Anyone Else Eat Huge on Rest Days?

Nutrition
1

So I’ve been carb cycling for about two months now. Normally my “money workouts” are on high-carb days, “normal priority” workouts get moderate carbs, and I only eat low-carb on off days. Basically following Coach Thibaudeau’s Carb Cycling Codex*.

During the week, I find it a little bit of a chore to shovel enough calories into my face-hole post-workout and for the rest of the day… But man, on those rest days…!

My appetite gets huge. I don’t really gorge myself on chocolate cake or anything, and I’m not craving sweet/fatty/salty stuff… But I’ll have a hearty 800-calorie meal, and be hungry again in half an hour. The rest of the week, I hardly ever feel hunger with my normal 6 meal split, but on a rest day, I get that punched-in-the-stomach hungry feeling that says “Food! Now!” This will hit me several times a day.

What’s up with that? There are two reasons I can think of for such a thing:

  1. Because I’m not working out that day, I have lower levels of catabolic stress hormones (e.g. cortisol) than I would on a day that I’ve lifted. That should put me in a more anabolic state, which my muscles are taking advantage of by triggering my hunger reflex, as if to say, “Conditions are optimal, ship in the materials!”

  2. I just feel compelled to eat when I’m bored :slight_smile:

Does anyone else get that? Should I listen to my stomach, or am I just gonna get fat?

*Christian Thibaudeau’s Carb Cycling Codex: The Carb Cycling Codex

2

I think it has more to do with metabolism. Whenever I switch from an exercise more, eat more cycle to an exercise less, eat less cycle (and vice versa), My appetite shoots up for about a week. However, on a normal off day (I don’t have a moderate day), it actually feels like I’m eating more, even though it’s less.

RE: loading on rest days, skiploading is recommended on the last day of the week, on a rest day, after a rest day… so it can be done. However, I’d just stick with whatever protocol you’re on, especially if it’s working for you.