Trying to lose weight but so hungry from exercise

[iwantsunshine1]

I'm on my second week of cardio and strength training and today I did a 30 minute strength session and a 25 minute cardio session. I am SO hungry! I know I need to be in a calorie defect to lose weight but also need to eat more to gain muscle so what do I do? What kind of calorie defective should I be in? I'm only 5'0 so my calories are already really low. My tdee with 3-4 exercise sessions a week is 1700. Sedentary is 1300

I used to have sessions with a PT and had 2 eggs before those sessions.

What are you eating?

In my limited experience, I started exercising in December, I was ravenous, but as I continued exercising it evened back out. I found it helpful to eat directly before or after exercising so that I wasn't adding in an extra meal in those early days and weeks.

Volume and protein
I know a massive salad is a cliche but veg, salad etc you can get loads for your calories
Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, pickles, celery, takes ages to eat and is volume food
Eggs are always good
Soup - if you're hungry between meals then a broth type soup - random pick but you can have the whole carton for 200 cals

groceries.asda.com/product/soup/new-covent-garden-tomato-basil-soup/1000247888736

My breakfast is usually porridge with protein powder and frozen berries which fills me up for ages

So you could have

Porridge and protein powder and berries or scrambled eggs and a piece of toast
Huge salad with chicken or fish
Carton of soup
Meat/fish and veg for tea
Sugar free jelly/mini solero
Probably even fit some chocolate into there! I like a Freddo or randomly marshmallows are low cal if you like them

Look up April Whitney on youtube. She focuses on the nutritional needs of small women who have the disadvantage of a sedentary maintainence level of calories already looking like a larger person's low calorie diet plan.

As pp said, focus on fibre and protein with some healthy fats. They take longer to digest and their caloric avaliability is lower than simpler, startchy carbs.

Objectively an hour of exercise split between weights and cardio isn't going to be a considerable extra calorie burn- I'd typically burn about 250 in that session, so it's the general nutrition that needs looking at. Timing may need tweaking, but adding extra food is very likely to override the calorie burn from the exercise.

The exercise is well worth doing regardless and has so many benefits beyond weight management, and the improved muscle mass will help long term.

More protein probably. I find I’m much less like to be ravenous if I’ve had eggs or full fat yoghurt for breakfast. Also more fibre. I don’t take protein powder or anything but I do try and make sure I have protein at every meal and who,e meal rice ground flax seeds…whole meal bread. And very little sugar….

More protein - builds muscle and fills you up. I do strength/cardio training 4 times a week and on those days I add 2 protein shakes (100 cals each).

I have eggs and a creatine smoothie before a gym session.

....it depends what your goals are.

If you eat in a small calorie surplus of 100-200 calories and track your macros and lift progressively heavier weights you will build muscle mass. You will also gain weight. You will also gain a small % of body fat.

Once you've done that maybe 10 - 12 weeks you then drop your calories to 100-200 under. Carry on strength training with progressive overload. You then drop body fat and reveal toned muscle over another 8 weeks or so.

Psychologically it's quite hard as you have to come to terms with weight going up on the scale. But at the end of it your metabolism is better as muscle is metabolically more active so you can eat more.

Or you just eat at maintenance calories. You can drop body fat that way. You may recomposition some of the body fat to muscle as well. The muscle growth won't be as much . Either way you have to track it consistently. A PT can help.