Feeling hunger after eating - Fear of diabities

Nutrition
1

Constant Hunger and Strange Symptoms After Indoor Training - Need Advice!

I’m reaching out to the forum community because I’m experiencing some concerning issues since starting indoor training. Despite maintaining a healthy diet (which I’ll detail below), I’m struggling with constant hunger and recently had some episodes with some concerning symptoms. While I’ve consulted a nutritionist, I haven’t found solutions that address my worries, so I’m hoping for some guidance from others who might have similar experiences.

The Hunger Battles:

Ever since starting indoor training, I’ve been battling seemingly insatiable hunger, even when I follow what I consider a balanced diet. For instance, on Thursday:

  • Breakfast: Granola with milk and fruit
  • Lunch: 2 bread sandwiches with cheese
  • Snack (still hungry): Leftover chicken (100g) and Pho instant noodles
  • More Snacks (still hungry): Additional fruit, smoothie with blueberries, and some bread
  • Dinner: Large chicken breast with quinoa and veggies

Despite this substantial intake, I felt ravenously hungry again just 10 minutes after dinner. I tried snacking on a banana and some bread, which offered temporary relief, but the hunger pangs returned. Surprisingly, a handful of jelly beans seemed to do the trick till bed, tho not with it’s problems.

Unfortunately, this late-night snacking backfired. I had a terrible night’s sleep, woke up feeling excessively thirsty, and experienced some strange symptoms like: numbness in my hands during sleep, and pain in my armpits during the day.

These symptoms, coupled with some online research (please note, not medical advice!), have led me to worry about potential diabetes. However, I’m unsure:

Could my excessive hunger be related to overdoing carbs, leading to energy crashes and cravings? Or am I undereating carbs, causing fatigue and hunger pangs?
Could my symptoms be related to something else entirely, unrelated to diabetes?

Seeking Guidance and Answers:

While I consulted a nutritionist who recommended reducing my calorie intake slightly, this led to extreme muscle soreness and constant hunger. Now, I’m feeling lost and confused about:

  • Effective Hunger Management: What concrete advice can you offer to manage my hunger effectively while training indoors?
  • Nutritional Needs: How can I ensure I’m fueling my body adequately both for training and managing hunger without sacrificing health?
  • Symptom Clarification: Should I consider seeking professional medical advice to explore the cause of my symptoms beyond self-diagnosis?

I just want to add that the cut in calories was not super excessive by the nutricionist, and it was not to with an aim to reduce body fat or anything.

I understand that self-diagnosis can be dangerous, and I’m not looking for medical advice here. However, any insights, experiences, or recommendations you can share based on your knowledge or similar situations would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Also I’m 29 year old, my FTP was at arround 196W last time I checked, and I have been doing Low Volume, starting to transation to Mid Volume slowly, but taking some time since I moved house and plan to travel.

2

You’ve made clear that you haven’t gotten any medical advice so far - that might be a good first step.

13 Likes
3

Are you tracking caloric intake? Seems you are not getting enough calories to cover your BMR plus your training.

4 Likes
4

I have gone a year ago whith this complains to my GP here in the Netherlands, but I went in seperate instances where I complained about excessive hunger. Then instance I complained about my armpit pain, and then instance I tried to get it checked for Diabities and they were very dismissive, and they are in NL.

I do want to get it acesssed again. This post is actually one of the last thing I’m doing. After this only occurs to me, try a different GP, try a diff Dieatiatian. etc.

5

Hows your sleep, stress and or hormones?

6

Obviously, if you are concerned about a medical issue, you should consult a medical doctor. However, you are not even 30 and getting physically active. So I would not jump to conclusions.

Quick question: what are you taking in while on the bike? You left that out.

Perhaps your dietitian has no idea about the caloric needs of cyclists. Just to give you some perspective: your basal metabolic rate should lie in the ballpark of 2,000 calories per day. If you did Palisade +1 (a threshold workout with over-unders) at your FTP, you would expend an additional 800 calories just for the workout (I took your FTP into account). That’s an additional 40 %.

When I started cycling, I would do most of my workouts fasted. I would get ravenous afterwards and eat half a loaf of bread for breakfast (no joke). After I started fueling correctly (@Dr_Alex_Harrison has a great app called Saturday if you are unsure), I just have a normal breakfast after training. I can lose weight if I want to by making subtle tweaks to e. g. my breakfast.

