The Evidence-Based Contest Prep Guide - Managing Hunger

Hunger management is perhaps the biggest obstacle to making it to the bodybuilding stage. Read on to find out how you can best cope with hunger!

N.B. I’ll use the words satiety and satiation interchangeably during this post. Yes, I know they have different meanings in the literature, but I don’t think that’s worth delving into for this post.

Read time: ~3-4 minutes

What happens to our metabolism when we prep?

When we’re at a sensible bodyweight and bodyfat, physiologically, our bodies would like to remain as they are. When we lose weight, our body has various mechanisms/strategies to slow down, stop or reverse weight loss. These are often collectively referred to as “metabolic adaptations” to weight loss.

These adaptations include both strategies to increase energy intake and strategies to reduce energy expenditure.

As far as energy expenditure goes, a few things take place. Firstly, after weight loss occurs, there seems to be a disproportional decrease in energy expenditure (1,2). I use the word “disproportional” because when you lose weight, it is expected that your energy expenditure will also decrease somewhat. This is due to three primary reasons; firstly, both your fat mass and fat-free mass expend energy, even while at rest, which is why they’re called “metabolically active”. That being said, fat-free mass (which, for our purposes, can be viewed as muscle mass) burns much more energy than fat mass. Secondly, losing weight reduces how much energy you will burn for most physical tasks like walking, running and lifting weights. In addition, it seems that we also get more “efficient” at physical activity, potentially burning less energy for the same tasks – even when losses in bodymass are accounted for (3,4). Thirdly, weight loss also likely lowers the levels of hormones that stimulate energy expenditure (5,6). When you put all of this together, dieting typically results in a reduction in energy expenditure. The good news is that by and large, this reduction in energy expenditure is relatively small and can be effectively mitigated by tracking your NEAT consistently and adjusting as necessary.

More relevant to hunger, the body also has various tools to make you eat more. Specifically, when in an extended calorie deficit, the concentrations of a variety of hormones that regulate hunger and energy expenditure change to increase your hunger1 (including leptin, insulin, testosterone, thyroid hormones, ghrelin and cortisol). Overall, these hormonal changes have a variety of effects:

·        Increased cravings in the short-term (7)

·        Increased hunger (8,9)

·        Decreased motivation to perform physical activity (10)

·        Reduction in BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and DIT (Diet-Induced Thermogenesis) (10)

An interesting phenomenon that occurs during weight loss dieting and prep in particular is food becoming “more tasty”. Anecdotally, many bodybuilders during prep eventually find foods they previously found bland very tasty and even find themselves liking foods they previously did not like. This can be thought of as a strategy the body uses to make you eat more.

Most of the above is most effectively addressed using behavioural psychology/habits, which I addressed at length here.

How can we reduce hunger?

Before we go any further, it seems as though creating/enlarging a caloric deficit through exercise may increase hunger less than creating a deficit through reduced energy intake (8,11,12). Thus, increasing NEAT as much as is sustainable (in terms of time, motivation, fatigue and avoiding overuse injury) to create the deficit is a good approach to reducing hunger.

Besides NEAT, there seem to be a few dietary factors influencing hunger and satiation.

First, it looks like your rate of eating can influence how much you eat when told to eat as much as you’d like (13). Simply put, purposely slowing down the rate at which you eat food may help you feel more satiated after a meal. Indeed, there also seems to be some evidence of chewing itself to moderate hunger, such that increasing the number of chews per bite may help satiate you (14). In a similar category of tricks, it may be helpful to practice mindful eating – which essentially refers to eating while focused on internal cues like your hunger, the taste of the meal, etc. Indeed, a systematic review suggests mindful eating may be helpful in reducing food intake (15). A simple way to practice both of these strategies is to avoid distractions while eating (such as watching something on YouTube) and to instead focus on the rate at which you eat as well as internal cues such as your hunger.

