Exercise rest day

standout00

What should I be careful of on an exercise rest day?

AnnPT77

I'm not sure what you're asking?

The point of rest days is kind of two-fold: Let the body recover from exercise, because recovery is when the magic (rebuilding better) happens; and keep general fatigue from building, building, building until there are negative consequences.

Thinking about activity on a rest day is somewhat dependent on current fitness level: If a person is used to being pretty active and has been that way longer term so is pretty fit, a rest day may simply be a day without anything intense, but could include walks, casual bike ride, recreational swim, yoga, or something like that. But if someone's new to working out, a good rest day might be much more rest-y, like just doing normal daily life stuff (housework, no intentional exercise, etc.). If feeling truly fatigued, a rest day with some extra couch time could even be a good plan.

For people with a varied exercise routine, and some well-developed base of fitness, it can even be possible for a day with one type of exercise to be a recovery day from a different type of exercise that stresses different physical subsystems. An example of this might be the "splits" that some weight training programs use, where there might be an alternation of days of (one example) push exercises, pull exercises, and legs. While working on one of those, the other muscle groups effectively rest. (Such programs often include full rest days someplace, too.)

The bottom line is that IMO rest days are pretty individual, depending on current fitness level and the nature of one's exercise program. If you say more about your workout schedule or plans, we could probably give you better advice.

Best wishes!

standout00

What I'm asking is: what should I be careful of food wise on rest days?
I managed to work out only on 24/2 and 25/2. I'm not very fit, however, I'm not new to exercise.

AnnPT77

This will seem like a digression from your question, but I promise it's not.

There are two useful ways to get a starting calorie goal:

1. MFP method: Set your MFP "activity level" based on your life before intentional exercise, i.e., things like your job and routine home chores. Let MFP give you a base calorie goal. That would be your target calorie intake on a non-exercise (rest) day. Then log exercise when you do some (or sync a fitness tracker with "negative adjustments" turned on in MFP), and eat the exercise calories, too. It's OK to "bank" some exercise calories if you don't want to eat them all on your exercise day, and use them within the next few days when you're feeling a little extra peckish. (Our bodies don't reset at midnight even though MFP does.)

2. TDEE method: Get a calorie estimate from a TDEE calculator outside MFP**, using an "activity level" that includes your exercise plans. That will average in your planned exercise over the course of the week. (This does mean it's essential to be realistic about those exercise plans, and actually do the planned exercise!)

** Personally, I like the TDEE calculator linked below, because it lets us compare multiple research-based estimating formulas, and has more activity levels with clearer descriptions than most other such calculators:

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

The user interface seems complex (maybe scary) at first glance because there's so much information, but if you step through it, it's pretty easy to understand.

Either of those approaches, #1 or #2, will effectively give you fewer calories for rest days, more for exercise days, it's just that the TDEE method spreads the exercise calories across all the days of the week.

Regardless of which method a person chooses, the calculators are just a starting point. We can personalize that estimate by following it reasonably closely for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles for women of relevant age), then comparing actual average weekly weight loss to targeted average weekly weight loss. If there's a difference, we can adjust base calorie goal using the assumption that 500 calories a day is about a pound of fat change per week. (Obviously, use arithmetic to figure partial pounds.)

For myself, I use the MFP method (and have done that through a year of loss and almost 8 years of maintaining a healthy weight since). But either method can work, and either one - properly used - accounts for different calorie burn on exercise days vs. non-exercise (rest) days.

I hope that makes sense, and answers your questions . . . albeit in a kind of back-handed way.

Best wishes!

tomcustombuilder

Don't overthink these things. Just don't lift weights.

Retroguy2000

Don't binge.

I know I'm far less likely to binge if I've worked out, than if I planned to work out but then did not. On a planned rest day I'm usually fine. It's called the transfer effect, how positive changes in working out lead to the desire for healthier eating.

springlering62

Agree with @Retroguy2000 about “don’t binge”.

On my rest days I am tempted to revert to boredom eating. I get a lot of food on non-test days, so it’s tempting to do the same on rest day. I have to be very conscious of my goal on my rest day, especially since (being Sunday) we treat ourselves to a big apple fritter that morning which can trigger wanting alllllll the carbs.

kshama2001

Without my lunch time walk I get the munchies in the afternoon. If you experience similar, consider walking / gentle yoga / something light on your rest days.

neanderthin

Don't neglect protein intake and get enough overall calories as well to help facilitate that repair and building of structural mass, that being muscle.