What do you do with excess calories at the end of the day?

Mr_Knight

I'm down 70 pounds with excellent LBM retention (DXA-confirmed), while having gone from couch potato to running 10km and cycling time trials, and am approaching Intermediate level on lifts, starting from untrained.

I appreciate your advice, but at this point I'm comfortable riding this train a while longer. If something starts going wrong, I will reflect more deeply on your comments.

cbc937

I had this dilemma last night and I wasn't hungry after I ate my dinner (550 calories) and I still had over 1000 calories left since I had really done a lot of extra exercise. I just left it in my "account" so to speak and thought about how great it would feel on the scale this morning. Guess what? UP A FREAKIN' POUND THIS MORNING! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You just never know.

You also fall in the same as the Original Poster ( OP )

Adjust your diet with different foods, so that does not happen and you will be good to go. Your body will not burn weight if you under eat. Metabolism SLOWS down

If you have enough calories it moves at 100% power and has a constant burn
If you have low calories it moves at 50% power and goes into "sleep mode"
If you have to many calories it goes into 100% power, but stores what it cant use as fat.


you can also destroy your metabolic rate by poor dieting and terrible balance, my girlfriend had eating issues when she was younger and now happens to be allergic to soy, milk, gluten, sugar, peanuts because her body will not digest it correctly.

Mr_Knight

You also fall in the same as the Original Poster ( OP )

...

Your body will not burn weight if you under eat. Metabolism SLOWS down

I don't under eat and my metabolism is speeding up, not slowing down. You are *completely* misunderstanding what is going on here.

cbc937

I'm down 70 pounds with excellent LBM retention (DXA-confirmed), while having gone from couch potato to running 10km and cycling time trials, and am approaching Intermediate level on lifts, starting from untrained.

I appreciate your advice, but at this point I'm comfortable riding this train a while longer. If something starts going wrong, I will reflect more deeply on your comments.

Hey, thats an accomplishment, but youre also selling yourself short, but to each their own.

I recommend you look up Layne Norton on youtube and Elliot Hulse when you decide to make that next step if you dont want to take my word on it, try some professionals.

Layne is the best in the business and credentials speak for itself

Ph.D.in nutritional science with a specialization in skeletal muscle protein metabolism at the University of Illinois
BS in Biochemistry from Eckerd College
IFPA Natural Bodybuilding Pro
NGA Natural Bodybuilding Pro

Good night!

AestheticStar

I always have calories left over, 'cause I burn so many during exercises. I never use them all, even though I'm sure that's bad. But I'm not going to sit & just eat food to get the calories up. If I'm not hungry, I'm not eating.

Cindyinpg

I store mine in Tupperware and save them all for the weekend. :drinker:

Sarauk2sf

I dont quite understand this comment. Im assuming you get protein and fat goals from just your weight. Then you workout and lose -400, so you eat an extra 400 you have "excess" calories? that doesn't make sense you should still be hitting X amount of calories daily, thats what they are there for...... Otherwise at the end of the day you did NOT hit your daily numbers.

I think maybe my use of the word "excess" is being taken too literally here. Over the long run, those "excess" calories need to be consumed. They are "excess" in the sense that, since the macro targets have been met, there is much more flexibility in what can be consumed.

As far as protein and (to an extent) fat macros go, I treat them as minimums, not a number to "hit". As long as the overall calorie goal is met, and I'm not starving myself of carbs, I'm perfectly comfortable going over protein and (to an extent) fat.

What you are doing is perfectly fine and often preferable. While it is often best to maximize carbs for gym performance, it is also important to be flexible. Having fats and protein as minimums is a great way to go about that while still maintaining hormonal balance and getting sufficient protein in - and having a diet that is easier to adhere to.

Sarauk2sf

But my question to you is, "If your goal is 2,800, why do your macros come up to only 2,150?"

