Eating exercise calories and lots of running

lemurcat12

paintedbison wrote: »

Okay... I did figure out I was calculating running wrong on MFP. I was putting that I was running a 5.5 minute mile when I was wanting a 5.5 treadmill speed. I'm an idiot, apparently. I fixed it and it seems to be giving me much more realistic calories burned. Thanks for the advice for how to handle long runs!

That resolves the only thing that I was wondering about, since the count did seem high.

When I used to use MFP method and was training for a half marathon, I'd eat back most of my exercise calories from running. Specifically, almost all from shorter runs (6 miles or less) and somewhat fewer from longer runs, both because I'd not be able to and because I think those are more likely to be overstated, as you would burn calories during the 2 hour period of the run anyway. But I'd also feel comfortable to go over on occasion given I had some extra room from the uneaten calories (and this is why I ended up switching to TDEE, but that's a separate issue).

During that period of time I lost really well, always what MFP was predicting or more.

paintedbison

bostonultd1 wrote: »

I read a few times on another website that you shouldn't eat back the calories you burn during exercise and stick to your original calorie goal. For endurance exercise, such as running, you'll probably benefit by fueling your body with some carbs while running. Easy sources would be gummy bears, pixie sticks or a post carb drink with dextrose. It's definitely recommend for those 15 mile days you do, you should even start sipping on a post carb drink about halfway through those 15 miles to maintain energy and carb levels. While exercising your body is using the carbs stored in you muscles (glycogen) to give you energy. 30 minute high intensity workouts usually deplete roughly 30-40% of your carb storage. If I remember right, 60-90 minute workouts will deplete roughly 60%+. You want to restore those levels asap so your body burns fat instead of muscle. Higher muscle % equals higher metabolic rate. Stick to your goals, feed your muscles and don't eat back what you burned.

I do use Gu and Gatorade and sometimes pretzels on runs over about 13 miles. Sometimes I'll drink Gatorade on runs over 9 miles if I feel like I need something. So, I am taking in some calories on really long runs. For my last 18 miler, I did two Gus and a Gatorade, which was probably about 350 calories. But, I'm guessing I burned around 2000 during the run.

paintedbison

I do have to be careful about taking in too much sugar on a run or I start to feel pukey.