I guess it's my fault. I exercise for a few hours daily. It burns a lot of calories. I'll eat a big meal before bed and still wake up starving. I had a burger with two patties for lunch. That was at 12 pm. It's almost 4 pm which is too early to eat for me. But I'm starving. But if I eat too early I'll just be hungry again before bed. Wonder if protien powder would help. I don't know what to eat to stay full. I'm tired of being hungry all the time.
A few comments having been there as a competitive strength athlete:
I was, at one time in my life, up to around 10,000 calories per day. I would be on a q3hr eating regimen during my "bulking" up phases. I was also in the gym, like you, 2-3 hours about 4 days a week.
Over time, I developed what is known as "insulin resistance" and "metabolic syndrome". This is a pre-diabetic condition where, because your insulin levels never have the opportunity to drop down to their normal, healthy, baseline, the cells in the body develop a tolerance/unresponsiveness. The blood sugar rises, because the cells are not responsive to the level of insulin in the body, they then send signals to the brain, "I am starving!". You eat more, insulin rises again, sending nutrients to the cells. Rinse and repeat over several months to years and you can get yourself into a really bad situation. The body tries to compensate for the elevated blood sugar by converting it to fat. You're never satisfied. You have a smooth, soft, appearance to your body despite carrying a lot of muscle. This also diminishes your human growth hormone (HGH) over time. You become a "hard gainer", your ability to pack on muscle becomes diminished. It wasn't until late in life, my 30's-40's, where I was competing nationally, was "making weight", and had people around me to teach me this information.
How to overcome this. Competitive strength athletes do a few things. One example, is bodybuilders must cut their fat weight in order to compete. This requires a rather uncomfortable process of switching their lifting and diet regimen to allow for the insulin to drop significantly. It reverses the insulin resistance that may have occurred during the bulking phase. They compete, absolutely "shredded", but the next week or so, they are back into the bulking phase with low insulin and high HGH. They can pack on the muscle weight again. Powerlifters, wrestlers, MMA athletes in the lighter weight classes do this, as well, because they have to compete within a specific weight class. At some point, they all must flip from a bulking phase to a cutting phase.
Protein powder: Protein powders, in general, create a huge insulin spike that will often leave you more hungry than before. Protein powders are GREAT at the immediate post workout phase (the first 30 minutes after you stop your workout) when you insulin is at its lowest and your body can accept the huge surge of protein that it is about to receive. Otherwise, I DO NOT recommend protein powders as a "between meal" snack.
Tip: If you want to dampen down these insulin spikes and hunger cravings, one thing will work, healthy fats and oils. Avocado, olive, coconut oils, etc. those mono and polyunsaturated fats, especially the omega 3 varieties, when added to your meal will dampen the insulin responses, both the rise and fall, and allow you to get a more time between meals without hunger.
Tip: Another type of regimen is to lift hard, eat heavy 3-4 days a week, but also 3-4 days a week, eat lean, do your oils, and high fiber. The strategy here is that when you lift hard, it raises your metabolism for around 2 days, during your "off" days, you let your metabolism eat fat, and lower your insulin. It is uncomfortable, but the next day you hit the gym hard, your body is going to respond to that stimulus of food and exercise with high levels of HGH. Run the cycle and you will gain muscle and loose fat. I recommend meal prepping and a lot of mental discipline. Over time, you simply get used to those surges in grehlin, the "hunger hormone", that rise and fall throughout the day. It comes on, you chug some water, it goes away for a few hours. The next day you know you will be in the gym hitting it hard and can eat again.