2 Likes
7

You can assess if you are eating enough calories by checking if your weight is stable (if you are not already underweight).
Getting carbs during the workout usually helps to fight hunger out of it.
It looks like your diet is very low on fat, and very high in carbs. Fat helps regulate the insulin spike and satiety sensation. With a ftp of 196w, your carbs need should not be “that” high. You are also snacking carbs often. It could really be a good idea to check diabetes markers in a blood test.

5 Likes
8

This comes from my experience with losing weight that worked for me to not feel hungry. Protein and fat consumption definitely impacted how I felt with hunger. Staying hydrated was also important.

Your body is craving something.

Eat more protein should help. Your lunch is too light in my perspective. That snack you are eating could easily be in with your lunch.

I have found what I eat impacts how much I eat. If I eat oatmeal it sustains me longer then regular cereal. If I eat bread and cheese I will be hungry later. A grilled cheese doesnt sustain me as well as other choices with say chicken salad sandwich etc.

Track your calories. Are you really eating enough given the cycling.

The other comment is I find if I fuel while I ride I am not as hungry after my workout. If I dont fuel then I seem to eat more the rest of the day.

2 Likes
9

I don’t see a lot of carbs in your sample meal there. It kinds of depends how hard and long your workouts are.

I would add up all those calories and compare it to your base metabolic rate + your workout calories. You can use an app to calculate this. I like the Lose It! app but there are a hundred others.

Unless you are severely obsess you probably don’t have type 2 diabetes.

10

Old guy here:
When I was training and in my 20’s I could eat anything. One of my favorites was old style Italian places in a town called Occidental. You got never ending minestrone soup, salad, beans, french bread, ravioli. Then for the main course either a steak or 1/2 a chicken. Pie with ice cream for dessert.
Maybe you’re not eating enough or enough or something your body wants.

1 Like
11

It’s hard to give any useful feedback, unless we know your weight, your height, and how many calories you are consuming daily along with what your calorie burn of your workout is. Macros also matter. But just based on looking at what you put, it doesn’t look like that much and it definitely doesn’t look like enough of protein, it looks like you’re hungry cause you’re eating but that’s just with the limited information.

1 Like
12

As others have said, not a lot to go on without details on macro mix and actual calories. I assume your nutritionist would be gathering those details and has the experience to make some better suggestions than you would get here with very little data to go on.

That said, here’s what stands out to me -
That breakfast sounds really light on protein and fat (unless it’s a huge portion of milk)
I have no idea what a “bread sandwich” is, but i assume/hope it’s not just bread and cheese. Again, sounds light on protein, maybe light on fat depending on what cheese you choose.

I’d suspect you will feel less hungry if you increased your protein intake.

1 Like
13

Breakfast lacks protein, and right now is just sugar and carbs. While that works fine if you’re going to train afterwards, it’s not going to help with keeping you full. Also granola isn’t super healthy, there are way better things to eat. But main thing here is total lack of protein.

Lunch. Sandwiches ain’t a proper lunch (most of the time). If you have sandwiches for lunch its the second meal of the day that lacks proper nutrition. Cheese won’t help training, and it’s not going to keep you full for long.

The snacks are then proportional to the lack of proper food for the first two meals.

Dinner is great. Protein, veggies, some fibre etc.

You really need to improve breakfast and lunch, otherwise your day will fall apart.

  1. Aim for 20-25g of protein for each meal
  2. Have a proper lunch, not sandwiches
  3. Eat more if you are hungry, especially carbs if you’re training
  4. Eat more veggies
3 Likes
14

Obviously, if you have medical concerns, you should ask a doctor, and not the internet. However, I find it unlikely that you’d suddenly get diabetes because you’ve started indoor training.

The most common reason for feelings of hunger is a lack of food, and not some much rarer medical issue. :slightly_smiling_face:

Have you tried eating more? What you list doesn’t look like a lot of food to me. I could easily have all that, and two bowls of pasta for dinner too. I’m a veggie though, and meat eaters seem to eat less than me.

I don’t see how a handful of jelly babies would disturb your sleep. Maybe you didn’t sleep well, because you were hungry?

Also, how much water did you drink? Indoor training can lead to excessive sweating and loss of water. Are drinking enough to compensate?

15

How much do you weigh?

1 Like
16

The fundamentals are simple here.
You need to fuel your body well to do structured training. The harder you train, the more fuel you need, and the less likely you are to lose weight, since you need more fuel to power your training body.

