Question about maintenance and exercise calories

garystrickland357

I'm looking for advice from some of you that are experienced at maintenance. I've lost a little over 75 pounds and I'm in maintenance now. I've also become fit again and I am enjoying exercise - running and cycling specifically.

So here's the issue. I'm in the interesting position of needing to eat more calories now than I probably was when I was fat. My maintenance goal is about 2400 calories. If I have a long run or a long bike ride I can easily add 1,000 calories to that amount.
I know the answer is to eat more - and monitor what the scale does. I'm using Happy Scale (and I really like it).

The advice I need is how and in what way do you eat the extra calories? I am a moderator concerning food. To lose I just ate less of what I normally eat. It seems logical to just eat more now, right? But I don't WANT a big bowl of ice cream or a bunch of chips any more. I'd prefer more nutritional choices - and that's the rub. Sometimes it's hard to get that many calories eaten in a day.

So here's what I'd like to know. Do y'all eat your exercise calories on the day you "earn" them, or bank a few for the next day if it's a rest day? What calorie dense foods do you eat that are solid nutritionally? Do you add an extra "meal" just for the exercise calories that you wouldn't on a rest day?

I want to avoid empty calories from the kinds of foods that made me fat the first time around. This may seem like a dumb/made up problem, but I bet some of you have wrestled with this as well.

erjones11

Hi Gary- I tend to monitor my trend for the last seven days. That way I know at any time how much or little deficit I have and can therefore eat accordingly. I often look to use the deficit when I have a business meal our dine out with the family.

dmkoenig

Gary - congrats on your weight loss and healthy life style. To me the term "Maintenance" is less about a strict numbers game and more of a long term focus to ensure you are eating a healthy diet. Because you engage in endurance activities you need to put special attention on feeding your body the types of food that give you energy, promote recovery and minimize any oxidative damage brought on by extended exercise. For energy you need to be eating quality complex carbs, recovery you need to make sure you are getting some protein to rebuild damaged muscles and carbs for restoring glycogen and finally incorporate lots of anti-oxidants like wild blueberries and dark leafy greens into your diet. I'm a big proponent of smoothies, especially post-workout with a protein powder, frozen blueberries and pineapple (anti-inflammatory, fiber), greens and a bunch of other stuff. Nutritionally dense and it feeds your body what it needs in an absorbable manner. In general nuts are also a great nutritionally dense food, high in protein and healthy fats. So my recommendation is not so much to think in the banking game but make sure the majority of your diet is healthy food with good quality supplementation especially after any endurance activity. I've gone to an 80% vegetarian/vegan diet and I think it is the way to go. Check out nutritionfacts.org for a lot of info on foods and diet. Good luck!

kimny72

garystrickland357 wrote: »

I'm looking for advice from some of you that are experienced at maintenance. I've lost a little over 75 pounds and I'm in maintenance now. I've also become fit again and I am enjoying exercise - running and cycling specifically.

So here's the issue. I'm in the interesting position of needing to eat more calories now than I probably was when I was fat. My maintenance goal is about 2400 calories. If I have a long run or a long bike ride I can easily add 1,000 calories to that amount.
I know the answer is to eat more - and monitor what the scale does. I'm using Happy Scale (and I really like it).

The advice I need is how and in what way do you eat the extra calories? I am a moderator concerning food. To lose I just ate less of what I normally eat. It seems logical to just eat more now, right? But I don't WANT a big bowl of ice cream or a bunch of chips any more. I'd prefer more nutritional choices - and that's the rub. Sometimes it's hard to get that many calories eaten in a day.

So here's what I'd like to know. Do y'all eat your exercise calories on the day you "earn" them, or bank a few for the next day if it's a rest day? What calorie dense foods do you eat that are solid nutritionally? Do you add an extra "meal" just for the exercise calories that you wouldn't on a rest day?

I want to avoid empty calories from the kinds of foods that made me fat the first time around. This may seem like a dumb/made up problem, but I bet some of you have wrestled with this as well.

I would say eat a little more "nutritious" food on the day you burn the calories, plus a small treat, and then spread the rest out as best you can. Having said that, there's plenty of nutritious food that's calorie dense - nuts, seeds, whole grains, full fat dairy some fruit. Maybe have a handful of nuts and a banana after your ride, then have a small bowl of ice cream later. That could easily take care of 500 cals, then split the rest up through the week.

I on the other hand get a fancy coffee and a doughnut after a hike, then go for seconds at dinnertime and all my extra cals are gone

cwolfman13

Beer...

