Famished before exercise and after weight gain!

[Justme02]

Hello all,

I Need to lose weight and I've been trying to do it with intermittent fasting and exercise involving some running and cutting back on carbs and sugar.I'm finding I'm starving before exercising and dont have the stamina unless I eat!but when I eat it starts the cycle of binging for me and I cant effectively fast.i fast from 8 till 12 next day and only can run in the morning when I have help with the kids.
What do you guys eat before working out that's low carb ,not sugary and wont spike my insulin to eat crap all day later?
Any advice help would be great.as you can probably tell I'm a novice to this,but need need to be healthier.

Thank you

I exercise in the morning, but have weetabix or some fairly plain cereal first. I am hungry after exercise and have an apple then before work. I calorie count though rather than fast though Can you change your fasting hours at all?

@GOODCAT hello,I find eating anything with any sort of sugar just starts my hunger for the whole day,if I stop my fasting earlier say 6 or 7 I sit at night once kids are in bed obsessing about food!
The human mind is a demon!

I eat eggs in some form or another. No sugar, lots of protein and nutrients.

@Aquamarine1029 never thought about eggs!will try tomorrow!do you think they'd sustain you for a run lasting an hour?

I do. Eggs are the world's most perfect food in terms of nutrition. Cut the carbs and add eggs. I think you'll see a big improvement.

I tried the 16:8 diet and yanno it just didnt work. Training on hunger pangs suck.

I cut down on sugar and went full on protein short term with fibre. It was horrible at first gas wise but it sorted out the snacking full on.

Work out your protein requirements from this and go from there. The covid weight gain is finally shifting. It's rare I feel hunger and I know that's not necessarily a good thing. If eating is your thing then I would guess your protein isn't enough?

www.jamessmithacademy.com/macro-calculator/

Ok will definitely up my protein,wish my tummy would just feel full and my mind would say enough!

It will. You can't be eating enough protein if you're craving sugar. I wouldn't have believed it until I worked it out.

Its hard to meet what you need at first, just work up to it. With fibre though or you could clear a supermarket.

Ok will definitely up my protein,wish my tummy would just feel full and my mind would say enough!

Perhaps your mindset of "feeling full" is something to think about. I'm terms of our health, feeling full isn't a good thing, and it's a sensation you can become addicted to. We should eat enough to feel satisfied and no longer hungry, but being full simply is not good for us. Up your protein and make absolutely sure you are drinking plenty of water. Water, not soda or squash, even the diet versions. Our brains often translate dehydration into feeling hungry, so proper hydration is essential. When you find yourself feeling "starving", which you're not, drink a large glass of water and wait 15 minutes to see how you feel.

To be really nerdy - human fat releases hormones during weight loss, these trigger your appetite in an effort to maintain your weight (as a cave-woman this would have been important)
I find keeping this in mind helps keep me focused on my goals.

@Aquamarine1029 @equuscaballus yes I think I
definitely need to make food more about being a fuel and not a rush or pure pleasure which I must indulge in.

Once you get used to it running fasted is easy. I never eat before running every morning for 16 - 18 kms.

Have you been fasting consistently for more than 3 weeks? I have read that it can take that long for your body to switch from accessing glycogen for energy to using stored fat (which is what you need it to access in order to run in the morning). Feast Fast Repeat explains the 'switch' and many members of an IT Facebook group I'm in say that their running/workout performance is enhanced when doing it in the fasted state. But that takes time to develop. I certainly have more energy in the mornings. I feel a slump once I eat, particularly if it is carb heavy.

Are you clean fasting? Only water or black tea/black coffee? No flavours that could be spiking your insulin response and making you feel hungry?

You are actually meant to be exercising before breaking fast as that speeds up your weight loss. O don't do cardio though, as I hate it, so running would be a big no. Have you tried lifting weights? You are also supposed to break fast with protein, eggs for example and avoid carbs first thing. Loads of videos on YouTube.

@Jemenfouscompletement oh that's good to hear!do you use gels? Do you intermittent fast too?

@DianaT1969 hi thanks.ive been fasting for 10 days,I have been drinking coffee with splash of full fat milk first thing when waking but apart from the plain water only.i feel weak when I try to do any endurance after first mile, feel like after 15 hours fasting I've no energy even though I've absolutely no hunger surprisingly.im going to try an egg before my longer runs.hopefully I'll build up to doing it without anything and burn fat as fuel.

@Justme02
I never use gems not even in long races I don't like them...for normal runs I don't take anything up to 2 hours when running except water, if more than 2 hours jellybabies. For marathons I just eat jelly babies and banana I have a sensitive stomach so keep it natural.
I rarely eat breakfast even after a run.

If you’re running for an hour after 15 hours fasting, no wonder you feel weak, your body is not designed for that.

I run fasted each morning but we eat dinner at 8pm each night and if I ate earlier than that I would struggle.

If I want to do a 16:8 type fast, I would be eating dinner at 8pm, running 6am, then eating a lunch at midday. So still some fasting post run. But I would only be running 30/40mins because my body just couldn’t cope with any more without more fuel.

I figure gels aren’t actually very good for you so I would rather eat more “real” food than the gels. They are like 200 cals each so if I have 3 during a long run, that’s as many cals as a meal! Therefore I only use them on runs of 10 miles plus when my last meal won’t sustain me for the whole run.

Sounds awful and unsustainable.

It's ok to exercise on a empty belly - I can run about 15 miles on a cup of tea. But I'm not hungry because I would have eaten normally the day before.

Putting your body under the stress of exercise when you've not got enough energy is miserable and really increases your risk of injury.

I would try and think more intelligently about it all rather than just focus on weight loss.