I thought this poll of 150,000 people was pretty interesting. Note that “lack of knowledge” barely made the list if you count “don’t know what I should eat”. Almost every challenge was psychological, environmental, or based on knowingly making poor choices.
What do you think?
I don’t struggle with making good choices, it’s staying within a calorie budge that is hard, especially on hard workout days
I’ll have a plan of what I eat, but inevitably, I end up justifying more food or there’s some event (ie department caters chipotle for lunch) and I go overboard.
it sometimes doesn’t even feel like I have full control.
My calorie targets aren’t low
Research is kinda mixed on workouts and appetite, but most in-the-trenches lifters (not guys in labcoats) notice that the harder the workout, the more “feed me” signals they get. And this might be more true for women because of hormonal differences. My wife notices that when she trains super heavy, her appetite rages that day, so these days she just avoids pure powerlifting-style training.
Now, to play devil’s advocate, we could say that this part is a struggle with making good choices. You don’t have to partake, after all.
Sometimes Fed-Ex brings everyone here at T Nation lunch. We usually get to order it, so I just decline if it’s from a place with zero decent options. Other times when they just bring in stuff, I’ll eat my pre-prepped lunch or have a shake. The best form of willpower is called “being full”.
by good choices, I mean in terms of the food themselves. I’m not tempted by sweets or processed foods, it’s things like meat, cheese, yoghurt that are my downfall. I never go for the chips, it’s really hard to pass up guac and chicken or steak
glad I’m not alone in this
Ah, gotcha. Gotta love guac! Cheese is tricky too. Nothing too terribly wrong with it, but the calories add up fast. I haven’t been to places like Chipotle in a while, but when I’d go I’d just ask them to not use cheese just to back down the calories. (Yes, they looked at me like I had two heads… but at least both heads only had one chin each.)
Thinking out loud, I wonder if workout nutrition (before/during training) would help tamp down the hungries triggered by heavy workouts. Sort of like giving the body what it needs so it doesn’t beg for it later?
Interesting. I’ve tried adding something small, like a slice of GF bread, preworkout (I train first thing). Haven’t tried intra, but my hard workouts are only 90min-2hrs
I think there’s a pretty strong argument to suggest that you should give in to these cravings.
On another note, what is it like to have a sweet tooth?
It’s not bad, unless I run out of Sour Patch Kids. Then it sucks.
Chocolate doughnut rampages!
Glad I’m not alone on this.
Please tell me, where does Cool whip fit into this equation? I feel Cool whip deserves a honorable mention, considering the amount of forum space it has respectfully deserved lately. Maybe as a restoration of faith in regards to certain forum members.
Apart from finding things that agree with me, mine is definitely “eating too close to bed”.
Somehow I always end up chasing calories late at night. Even if I eat a ton of calories earlier on I adopt a mentality of “well I only need that much more so no rush”. Before I know it I’ve fallen asleep on the sofa and need a quarter of my required intake minutes before going to bed.
Only?
I’m upset at a lack of option for “eating all this goddamn food”, although maybe that can slot into “time to prepare meals”
I look forward to diet breaks/weight loss whenever it comes.
I’d have to go with large portions.
I had no idea what so ever what an actual serving size of anything was when I had to start measuring my food for accurate content.
Most things Ive eaten for most of my life have been at least double and often triple the actual serving size.
So that was a real eye opener.
A lot of it is resting between sets. “Hard” <=> heavy squats or deadlifts
Try Surge Workout Fuel. That stuff helps you push harder and kept my hunger in check during hard workout days during the Surge challenge.
I know I sound like a shill for BioTest here, but it’s truly the best non-protein supplement I have ever used.
I’d love to try but too expensive.
