Increased Hunger After Hard Workout

Hi!
The day after particularly hard workouts, I can’t stop thinking about fatty meats- not sugar or sweets, but very fatty proteins, preferably roasted. I usually don’t feel physically hungry (more tired and lightheaded than anything), but the craving is there and doesn’t go away. Usually, I do a pretty good job of not giving in (roasts aren’t just lying around), but when I have access, I can’t seem to control myself.
For example, I did a hard workout yesterday (squats +open workout 19.3+RDLs) and was having those cravings. My school cafeteria happened to be serving roasted pork leg and I legit ate at least 8 oz+ a whole lot of extra skin- WAYYY over my usual intake. I eventually forced myself to stop eating and by that time, it was too late.
Is this kind of feeling normal? What should I do about it? Should I eat less on the next few days to make up for this unexpected indulgence?
Thanks!

Yes, normal. Eat slowly and until satisfied. Monitor your weight and adjust if you don’t like what’s happening.

How do your macros break down on an average day?

I used to get that driving hunger after heavy squats or deads (now just deads). I’d just eat a lot. Doing them on Saturdays was nice, then Sunday was all you can eat steak buffet day.

My parents don’t allow me to track, but here’s a typical day of eating:

Breakfast: I have to catch the schoolbus early so I take “breakfast” to school and eat it as lunch. I’m never hungry anyways
Lunch: 2 slices of sprouted grain toast+1 egg+1 egg white+ 1 serving of fruit (depends on season and preference- I’m on a blueberry kick)+ 1 scoop protein powder
Dinner: 6-8oz meat (differs daily, usually some kind of soup ie chicken. I have steamed fish once a week)+as many stir fried veggies as I want+1 cup forbidden rice (measured)
Snack: 1 serving fruit

On Saturday, my family goes out to eat and I go hard on the meat (no carbs though)

That looks like it’s barely over 1000 calories and basically zero fat besides the egg. You’re probably craving fat after your workouts because your body desparetly needs it. What’s your height and weight?

Saw your log -Chris already told you to eat more. You look small and stringy so totally fine to chow down, especially as still growing.

I echo what baumbodies says: it’s not wonder you’re craving fatty meats when you have hardly any protein or fat to sustain yourself (let alone repair and recover from workouts). It’s not normal to feel lightheaded the day after training. This is your body’s way of telling you “eat”.

Also, why do you say thing like “no carbs, though” when you splurge at a restaurant. Eat carbs! Don’t eat egg whites! Up your calories and eat whole, real foods. It sounds like you’re equating eating “healthy” (pointing out things like sprouted grain breads) with being calorie restricted and low carb.

Height: 5’0
Weight: 40kg
I probably do need to gain 2-3 kg, but since I can’t track and my parents know nothing about nutrition, I don’t know how to really go about it . They also want me to put on some more fat (“get rounder”), so if things go wrong, I can’t really adjust. The last thing I want to do is to put on a bunch of useless fat

I wouldn’t really say that because I do often eat stewed pork (ie with the marrow) and spareribs, which contain quite a bit of fat.
I also feel pretty satisfied on a daily basis

You previously posted about losing your period and not being willing to gain the weight necessary to get it back. I told you this before, but let me repeat myself: dangerously low body fat levels that result in losing your menses cause issues with bone density and a whole bunch of other problems. The fat you would put on would not be useless - it would improve your quality of life and your performance in the gym.

Im gonna have to agree with the majority of the guys on here. I’m not a certified doctor, but being a woman myself, I feel That what I say holds enough merit to it.

As other have mentioned: You need to eat.

Okay, you can’t track, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t track, because it triggers a few unhealthy habits that I haven’t fully gotten over just yet.

As mentioned above, fat gain (healthy amounts of it), isn’t useless for women. Matter of factly speaking, it’s what helps regulates our hormones and proper functioning of our reproductive systems. I’ve seen all of your videos posted and while you’re making good progress, you’re struggling to move the weight in a good portion of them.

