Caloric intake

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Hey everyone! I'm supposed to be eating 2,200 cal to gain .5 lbs per week because I am underweight, but I also run cross country so I run about 2-4 miles a day and sometimes 6-7 miles. At the end of the day, it usually says I have 700-900 calories left to eat, so should I continue to eat caloric dense healthy food like nut butters to hit the goal or leave it be?

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,395 MFP Moderator
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    Well if your goal is to gain weight, you need to eat enough calories to gain.
  • tiannak98
    tiannak98 Posts: 1 Member
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    Im having the same problem i compete competitively in karate at a provincial level so im training for hours a day and i find having protein shakes and increasing my protein intake helps me gain more weight. And also eating right after a workout because your starving from all the calories you just lost causing you to want a larger intake of food. Thats my recommendation.
  • sjohnson__1
    sjohnson__1 Posts: 405 Member
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    You should absolutely eat the remaining calories each day. If you're getting most of your calories from whole foods, then getting a few hundred from simple carbs and sugars isn't going to hurt you. Try eating calorie dense foods or foods you can eat a good amount of without feeling too full to reach your goal.
  • rathouse28
    rathouse28 Posts: 3 Member
    edited January 2016
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    I take a protein shake as a snack, I blend:
    CarboGain, protein powder, 2 cups milk/almond milk, and a cup of oatmeal.
    That shake gives me 500-700 calories
  • joepratt503
    joepratt503 Posts: 191 Member
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    If your goal is to gain, just eat. Eat whatever you can (tracking) until you see that scale go up then you will know what your real kcal number truly is. Once there, you can change or "fix" your diet but Goal One is to hit that calorie number at all cost.

    When you are skinny already and fit and an athlete, its going to likely be more kcal than you think. Thats why athletes, when they quit/retire, expand so rapidly. When I was swimming competitively (11 practices a week) I had to eat a TON just to not get smaller, like 3500+ easily on the 2xdays.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    Cut running in half. All better now!