So including some whole grain high fiber carbohydrates with your meals can help to be filling. Also, maybe we’re not having enough carbohydrates before our training or during our training.

It may be that our meals are unbalanced. When we look at a balanced meal, we want to have some vegetables, some fruit, this is going to help us get some fiber, which is filling. We want to have some carbohydrates. Want to have protein and also healthy fats. If you’re a bit low in some of those nutrients, then you can feel hungry.

So protein is related to satiety, but also fats are as well. So if you’re someone who’s really, really trying to limit your fats too much., you want to have fats be about 20 to 35% of your overall calorie intake.

I also find that if you are somebody who tends to skip your recovery nutrition, and this is something that you delay and you wait long after a hard workout to eat, then this may lead to increased cravings or increase hunger later on after that training session.

So really trying to make sure that as soon as possible after your workouts, especially long, hard, strenuous workouts, we’re getting some protein and we’re getting some carbohydrates. So about 20 to 40 grams of protein and then some carbohydrates as well. So those carbohydrates and protein they work together, that helps get those carbs back into your muscles, to replenish your muscles and then protein afterwards, help repair your muscles. But it also helps to control your appetite, gives your body some nutrients to refuel after that workout.

Along the same lines of talking about fueling our workouts, you can feel more hungry, you can feel more cravings if you have a very long training session and you’re not fueling adequately throughout. So as you get into training longer than about 75 minutes, it would start to look at adding 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour of your training. People say you can get through it without it, but if you’re out there on a four-hour bike ride and you’re not consuming enough, carbohydrates or enough calories through that. You’re going to find yourself in a large deficit later in the day. So it’s good to bring some fueling with you throughout. Many different options of different things you can do it doesn’t always have to be a supplements like a gel or bar, you can use real foods as well. But this is something that can, cause those cravings to for really not fueling enough before, during, and after our training, it can, again, lead to more of a deficit and cause us to feel hungry.

Sleep can also play our role. Sometimes if we’re not getting enough sleep, not enough rest and recovery. When we’re sleep deprived, it actually has been shown to increase cravings for more sugary or high fat foods the next day. So looking at your sleep. Am I getting that seven to nine hours? That’s kind of what adults need in general, but obviously if you’re doing a lot of training, Getting into Ironman training, then you probably need at the upper end or even more sleep to really get that adequate rest and recovery.

The last reason I want to talk about is that, actually two more. So one, it could be that you’re going long periods of time without eating. So, maybe you skipped meals or you have breakfast and then you have a very late lunch, or there’s a big gap between lunch and dinner. You don’t have a snack in between. So going long periods of time without eating, maybe more than four or five to six hours without eating, especially in combination with a meal that’s unbalanced is going to cause you to have some cravings, feel a bit more tired, feel more hungry.

Another reason could be if you’re ignoring your hunger and fullness cues. So if you start to feel hungry through the day and you just power through that, you skip a meal and you ignore that hunger cue, it can come on stronger. It may pass in the moment, but it can come on stronger later. So really trying to pay attention to those hunger and fullness cues, can be really important. And more in line with like cravings, not necessarily hunger, sometimes cravings can be when we’re feeling stressed, sometimes it’s not even related to hunger, but sometimes it can be more of stress or other things going on in our lives and we sometimes turn to those foods for some comfort.

So hearing about all those possible reasons, what can you do about it? Here are some strategies. Here are some things, if you’re not doing these already, and you are feeling a lot of hunger and cravings, this is what I would suggest to start doing. So one is fueling your workouts properly, making sure you’re eating before your workouts.

If you train, first thing in the morning, not training fasted having at least 20 to 30 grams of carbohydrates for someone that wakes up and goes heads out the door, or if you’re someone who trains through the day and you’re about to try to start a training session making sure that you have still eaten recently.

So if you start a workout and it’s been more than three- four hours since you’ve eaten last and you want to have some additional carbohydrates for fuel before that .Training during those long training sessions, as I mentioned earlier, and then trying to get recovery, nutrition, protein, and carbs right after. Along those same lines, keeping up with your hydration.

So two is making sure your meal is balanced.

So one, do I have some carbohydrates at this meal? Do I have some starchy vegetables like potatoes or sweet potatoes. So I have some grains, oatmeal, rice, pasta, quinoa, breads, crackers. And adjusting that amount of carbohydrates to your training. On a hard, heavy, long training day, make that plate about half carbohydrates on an easier training day, about a quarter on a moderate training day, about a third. So this is very general, we can probably do another episode more on how, you know, how in detailed to adjust those carbohydrates on your plate. But, basically, I would say, ask yourself, on these heavier training days, am I adding a little bit of extra carbs onto my plate?

And then okay, after carbohydrates, do I have protein for each day? No matter what, every meal, we always want to have some protein. Our protein needs stay pretty consistent, but do I have about a quarter of my plate or a Palm sized piece of protein, and then is the rest of my plate. Some fruits and vegetables. Then do I have enough healthy fats here?