Your body is sacrificing a period to cling onto whatever iron reserves you have available. Consequently, you’re either barely getting to the follicular phase, or surpassing it all together. Meaning you’re also skipping ovulation and the days leading up to it which is screwing with your LH. LH is amazing in that it spikes libido, preparing for the release of an egg, but also helps endurance, recovery, and is one of the many important hormones for strength gain for us women, but if you’re barely menstruating or stopping altogether, you’re screwing up the hormones that work in unison to drive muscle growth. I feel like superwoman the first week of my mentruation stopping, and it’s prime time to get some serious volume in or add another 20-30lbs to working sets. It’s much like a domino effect, and a missing period can cause a wave of issues for women.

Since you’re young, and you’re also training, it’s perfectly normal to have a spike in your appitite or various cravings, espeacially after training. Often times I get a serious craving for carbs and anything salty on heavy training days. So I either add in another snack during the day, or add a few items to my breakfast to satisfy the cravings without screwing up my eating schedule, or ignoring the cravings completely and succumbing to some sort of binge. In your case having a craving for foods with decent amounts of fat is fine, and rather expected.

Don’t cut your carbs. Just in general. You’re very small and don’t even need to be thinking about cutting your carbs. Invest in Fish oil, Omega 9’s, 3’s, and 6’s, a possible iron supplement, or a food choice that’s filled with it, folate, D3, B12, Zinc, and Mg, and Potassium. Fish oil, D3, and iron are the heavy hitters you should looking out for. If you’re unable to get these in supplement form, that’s where eating more comes into play. Of the vast majority of foods at your disposal, utilize them. No, you don’t have to up your calories drastically. Slow and steady wins the race.

You will either come to an abrupt halt in your training, injure yourself, or some aweful combination of both, if you don’t up your weight. I’m not talking about a giant 50lb weight gain, even something in the 5-10lb range can make a world of difference in your training. Believe me, I’ve been through quite a bit, and while our bodies operate slightly different than our male counterparts, they aren’t all that different, and exactly like how guys need to eat more to continue to grow, so do us ladies.

So heed the advice the guys here are giving you.

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About once a week, everything seems to catch up to me. Typically Sunday evenings, but not exclusively. I dont particularly “crave” anything, but I can’t seem to get satiated.

I already eat a pretty comically large amount, but it gets out of hand. Typically something like: 2-3 turkey/brown rice burritos for dinner. Then I progress to a Halo Top ice cream. I only keep one in the house a week, so I’ll move on to a bowl of cereal or two. Then a couple pb&j’s. Afterwards I usually end up raiding my girlfriends stash of frozen foods in the fridge until I feel like im full. All within an hour.

Then again, my only targets right now are strength. I’m not trying to be crazy lean, I dont have any body image issues, I’ve never really had any problems related to food, and my job is moderately physical. So if I’m that hungry, I tack it up to my body needing calories, and who am I to argue?

At your age dude, eat while you can.

I second this. This forum isn’t a place to fix what sounds very much like disordered eating. If you think you might have an issue please seek help.

That’s the second time you’ve mentioned that.

Anything you care to cut loose with?

your school is better than my school was.

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I went to my cousin’s expensive private school in Minneapolis once while I was visiting her family. Just joined her for the day since I didn’t have anything else to do. The lunch there was better than what I typically eat at home. Various types of meat, potatoes and gravy (like real stuff), macaroni, salad with actually fresh veggies, plenty of fruit options…oh and stuff like pizza, hotdogs, and chicken nuggets. But they were good too. I think I went back through the line like 3 times. It was amazing.

My school had a mini Pizza Hut in the cafeteria and a bunch of vending machines in each building.

We’d rob the vending machines to get the pizza hut.

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i went to such a poor school, in a lower income neighborhood. we had jack shit. AND we weren’t allowed to leave campus for lunch, which really sucked. i just ate out of the vending machines for the most part.

I receive less hunger after my ab days due to soreness.

same