A few good IPAs are going to be around 600 calories. Beer is my favorite after a long ride.

sijomial

In early days of maintenance yes I did eat back my exercise calories on the day.
Then it morphed into them being rolled into a weekly allowance, it meant for those social events including food it meant I could relax and choose based on what I fancied rather than think if it fitted on the day knowing I had a substantial buffer of weekly exercise calories.
Then it morphed into exercise calories really only being used on the day for performance reasons (intense or maximal effort training plus long duration rides over two hours when you need to start thinking about fuelling).

Personally I find it easy to add or drop or modify size of snacks and breakfast based on my weight trend. I enjoy them but don't need them. My lunch and dinner are the core of my overall diet.

I quite like Alan Aragon's overall diet (noun) concept of 80% healthy foods you enjoy, 10% healthy foods you know are good for you but you don't much enjoy, 10% pure fun foods.
My snacks often tend to be the fun foods, the good for you but don't really enjoy category for me includes my cycling fuelling strategy.

Fruit, nuts and cheese are calorie dense and hopefully most people would regard them as healthy snacks.

Worth going through your diary to see if you are still eating "diet foods" that have a non-diet alternative if you want to keep food volume down - full fat versus reduced fat for example. Liquid calories don't tend to be very filling if you are struggling to get enough calories.

garystrickland357

sijomial wrote: »

In early days of maintenance yes I did eat back my exercise calories on the day.
Then it morphed into them being rolled into a weekly allowance, it meant for those social events including food it meant I could relax and choose based on what I fancied rather than think if it fitted on the day knowing I had a substantial buffer of weekly exercise calories.
Then it morphed into exercise calories really only being used on the day for performance reasons (intense or maximal effort training plus long duration rides over two hours when you need to start thinking about fuelling).

Personally I find it easy to add or drop or modify size of snacks and breakfast based on my weight trend. I enjoy them but don't need them. My lunch and dinner are the core of my overall diet.

I quite like Alan Aragon's overall diet (noun) concept of 80% healthy foods you enjoy, 10% healthy foods you know are good for you but you don't much enjoy, 10% pure fun foods.
My snacks often tend to be the fun foods, the good for you but don't really enjoy category for me includes my cycling fuelling strategy.

Fruit, nuts and cheese are calorie dense and hopefully most people would regard them as healthy snacks.

Worth going through your diary to see if you are still eating "diet foods" that have a non-diet alternative if you want to keep food volume down - full fat versus reduced fat for example. Liquid calories don't tend to be very filling if you are struggling to get enough calories.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I guess I'm adjusting to eating more purposefully. I want to make sure I stay in control. I've been playing with eating a breakfast that is proportional to my exercise for the day - large breakfast on high exercise days, and small breakfast on rest days. I also have to remember that I can make smoothies and such with full calorie ingredients. It's not that I'm afraid of calories - I just forget because I've been using the low calorie alternatives (and like them).

garystrickland357

I just want to add - It helps to sound out my concerns here and listen to the feedback. I feel like I know what to do - It's just nice to hear it from y'all. I want this to be my last weight loss journey.

hesn92

I don't necessarily eat my "exercise" calories on the days I exercise. I may just leave a deficit on that day and spread the extra calories out throughout the week. I have an excel log where I put in my daily calories in, calories out and net. I try to make my weekly "net" zero. So if it's Friday and I'm sitting at a deficit of 300 calories so far for the week, I know I can go over by 300 calories over the weekend.

eta, I'm a "data" person so this isn't real tedious. I'm at a computer all day anyway M-F. I don't think this is necessary for the average person.

apullum

You don't have to eat your exercise calories on the day you burn them, but I've found that when I'm burning a lot of exercise calories--say, on a double digit run--I will get a headache that lasts for a day or two if I don't eat most of them that day. I am very short and maintain on 1400 plus exercise. When I'm in half marathon training, a long run can add up to 1000 calories to my budget. If I don't eat most of those, I risk having an extremely small net calorie intake for the day.

I personally do not care whether my 1000 calories are especially nutritious or not. I care that they're my hard earned exercise calories and I'm going to enjoy them. On a long run day, I usually have a very small pre-run breakfast, a gel or two during the run, a nice restaurant lunch with dessert, and whatever I feel like eating for dinner and snacks. I will still attempt to meet my protein goal, but I'm absolutely going to have treats too.

During a routine workout, I burn about 400 calories in exercise per day, and I may or may not eat every one of those immediately depending on how I feel. I can bank a small amount of them for later, but I've found that I can't do much of that without feeling either sick or ravenous.

You maintain on far more calories than I do, and so you might not have quite as much need to eat back all your exercise calories immediately.

