Despite my jacked-up efforts in the weight room, this is not a common occurrence.
I've been eating about 80 grams of lean protein a day (.8 g per lb of my bodyweight as recommended by numerous fitness sites), along with lots of veggies, beans, walnuts and minimal whole grains such as sweet potatoes and wheat breads all divided into about 5 meals/snacks a day. I'm only drinking water and green tea. If I stick to the plan, I can generally stave off the hunger - for the most part.
Today I made two mistakes. I didn't have a mid-morning snack and I made pasta for lunch. I think the two events are related. When I get hungry - and I mean really, really hungry, I crave carbs. The pasta is Dreamfields which claims to be a minimal carb pasta, but it tastes like the real thing (some sort of top-secret process virtually eliminates the glycemic spike normally associated with pasta). It has some protein and fiber, but apparently not enough of either as I was still hungry after I ate a good-sized bowl.
Lesson learned.
I realized that by working out hard, my body is continually working hard to repair damaged muscle fibers - the key to increasing lean body mass. To build muscle, you need protein, so I downed a lo-carb protein shake (EAS Chocolate) made with skim milk to correct the problem. Now, it's mid-afternoon and I'm hungry again so I grabbed a snack that will not blowout my calories for the day. Enter: Muscle Milk Light protein bar. Yum.
At 160 chewy-chocolatey calories it packs in 15g of protein, 18g carbs, 4g fiber, and 5g fat. It will stave off my hunger until dinnertime while giving me the energy I need for an after-work trip to the gym.
F.Y.I.
My average caloric intake in food over the past two weeks has been approximately 1,200 calories a day. My body needs about 1,325 calories just to maintain what I've got - and that's at rest. But, if I want to lose about a pound a week, I need a deficit closer to 500 calories a day. Since that would allow me only 875 pathetic little calories to eat, I have to make up the difference through exercise.
LUCKILY, training with weights (and I mean training, not just tinkering around) I'm torching calories, revving up my metabolism and building muscle. I'm already starting to see the difference and can't wait to see how I look in 30 days.
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