What do you do with evening calories?

TimothyFish

With the goal of losing 2lbs a week, my daily calorie goal is 1,600. When I get home in the afternoon, it is down to about 600. But then I hop on the bike and ride for 30 miles or more. During the ride, I eat between 150 and 600 calories. I drink a recovery drink and eat a sandwich or something and finish it off with ice cream. If MyFitnessPal's calorie counts are right, I may have 1,700 or more calories left in my net calorie goal. What am I supposed to do with that? I don't like eating a whole lot close to bedtime, but I also don't like eating excessive amounts earlier because there's no guarantee that I'll get the ride in.

Hornsby

Well, firstly, MFP calorie counts are probably pretty high. 30 miles takes about 1:15 minutes for me and I will burn around 700 calories in that time frame.

To get your calorie count up, eat calorie dense foods....peanut butter, nuts, ice cream

808Trish808

Can you donate those leftover calories to me? LOL

cwolfman13

Depending on terrain, I probably burn around 800 - 900 calories on a 30 mile ride...maybe 1,000 if I'm doing a lot of climbing...but I most certainly wouldn't bank on it...my guess is that you probably don't have as much left over as you think you do.

TimothyFish

808Trish808 wrote: »

Can you donate those leftover calories to me? LOL

I would, if I could. Though as Hornsby pointed out, the calorie count may be inaccurate, even though I expect I'm creating a bigger hole in the wind than he is.

Francl27

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Depending on terrain, I probably burn around 800 - 900 calories on a 30 mile ride...maybe 1,000 if I'm doing a lot of climbing...but I most certainly wouldn't bank on it...my guess is that you probably don't have as much left over as you think you do.

This. I'd say your ride snack probably nullifies most of the calories you're burning during your ride.

TimothyFish

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Depending on terrain, I probably burn around 800 - 900 calories on a 30 mile ride...maybe 1,000 if I'm doing a lot of climbing...but I most certainly wouldn't bank on it...my guess is that you probably don't have as much left over as you think you do.

What are you using to come up with that figure? I'm pretty sure that isn't the number MyFitnessPal would estimate for you.

Hornsby

TimothyFish wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Depending on terrain, I probably burn around 800 - 900 calories on a 30 mile ride...maybe 1,000 if I'm doing a lot of climbing...but I most certainly wouldn't bank on it...my guess is that you probably don't have as much left over as you think you do.

What are you using to come up with that figure? I'm pretty sure that isn't the number MyFitnessPal would estimate for you.

Well, I use a HRM for training purposes. In all honesty, if you figure about 600 per hour while cycling, you are probably safe.

cwolfman13

TimothyFish wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Depending on terrain, I probably burn around 800 - 900 calories on a 30 mile ride...maybe 1,000 if I'm doing a lot of climbing...but I most certainly wouldn't bank on it...my guess is that you probably don't have as much left over as you think you do.

What are you using to come up with that figure? I'm pretty sure that isn't the number MyFitnessPal would estimate for you.

Largely experience and my HRM. A lot of this is just trial and error and just analyzing trends...i.e. if you think you should be losing 2 Lbs per week as a general trend over several weeks, but you're only averaging about 1...then that means you're underestimating your intake or overestimating your burn...or both...you just make adjustments as necessary to compensate.

I don't ride nearly as fast as Hornsby and I ride a CX bike with commuter road slicks when I'm road riding...on average I figure about 500 calories or thereabouts per hour. Also, a factor of 30 calories per mile @ a 15 MPH pace always seemed to work for me when I was using MFP's method...

Kalikel

If you feel healthy and strong and can exercise, I see no reason to force-feed yourself just to eat up to a number.

TJR88

Ah, one of those good problems. Eat back some of those calories during the next day. Or bank them for the weekend.

TimothyFish

I do get somewhat lower figures if I use average heart rate to calculate calories burned, but it still indicates about 2050 calories for a 30 mile ride. Which would be more like 1850 if I subtract BMR. That would make the excess 1100 instead of 1700