However, I think your question is also about something else, and that is the mindset that you have to cut calories everywhere possible. That mindset follows a lot of us into maintenance. Many of us are used to using very little oil or butter, low fat or fat free versions of dairy products, artificial or low-calorie sweeteners instead of sugar, tiny or no portions of desserts, etc. It sounds like you're finding that those habits are worth re-evaluating now that you're in maintenance and need additional calories.

garystrickland357

@apullum Thanks. Yes, adjusting my mindset is a big part of things. I also appreciate hearing how other endurance athletes approach eating back their exercise calories. I believe I have been over thinking it.

This weekend was a good example. I had a long run Saturday and a long (cold) bike ride on Sunday. Saturday I ate reasonably close to my goal. Sunday was different. I ate a hearty breakfast and good lunch. Went on my ride - ate appropriately on my ride. I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich when I got home. Then I ate a good supper with a couple of adult beverages. That's a bunch of food... When I looked at my log for the day though I still showed over 800 calories left. I wasn't hungry. I just wondered how y'all look at that.

It seems like I worry too much. I'll just keep an eye on the scale.

FL_Hiker

I'm in the same boat as you, on most Saturday mornings I burn upwards of 1,200+ calories during my long run. I usually go to a buffet that same day. I don't get runger so sometimes it's hard to hit that calorie number... Christmas cookies have been a life saver lately. I pay attention to macros, especially protein and will drink an extra shake if i'm low. At the buffets I usually get lots of chicken, potatoes, mac and cheese, veggies, and bread.

AnnPT77

I'm a lot smaller than you are, with a less long-endurance activity, but one thing that helped me move to maintenance was adding some nutritious tweaks from higher-calorie foods that would increase my enjoyment of routine meals, actively improve nutrition (ooo, that glow of virtue, so delightful !), as well as helping on the calorie front. For me, that was adding some flax/hemp seeds to my oatmeal, increasing frequency of eating nuts, more olive oil in the roasted veggies, more avocado more often, richer cheese, that sort of thing. (Fats are not filling to me, but they're calorie dense, and I tend to run on the low side if I don't pay attention.)

I do informally bank calories for bigger meals/days. Oh, yeah, and that beer thing, for me, too.

garystrickland357

@FL_Hiker I seldom get rungry either. Curiously, exercise fends to curb my appetite. @AnnPT77 Thanks. “Tweaks” is a good way to put it - and the kind of information I’m fishing for. I’m finding there is a learning curve between knowing what to do and understanding how to do it in terms of managing calories.

MelanieCN77

I tend to be a little less concerned about being perfect on my cals the day before I'm going to do something strenuous, so say Friday I will eat proper portions of all the things I was planning to but will add more nutritious snacks if I am hungry, because Saturday morning I have some trails that are going to need running. If I was just hitting the gym where pacing is relative, I would deal with being hungry if I was within calories, but there's a special sadness to feeling under-fueled on a run when you know you could have helped it.

I tend to try to stick day to day but I do allow my cals to ooze around a few days of something endurance-y.

wanderingarcher

I’m new to maintenance and reading to learn, still afraid to eat enough most days. But a few ideas for quick, healthy calories:

Avocados, flax, coconut milk, maple syrup,
I make chocolate pudding with avocados, brownies with flax, rice or curry with coconut milk.

LivingtheLeanDream

For me its having an extra egg, an extra slice of toast, a slightly bigger lunch/dinner - it was easy to add in calories here and there. Plus I also enjoy 300 cals of snacks which are made up of crisps/chips, nuts,chocolate each day - that really uses up any left over cals.

spiriteagle99

I find that if I don't eat my calories on the day I do a long run, I'll be extra hungry the next day. So I eat more then. To a large extent, I let hunger guide me. I'm often following a training plan, so my daily numbers can vary a lot. i.e. yesterday was 10 miles, today 4, tomorrow 11, Friday will be 0 from running but probably 3 miles walking. As long as my overall weekly calories are about even, I keep my weight stable. I've been maintaining for about 5 years. I usually eat extra calories as either beer or ice cream, sometimes both. I've thought about trying to eat more nuts, which are more nutritious, but I don't trust myself to refrain from eating too many.

garystrickland357

@spiriteagle99 Thanks, that is helpful. I’m following a training plan at the moment so I get what you’re saying. Your comment about letting your hunger guide you is helpful. Some days I’m just not that hungry - and it’s not residual diet mindset. It’s useful to hear how others handle their eating. It’s also good to hear that you and others go ahead and just enjoy the treats (staying mindful of the calories). A little eggnog with added alcohol will ramp up calories - Now I feel less guilty about it.

WilmaValley

Helpful discussion for me too!!!!