Calorie goals and macro goals are set using two different methods. Calorie target is set by TDEE, which in my case is driven up by lots of exercise. Protein and Fat requirements are driven by body mass, and don't know from exercise burn. If I wasn't working this hard, the two methods would more or less converge, and this wouldn't be an issue because my TDEE would be much lower.

If I didn't have a reasonable amount of fat left to lose, this would also not be an issue, as everything I burn would need to be replenished. But, for now, I still do have excess fat stores, so there is flexibility there.

You have reasonable amount of fat left to lose ( like I stated above in # 1 ) because your diet is broken....

.... or maybe because they have not been dieting for that long.

Arne_becomesxXx

Tickle and cuddle them....this tiny calories are sooooo cute :noway:

Sarauk2sf

It's easy to have excess calories when your protein and fat goals are determined by body mass and you eat back exercise calories.

I dont quite understand this comment. Im assuming you get protein and fat goals from just your weight. Then you workout and lose -400, so you eat an extra 400 you have "excess" calories? that doesn't make sense you should still be hitting X amount of calories daily, thats what they are there for...... Otherwise at the end of the day you did NOT hit your daily numbers.

And, by your statement you would hit your protein #'s and Fat goal #'s, but still have say X amount of calories to eat, so you eat something, ok.... Now that puts you over Fat, Carbs or Protein since those goals were reached. Means your diet is / Macros are broke. Something is not right

Assuming sufficient protein for optimal MPS and fats for hormonal balance, what happens if they go over them at the expense of carbs but hit their caloric target?

As in, lets say that someone's caloric intake target is 2,000 and their fat goal is 50g and their protein goal is 150g. This adds up to 1,095. What is 'broken' about getting the extra 905 calories from a mix of say 10g fats, 10g protein and the balance of 205g CHO, (so 60g fats, 160g protein, 205g CHO) v getting all the extra 905 calories from CHO (other than making compliance that much more difficult). How is the former 'broken'? What is the impact to weight loss?


Edited as apparently its too late to do math!

whitebalance

Last night I had 400 calories left over, and it was a lifting day. I made a late-night froyo run. I'd already had my daily froyo fix, but I mean, 400 calories.... I could have made a big mug of hot chocolate, but this was better.

GiGiBeans

Will probably spend them on a bit of prosciutto and Boursin

I think I love you.

TRD66

Spends on the deficit. If it's a lot (like last night I still had about 800 after my run), I'll snack a bit on something treatish. If I've nothing planned (and I feel like eating) I'll take it down to around 250-300. If I've got something on - like this week when I'm off to my mates - I'll likely only eat if I'm hungry and save the excess for when I know I'll be over later in the week.

I like to aim for daily amounts but if I know I'll be over one day of the week, then I'll focus on the weekly instead.

redladywitch

I usually eat some cereal. Sometimes I eat peanut butter or almonds.

Allterrain_Lady

700 calories left (wich never happens by the way) would mean for me a very dirty reunion with cheesecake!

Fivepts

Trail mix - I love my trail mix. But generally it takes all or most of my calories to get my macros and micros in...

Ok. I'm sure this is a stupid question. But what are macros and micros and what is TDEE something another? I'll settle for a link...

Patovader

Bank them for the weekends excess (pizza, beer, wine etc)

zensugi

A glass of red wine (preferably a good Shiraz), small piece of cake, chocolate...

unFATuated

Trail mix - I love my trail mix. But generally it takes all or most of my calories to get my macros and micros in...

Ok. I'm sure this is a stupid question. But what are macros and micros and what is TDEE something another? I'll settle for a link...

Macros = protein, carbs and fat (a lot of people have set targets of the number of grams to eat each day, esp when looking at body recompositioning)
Micros = vitamins, minerals (such as iron, magnesium, calcium etc)

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure - the amount of energy your body uses doing whatever you do during a typical day. So it accounts for calories used for basic vital functions, movement, exercise etc. You can use calculators online to take a (fairly educated) guess at what your TDEE would be, provided you put in correct info.

Hope this makes sense.

ktno1

Beer. Or cheese. Or beer and cheese.