The food you consume itself likely also has some influence on how hungry/satiated you’ll feel once you’ve eaten. First, food texture seems to have some influence on satiety. Specifically, solid and more highly viscous foods seem to result in greater satiety than liquid and less viscous foods when macronutrients are accounted for (16). Palatability basically refers to how enjoyable eating a food is. It looks like palatability may have an impact on appetite, such that more palatable foods may increase appetite and less palatable foods may decrease appetite. As such, it may be a good idea to mostly eat foods that you do not find very palatable (i.e. do not enjoy eating much) when on a hard diet. That being said, this will need to be balanced – if the foods you eat are excessively unpalatable, you may not adhere to the diet and all your efforts will be in vain.

In general, foods that have low caloric densities will be good options for satiety (17). Protein intake likely also contributes somewhat to suppressing appetite (18). Fiber may also play a role in increasing satiety, but how large its effect is is unclear. In addition, fiber likely doesn’t “have as many calories” per gram as carbs, which means you can eat more of it and still lose weight (19).

An example of how to apply hunger management strategies

References

1.          Trexler, E. T., Smith-Ryan, A. E. & Norton, L. E. Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: Implications for the athlete. J. Int. Soc. Sports Nutr. 11, 1–7 (2014).

2.          Rosenbaum, M. & Leibel, R. L. Adaptive thermogenesis in humans. Int. J. Obes. 34, S47–S55 (2010).

3.          Rosenbaum, M. et al. Effects of experimental weight perturbation on skeletal muscle work efficiency in human subjects. Am. J. Physiol. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 285, R183–R192 (2003).

4.          Goldsmith, R. et al. Effects of experimental weight perturbation on skeletal muscle work efficiency, fuel utilization, and biochemistry in human subjects. Am. J. Physiol. - Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 298, 183–192 (2010).

5.          Hulmi, J. J. et al. The effects of intensive weight reduction on body composition and serum hormones in female fitness competitors. Front. Physiol. 7, 1–16 (2017).

6.          Mäestu, J., Jürimäe, J., Valter, I. & Jürimäe, T. Increases in ghrelin and decreases in leptin without altering adiponectin during extreme weight loss in male competitive bodybuilders. Metabolism. 57, 221–225 (2008).

7.          Meule, A. The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Curr. Nutr. Rep. 9, 251–257 (2020).

8.          Cameron, J. D. et al. Energy depletion by diet or aerobic exercise alone: Impact of energy deficit modality on appetite parameters. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 103, 1008–1016 (2016).

9.          Schwartz, M. W., Woods, S. C., Porte, D., Seeley, R. J. & Baskin, D. G. Central nervous system control of food intake. Nature 404, 661–671 (2000).

10.        Martin, C. K. et al. Effect of calorie restriction on resting metabolic rate and spontaneous physical activity. Obesity 15, 2964–2973 (2007).

11.        Thivel, D. et al. Energy depletion by 24-h fast leads to compensatory appetite responses compared with matched energy depletion by exercise in healthy young males. Br. J. Nutr. 120, 583–592 (2018).

12.        Doucet, McInis, K. & Mahmoodianfard, S. Compensation in response to energy deficits induced by exercise or diet. Obes. Rev. 19, 36–46 (2018).

13.        Robinson, E. et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of eating rate on energy intake and hunger. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 100, 123–151 (2014).

14.        Miquel-Kergoat, S., Azais-Braesco, V., Burton-Freeman, B. & Hetherington, M. M. Effects of chewing on appetite, food intake and gut hormones: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Physiol. Behav. 151, 88–96 (2015).

15.        Warren, J. M., Smith, N. & Ashwell, M. A structured literature review on the role of mindfulness, mindful eating and intuitive eating in changing eating behaviours: Effectiveness and associated potential mechanisms. Nutr. Res. Rev. 30, 272–283 (2017).

16.        Stribiţcaia, E., Evans, C. E. L., Gibbons, C., Blundell, J. & Sarkar, A. Food texture influences on satiety: systematic review and meta-analysis. Sci. Rep. 10, 1–18 (2020).

17.        Rolls, B. J. & Author, P. B. The relationship between dietary energy density and energy intake NIH Public Access Author Manuscript. Physiol Behav 97, 609–615 (2009).

18.        Leidy, H. J. et al. The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 101, 1320S-1329S (2015).

19.        Hervik, A. K. & Svihus, B. The role of fiber in energy balance. J. Nutr. Metab. 2019, (2019).