This guide (from the old Sufferfest) is the best thing I’ve ever found that explains it. But it explains it in the context of fuelling for sufferfest, so you need to grasp the main concepts, then adapt the specifics to your training plan (based on volume and daily and weekly TSS). Worth reading. (At the end are very useful tables on food portions for 50g carb servings):

Your Intake:
The estimated calories for the provided meal plan are as follows:

  • Breakfast: Granola with milk and fruit

    • 1 cup of granola with 1/2 cup of whole milk and a medium-sized apple: Approximately 400-500 calories[5].

  • Lunch: 2 bread sandwiches with cheese

    • 2 slices of bread, 2 oz of cheese, and some condiments: Around 600-700 calories, depending on the type of bread and cheese[5].

  • Snack: Leftover chicken (100g) and Pho instant noodles

    • 100g of chicken breast: Approximately 165 calories
    • Pho instant noodles: Around 240-300 calories, depending on the brand and preparation[5].

  • More Snacks: Additional fruit, smoothie with blueberries, and some bread

    • Additional fruit: Varies based on the type and amount
    • Smoothie with blueberries: Around 150-200 calories for a 12 oz serving
    • Some bread: Around 100-200 calories, depending on the type and amount

  • Dinner: Large chicken breast with quinoa and veggies

    • Large chicken breast: Approximately 165 calories
    • Quinoa and veggies: Roughly 300-400 calories, depending on the portion size and ingredients

The total estimated calories for the meal plan range from 2170 to 2765, depending on specific food choices and portion sizes.

Sources
[1] Menus Interactive Menu Planner, NHLBI
[2] MyPlate Plan MyPlate Plan | MyPlate
[3] Eat This Much: The Automatic Meal Planner https://www.eatthismuch.com
[4] 1500-Calorie Diet Plan for Weight Loss - EatingWell 1500-Calorie Meal Plan
[5] Simple 30-Day Weight-Loss Meal Plan: 1,200 Calories 1,200-Calorie Diet Meal Plan

By Perplexity at https://www.perplexity.ai/search/2bf4dd72-7cd9-49dc-8599-169e0cad4916

Workout Calorie Estimates: (from my Garmin)
Coy = 607
Sleeping Beauty -4 = 485
Capulin = 705
Fatbike 20km = 2212

So, even at Low Volume training, you are probably not eating enough over the week. I think you need to add calories and time when you eat them closer to your workouts.

Hope these ideas help.

6 Likes
17

:exploding_head:
Holy smokes! That’s a lot of calories.

Thanks for your post, lots of helpful links. :+1:

18

Diabetes mellitus literally means honey sweet flow (ie urine). In the past doctors used to taste patients urine to diagnose diabetes mellitus , nowadays you can just buy urine test strips which aren’t terribly expensive

19

I would be very cautious trying to diagnose yourself. In countries outside the US (i. e. countries where healthcare is affordable/free), there is no need trying to “pre-diagnose” yourself.

I’m not sure whether the procedure is the same for type 2 diabetes as it is for pregnancy-induced diabetes, but when my wife (= pregnant) was tested, she had to come in early in the morning, fasted. They’d take a baseline glucose measurement. Then she had to drink a carb-loaded drink, got measured again. Then after, I think, 2 hours, her glucose got measured again. No doctor had to sample her urine, a lab tested her blood :wink:

My understanding is that this way they got a (fasted) baseline, see how high it spiked and then how quickly and to what degree glucose levels fell over time.

PS Fortunately, my wife tested negative. My sister, on the other hand, does have pregnancy-induced diabetes, which complicates things as she is struggling to put and keep on weight (due to other complications).

20
  1. you need a new GP. if he is dismissive of this, who’s to say he won’t be dismissive of other things.
  2. you would benefit from a new dietician/nutritionist for 3-6 months (the one with a degree…I forget which is which.) tbh I don’t think you even reaaaallly need a “cycling” nutritionist. not like you’re putting in 15 hours at massive wattages. you’re just doing more exercise than most. any skilled nutritionist should be able to sort that out for you.

sometimes part of health care is trying one person’s advice then seeing it doesn’t work…then learn what you can from them and move on to try advice from someone else.

I know both are a pita and $$$ but you’re worth it.

quick things:

  • you’re probably not eating enough while on the bike
  • if I ate like that i’d be hungry 100% of the time. I need fat in my diet or else I get really hungry.
  • if I ate naked carbs (carbs with no fat…like bread and banana), I’d be hungry. I try to eat fat, carb, and protein even if it’s just a snack

glgl

1 Like