Did I cook with some olive oil? Is there maybe there’s some fatty fish, like salmon? Where are you going to get some fats? If not, can we add some avocado, some nuts or some seeds, some peanut butter. Egg yolks. Just different ways to make sure you’re also getting some healthy fats. All of these, making sure we have all of these food groups when we’re having a meal.

Cause sometimes when we just have one or you just have two of these, it may not be a meal that’s going to be filling and satisfying and you might find yourself feeling hungry within an hour.

Three as I talked about before, how, if you’re someone who has most of your calories. They tend to be at night and maybe not from the best choices. Space out your calories are space out you’re eating more throughout the day. So you can look at front-loading your calories, making sure you’re having a filling satisfying breakfast. That’s high in protein, but also our other macronutrients. And this has been shown to really help with some of the feeling cravings or increased hunger later in the day. So if you’re someone that skips breakfast, making sure maybe you prepare something ahead of time. Two episodes ago, I talked about how to fuel as a busy triathlete and did talk a lot about some different breakfast ideas, some snack ideas, some things you can meal prep to keep on top of that. Which leads us into my next one, which should be trying not to go too long without eating.

So I know this is easier said than done. We get busy. We don’t hear our hunger cues sometimes when we’re busy and we’re on the go through the day. We don’t have time to stop and eat. But it’s oftentimes will catch up to us later in the day. And not only that, but affect our training.

So go back and listen to that episode. If you haven’t already episode 16, How to Fuel as a Busy Triathlete with some strategies of how to do that. Along those same lines, if you find your meals or meal times are space very far apart. So let’s say you’re someone who usually has lunch at 12 and then maybe with your family or just what you tend to do is they have a late dinner, seven to eight o’clock. Make sure to have a snack in between those meals. So snacks can be important in between meals, especially as an endurance athlete, because it’s an opportunity to give your body the additional calories or nutrients that it needs.

And it bridges those gap in between meals and helps to manage your hunger when you’re choosing the right types of snacks. So I usually say when we’re looking at snacks, we want to look at pairing carbs and protein together.

So those carbs from fruits or vegetables or whole grains along with some protein. So, maybe like a cheese string, hard-boiled eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage, cheese, nuts. Listen to those hunger fullness cues.

If you start to feel your stomach growling, you start to feel that you’re getting hungry, do the best that you can to kind of stop and make sure that you have your meals and have your snacks. And listen to that.

I mentioned a little bit earlier, sometimes we can have cravings that aren’t necessarily related to hunger.

So another thing to note is sometimes we get cravings and it may not be related to hunger.

Sometimes we feel stressed, we feel bored, we have this habit of snacking at certain times, so I would in those cases, stop and ask yourself, am I hungry? If you are hungry stop, have a balanced snack that I mentioned earlier. Have something to eat. But if you start to stop and say, you know, am I hungry?

Why do I need to eat? And you more so come up with like, maybe I’m bored. This is my routine. When I sit down and watch TV, I want to have a snack. Then you may want to see if that’s something that you want to stop doing. Here’s just some tips of how you can kind of break that cycle.

So I usually would suggest you wait 15 minutes. So if you notice that it’s not actually true hunger , wait 15 minutes. Try to find another activity or something that you can do almost to distract yourself or to deal with that emotion that you may be feeling. So maybe it’s heading out for a walk, maybe it’s going to bed, calling a friend, reading a book, doing something that you enjoy that can take your mind off it. Sometimes cravings come in waves. They can come and go. You may find that 15 minutes later that you don’t have that craving anymore, but if 15 minutes later you still want it, then I think you should give yourself permission to have it.

If it’s something that is a craving, sometimes the more we delay it or deny it, then the worst that can get. So if that is something that you want to have, then have it mindfully, put it on a plate, sit down and enjoy it and be able to move on.

All right. So that’s a, for me a little bit about reasons for why you may feel extra hungry or might have some cravings and some things that you can do about it.

If you have any questions, if you’re going through this and feeling like, you know what, I’m not doing a lot of these things. I don’t know how to do it properly on my own.

I want to learn how, I want to get a nutrition plan that’s going to work for me. Then you can just chat with me about it if you want to fill out an application. In the show notes and applications, just a couple of questions and I will book a call with you. So I’ll reach out and you can book a chat. Just to talk more about what kind of your struggles are with fueling and what nutrition coaching can look like.

I also want to let you know that at the end of the month, I am going to be opening a new group coaching program. So if you are someone who feels, maybe you don’t necessarily need one-to-one coaching, you want to increase your education on fueling and you want to develop some good habits. You like working with others in a group and learning off them.

Then, I have a new eight week group coaching program called fueled for endurance. And this is great if you want to learn how to properly fuel your body day to day, how to eat pre and post-workout, and also how to fuel for race day. So, this is going to line up great for people who have some spring races. If you have a spring half marathon or marathon or maybe some spring or early summer triathlons, then this would be great for you. So if you’re interested, just keep listening to the show and I’ll have more information coming for you. So, thanks again for listening. I hope you have a great rest of the week and a great week of training.

Make sure you’re fueling your body and being a fuelled triathlete. I really appreciate you listening. And if you could leave a rating and review on apple podcasts, that would help me so much and help more people find the show. Have a great day.