What to do if you are hungry after strength training

Don’t overdo it and don’t eat recklessly. Find out first when you are hungry and your current fitness goals. Choose the most suitable way of eating so that your training will not be in vain.

On the day I tried to PR in the deadlift last week, I only ate a bowl of oats in the morning. When I was doing the second set of auxiliary tablets, my stomach growled and the whole strength area turned around. At that time, the veteran next to me threw me a rice cake filled with peanut butter.

There is actually no unified view on this matter in the fitness circle. Some people believe that "when you are hungry, your body sends a signal, and you make up for whatever is missing." Others insist on calorie deficit, saying that eating when you are hungry means that the previous training is in vain. There are solid cases to support both sides. In fact, no one is right or wrong, it is just different goals.

If you are in the muscle-building period, your body fat rate is stuck in the ideal range of about 15%. No matter you are hungry in the middle of training or you are hungry in the middle of the night after training, as long as you don't rush to the junk food with high oil and sugar to show off, there is nothing wrong with eating some fast carbs and a small amount of protein. During the muscle-building period last year, I often finished training after ten o'clock and drank half a cup of whey protein with two small meal bags. My arm circumference increased by 2 cm that month, and my body fat did not increase much. If you are in the process of fat burning and have a caloric deficit of about 300 calories every day, don’t rush out for snacks when you are hungry. Drink a cup of warm water with light electrolytes for 10 minutes. Sometimes the blood supply to the intestines has just been restored after exercise, and the feeling of hunger is fake. If you are really still hungry, just nibble. A hard-boiled egg or a small apple can be used as a cushion until you don't faint. During the fat-burning period last year, my teammate was hungry and carried it hard in order to prepare for an amateur competition. As a result, he lost his hand due to hypoglycemia during shoulder training. He hit the dumbbell on his instep and rested for two months. He lost more muscle than the fat-brushing in the previous two months. It was completely outweighed by the gain.

As for the "1-hour golden supplement window after training" that has been so popular before, academic circles now have different opinions. For ordinary natural fitness people, as long as the protein and total calories throughout the day are accurate, there is no need to cram in this window to make up for this window, and there is no need to wait for meals when you are clearly hungry.

If you are so hungry after training that all you can think about is fried chicken and burgers, don’t blame yourself too hard. Showing off one or two bites to satisfy your craving will not make your week of training in vain. I’m afraid that you will use the pretext of “replenishing energy after training” to show off a whole bucket of Family Bucket and a cup of full-sugar milk tea in one go. In that case, whether you are building muscle or fattening, you will definitely go astray.