Tell me your honest opinion of this post-exercise food pls

[tulips27]

I've exercised all morning today and for some reason I've got really ravenous and I think I've undone all my work (although I'm not exercising for weight loss in particular).

Breakfast: two black coffees
Cycle 5 miles
Swim 45 minutes

Post swim snack: banana from my bag, a few nuts (so far so good)

Now at this point I would normally go home and eat nothing till my evening meal, but because the weather was so nice I treated myself to a Tesco meal deal which I never do because I can't afford it! I just got carried away.

Meal deal: Brie and cranberry sandwich, hot chocolate

Cycle 5 miles

Evening meal: two samosas and a side salad (no dressing)

Then (!) I was still hungry and this is where things got out of control, I've just demolished another samosa and a small bag of kettle chips from the meal deal that I was saving.

So if you look at it, I've ended up putting away a lot of unhealthy food and probably lost my gains from exercising at all. But I was soooo hungry, I still am. I could eat another dinner right now if I'm totally honest. 😩

Regular exercisers, where am I going wrong? I'm starving. Any advice welcome.

What do you mean by losing your gains? What are your goals? You say weight loss isn't it, so then it depends what it is. I do strength training, my goal is to get stronger, gains made in the gym wouldn't be negated by what I ate unless I didn't get enough protein or never ate healthy food. One meal like that wouldn't make any difference. So it comes down to what the gains are you're trying to make?

Two samosas and a side salad is a starter not a main meal

You should have had a proper dinner - that would have meant you didn't need to demolish the crisps!

If you're trying to diet, samosas are shit. They are simultaneously calories dense and not very filling.

What you want is nutrient dense foods which are very filling, and give a moderate amount of calories.

My spidey senses tell me exercise addiction. And eating disorder

Where you're going wrong is you're not eating enough for that level of exercise - you usually have a banana and some nuts and that's it til evening? It's no wonder you couldn't sustain that. Eat properly. Fuel yourself properly.

Hang on..you expected to go a whole day on just two coffees, a banana and a handful of nuts? And consider two samosas and a salad to be a meal? It's no wonder you were ravenous, you've not had a decent meal all day!

Well you're not eating especially nutritious food, for a start!

Where is the protein? You're just eating carbs, which might satiate you 'in the moment' but won't keep you feeling full/satisfied. In fact, too many carbs will make you hungry, which is what's happening to you.

If you're not exercising for weight loss*, what is the 'work' or the 'gains' you think you're undoing?

*you'd have to be doing a huge amount of exercise every day for weight loss - your diet will be more important here, and yours is a diet designed to impede weight loss, if not result in weight gain

Losing your gains? Lol, you’ll never make gains on that rubbish diet.

This is a weird way to eat.

Post exercise I'd expect to have something with protein... A tuna salad, avocado, eggs, chicken, chickpeas etc

Then evening a proper meal.

There's nothing wrong with having a brie and cranberry sandwich - but it sounds like you're beating yourself up over this?

You've had a series of snacks all day. I would focus on 2-3 proper meals which are balanced.

You need more protein after exercise, at least 20g within 30 minutes of exercising is recommended. I have a high protein yoghurt (the calcium is good too!) and a generous handful of almonds.
That will help you to feel less hungry later, but I agree with others who are suggesting you look carefully at what you consider constitutes a meal!

Started so well with the banana and nuts but samosa and salad for tea?
I assume you're vegetarian? You need a whole meal - carbs, protein, vegetables for your evening meal.
Fair enough if normally you only want to have two meals a day but you need to actually have a proper meal.

You don't need any additional protein other than you'd get from a normal, balanced diet for such a relatively small amount of cardio exercise.

When I says gains I don't mean in a fitness/gym sense, I just mean generally in trying to be healthier.

I mean If I'd stayed at home and not exercised but eaten normally I would have been better off overall.

Yes I'm vegetarian, I thought I had protein covered with the nuts but maybe not.

That's not much exercise really.

You should eat three meals a day though. Porridge made with skimmed milk, mushroom and spinach and cheese omelette for lunch, Dahl and prawn curry for dinner.

Thats what I'd eat on a day like that. You don't need snacks unless you're exercising a lot more, eg 20 mile bike ride, 10km run or two yoga classes.

You're snacking because your actual meals either don't exist or are processed, low nutrition junk so your body wants more.

"You're snacking because your actual meals either don't exist or are processed, low nutrition junk so your body wants more."

Yes, this. You need protein three times a day with that amount of exercise, not just a handful of nuts. You also need more low GI carbs to give you consistent energy.

A coffee and a banana isn't going to see you through two hours exercise!

I couldn't swim longer because it was in open water so I got too cold, I do agree it's not that much.

Trying to sustain yourself until dinner on just black coffee and one banana and 3 nuts is obviously a crazy plan to start with

eat some normal food (toast, eggs, yoghurt, muesli, fruit whatever) and don’t be so weirdly restrictive

setting yourself up for a fail

Ok open water swimming for 45 minutes is a lot.

I didn't mean to be rude about the amount of exercise...sorry I was rude.

I just meant that the issue isn't really about undoing good work, or how to eat when exercising, so much as you need to think of three meals a day that are nutritious and filling (meaning vegetables and protein).

If doing strenuous exercise supplement with fruit i find is best because you need those sugars then.

Thanks everyone. Some points I'm getting from your advice is:

• Samosas are neither healthy nor nutritious (I thought they were about neutral)
• Omelette is a great idea, thanks! I never have eggs but it could work. Also high-protein yoghurt and chickpeas (not together!)
• Having a full evening meal to prevent binge eating later

*are

@Pineappleskies That's OK, I didn't mention it :) It's true, I need to get back in the pool and put in more work. I can't just use the fact that it's chilly outside to excuse myself.

Do you have a history of disordered eating @tulips27?

No, not at all :)

Sorry, everyone! I have left out a key point which is the reason for having the bizarre samosas and salad meal is nothing to do with eating/diets etc., it's that I'm avoiding using heat to save money on the electricity bill.