Intake on rest days?

jessicaroman0517
jessicaroman0517 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Do the majority of you eat the same or less on rest days? Any reason why?

Replies

  • Juice_boi
    Juice_boi Posts: 28 Member
    I tend to eat the same on my days off due to the fact that it’s my recovery day lol I feel better with a full stomach heheh
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    I follow MFP's numbers so I eat to my goal on rest days and add more when I exercise. Sometimes I spread the extra calories throughout the week as I prefer to follow a weekly average.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,110 Member
    edited May 2018
    It depends. If I’ve had a few really strenuous days on than my body needs a little more food to aid recovery. I gage this by how hungry I am and how sore I am. If my workout the day before rest was more mild and I’m not really sore or extra hungry I won’t. I track my calories by week and they tend to average out when I listen to my body these days.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I calorie cycle and eat less on rest days so I can save those calories when I need them.
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,267 Member
    I eat a little less just so I can stay under my calorie goal. Even on rest days I take walks at work on my break so I'm still burning a bit of calories, but I normally don't eat those back.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Depends on how I'm logging/tracking. I burn less on rest days, so sometimes I'll eat less on a rest day, other times I'll just make sure the numbers balance out at the end of the week.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    i eat more on my rest days to replenish glycogen in my muscles and recover; so that way i kick *kitten* the next workout day i have
  • ejg1010
    ejg1010 Posts: 48 Member
    I calorie cycle too and eat fewer calories on rest days. I like to save my calories for days when I am more active.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Well, I avoid rest days, but if I ate the same on rest days, I would end up wiping a day's deficit at least.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »
    I follow MFP's numbers so I eat to my goal on rest days and add more when I exercise. Sometimes I spread the extra calories throughout the week as I prefer to follow a weekly average.

    This
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    I usually eat close to maintenance on rest days. I find it easier to maintain an overall deficit that way.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When I was logging, I ended up dumping the MFP method and went with the TDEE method once my exercise was regular. With TDEE I ate roughly the same calories daily whether it was a rest day or a workout day which means there were days I was in a bigger deficit and days I was in a smaller one or none at all, but it all netted out throughout the week.
  • mulecanter
    mulecanter Posts: 1,792 Member
    CICO means you should eat less unless the math has changed.
  • jessicaroman0517
    jessicaroman0517 Posts: 13 Member
    Thanks for all the insightful answers! :)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Consistency in diet is very crucial. Even on a rest day you should eat the same n hit ur macros. Now if ur carb cycling. On a rest day. I wouldn't have high carbs. Again. If ur carb cycling. Save the high carb day for when u hit the gym again. Otherwise diet should always stay the same. Unless u plan on leaving the gym for a while and by a while being a couple weeks or more. Maybe I'd change my diet. But I don't think that's what ur reffering to.

    Why is consistency important unless one is carbohydrate cycling?

    What does it matter if I have 1,500 calories one day and 1,800 the next assuming that I'm getting what I need on average?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Consistency in diet is very crucial. Even on a rest day you should eat the same n hit ur macros. Now if ur carb cycling. On a rest day. I wouldn't have high carbs. Again. If ur carb cycling. Save the high carb day for when u hit the gym again. Otherwise diet should always stay the same. Unless u plan on leaving the gym for a while and by a while being a couple weeks or more. Maybe I'd change my diet. But I don't think that's what ur reffering to.

    The what now?!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,238 Member
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Consistency in diet is very crucial. Even on a rest day you should eat the same n hit ur macros. Now if ur carb cycling. On a rest day. I wouldn't have high carbs. Again. If ur carb cycling. Save the high carb day for when u hit the gym again. Otherwise diet should always stay the same. Unless u plan on leaving the gym for a while and by a while being a couple weeks or more. Maybe I'd change my diet. But I don't think that's what ur reffering to.

    While consistency in their diet MAY help a particular person achieve their goals, it is NOT CRUCIAL for EVERYONE.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited May 2018
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Consistency in diet is very crucial. Even on a rest day you should eat the same n hit ur macros. Now if ur carb cycling. On a rest day. I wouldn't have high carbs. Again. If ur carb cycling. Save the high carb day for when u hit the gym again. Otherwise diet should always stay the same. Unless u plan on leaving the gym for a while and by a while being a couple weeks or more. Maybe I'd change my diet. But I don't think that's what ur reffering to.

    Grammar and sentence structure are also important.

    I feel like this post says... "keep your diet consistent unless you meet any of these next 50 criteria, in which case it's ok to change."
  • BipolarSora
    BipolarSora Posts: 21 Member
    Hello there. Jessica asked if we eat the same or less on a rest day, and our reason why. I gave my opinion based on what I do. And why I do it ✌what I do of course May differ from someone else's opinions. There are many different way to achieve ones goals I believe. Especially when it comes to fitness
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Hello there. Jessica asked if we eat the same or less on a rest day, and our reason why. I gave my opinion based on what I do. And why I do it ✌what I do of course May differ from someone else's opinions. There are many different way to achieve ones goals I believe. Especially when it comes to fitness

    You're right, there are lots of ways.

    In your other post you used "you" (or rather, "u" and "ur") which implied it was what others needed to do. Had you simply used "I" the tone/inference would have been very different.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    pokemonkeyblade wrote: »
    Hello there. Jessica asked if we eat the same or less on a rest day, and our reason why. I gave my opinion based on what I do. And why I do it ✌what I do of course May differ from someone else's opinions. There are many different way to achieve ones goals I believe. Especially when it comes to fitness

    You didn't say why you did it. You said what others should do, but you didn't really explain why.
  • BipolarSora
    BipolarSora Posts: 21 Member
    Yeah that's my fault... English isn't my best language unfortunately
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    mulecanter wrote: »
    CICO means you should eat less unless the math has changed.

    Or if you base your CI/CO balance on a timeframe longer than a day.

    This. I use TDEE, which means I'm eating the same every day, give or take, but the deficit will vary based on whether I'm active, not as active, or not active at all.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    I'm OCD about not going over my logged calories. But many times my rest day is after a really hard workout and I'm starving and need food to recover. Also, usually I don't even want to eat back all the exercise calories on the work out day. So I bank some - I have custom entries under exercise and food called bank in and bank out - and move some of my deficit to the rest day.

    In practice this usually means eating about the same gross calories per day.

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