The Secret’s Out
It’s not a coincidence. If you feel extra hungry on rest days this could be a really awesome sign you might not be eating enough carbs, calories, or BOTH on a daily basis! Feeling so hungry on rest days than you do on your training is not actually a problem. It means everything is working properly and your body is asking for more of the good stuff.
Recovery Matters Too
On rest days and during deload weeks, workout activity is much lower than usual. As a result, the body is likely experiencing a little more recovery than it usually does during a typical week of training, which is why you’re feeling extra hungry on the days you don’t workout.
Recovery comes in numerous forms. For example, taking time off exercise and time off being physically active, eating food and lots of carbs, getting more sleep at night, getting soft tissue work… the list goes on.
If we take time off from working out, but then also eat fewer calories and/or fewer carbs, we might actually be canceling out all the benefits of our recovery.
So, if we find we’re consistently ravenous and extra hungry on rest days and/or deload weeks, it might be a good indicator that we might not be eating enough for our activity and lifestyle.
Maintenance Calories
When you’re feeling extra hungry on rest days ( day in and day out), you may want to consider finding our maintenance calories and increasing your daily intake to that amount.
If you need help getting a baseline for where to start with estimating your maintenance calories, we recommend checking out LCK’s 130-page nutrition ebook, The Ultimate Guide to Nutrition, Muscle Gain, Fat Loss, & More.
To experiment in finding your individual maintenance needs, we’d suggest first moving around your macros by increasing how many carbs we’re averaging daily. If we still don’t have any luck after a few weeks, it might be time to start slowly increasing overall calories, especially carbs.
Bottom Line
Remember that most active individuals who are working out and resistance training 3-6 times per week likely often need a bare minimum of something like ~1,600-2,000+ calories per day (if not more), just to support basic life functions.
Disclaimer: This may or may not be enough food to support your actual exercise and/or daily activity.
Remember, we can’t drive a car on empty. If we enjoy being active, we gotta eat to support all that exercise and activity! Feeling extra hungry on rest days is just an indicator that you need to reevaluate your daily caloric intake and make changes to best support your body’s needs.
For some minimal cook food ideas, check out this post, Walmart Grocery Guide: Minimal Cook Food Ideas.
