Calories on rest days

la_vie_est_belle_

My calorie goal is set to 1270, and there's no way I could eat that little so I usually eat back my exercise calories. But on rest days, I don't work out, so I usually go over my calorie goal. I want to make sure I'm sufficiently replenishing my body, but not messing up all the work I did over the week.

What do you guys do about calorie goals on rest days?

MommyMichelle1234

If I am on a rest day, I stay under my calorie goal. Try to find lower calorie but filling foods. I love making a salad with avocado and hard boiled egg, that is filling to me. Increase water consumption.

And how much are you going over? If its just a bit, I don't see a big deal.

ScientificExplorerGirl

You might think of trying the TDEE method. That way your calorie intake can be relatively even throughout the week. Scooby's calculator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/) is useful to get you started with this. The TDEE- X% should reflect the amount of weight you have to lose. TDEE-15 to 20% if you have a lot of pounds to drop; TDEE - 5 to 10% otherwise.

Best wishes.

Shalini_15

Which method have you use to compute calories - MFP or TDEE. I assume it is MFP. You can try re-calculating your calorie intake using TDEE, which considers your activity level also. This is for entire week or an average for the amount of workout you do across the week. So you have a specific calorie limit if you workout 2-3 days a week or 4-5 days a week.

1270 is quite low is what I feel, but that's my thought. When you use TDEE, you dont eat back your workout calories as they are already accounted in. You can go through the below link and see what is your calorie intake:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974889-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

Hope this helps!

martyqueen52

Are you sure 1200 calories is correct? Try a few online calorie calculators and use the general range number from all of them. (SOME fine tweaking might be necessary).

Eat filling foods like people have said.

Light & Fit greek yogurt, baby carrots, oatmeal, egg whites, Fiber One cereal, chicken breast, salad with light dressing, Quest protein bars

ScientificExplorerGirl

I find Scoobys calculator very high. Try this one. It's very accurate. Use the Miffin-St Jeor method. http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

You're right about that! I just did my calculations on the IIFYM site and it seems more realistic to me. Funny, even though I've selected the Miffin-St Jeor method for both I am getting drastically different numbers. I would stick with the IIFYM calculator.

Thanks for the info; didn't realize there would be such a difference.

Francl27

I find Scoobys calculator very high. Try this one. It's very accurate. Use the Miffin-St Jeor method. http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

Scooby is right on target for me.

I use it too, I refused to let myself starve on rest days!

ClaudiaTheNice

I haven't come that far (newbie here!), but my plan is:

I have my calories set to maintenance, on my rest days I plan to eat around 300-500 under maintenance and on training days I plan on eating to maintenance.

I'm doing it like this because right now I don't understand the logging of exercise properly.

Vailara

That's odd, Scooby's uses Mifflin-St Jeor too, so you should be able to get very similar answers with both (Scooby's also gives the option of 3 other calculators, but Mifflin seems to come up by default for me).

The IIFYM site seems to round my height down, while Scooby's allows me that extra 1/2 inch :laugh: . If I round Scooby's down, it gives me 3 more calories for my BMR than IIFYM.

However, I put in my body fat %, I get exactly the same with Scooby's Katch-McArdle and IIFYM (which makes me think that IIFYM uses Katch-McArdle for that calculation). What I find really strange is that both think I need MORE calories when I enter my body fat % (I would say my BF% is on the high side). Maybe K-M is just more genorous than M-SJ.

I believe MFP uses Mifflin St-Jeor.

OP, I only get 1200 calories on MFP too (1lb loss a week), and I've found it easier to set a custom goal (the links other people have posted will be useful in working one out) and eat much the same day to day. Either that or change to 1/2lb if it's easier. A deficit of about 300+ calories has usually worked well for me.

writergeek313

Scooby and IIFYM gave me similar numbers, about 20 calories difference. I'm eating right between them.

OP, if you're having trouble sticking to your calories on rest days, that might be a sign your calorie goal is too low. Use the sights other posters have mentioned as a guide and consider adjusting your calories to a number you can stick to that still puts you at a deficit.

Make sure, too, that you don't have your weekly goal set too high on here. Unless you have more than 75 pounds to lose, you shouldn't set it to 2 pounds a week. If you have 10-20 to lose, it should only be .5 pound a week. Choosing the right setting for your weight loss goals should give you a manageable number of calories.

Eleonora91

Increase your intake, so that if you're exercising you can always eat as much as you want without going over, but you don't risk to get under 1200 net calories anyway. And when you're not exercising you can still have a decent amount of food knowing that you're still losing weight, just at a slower rate.

phillipcecchini

I find days off to be overrated and unnecessary. I’m sure everyone has heard of the caveman diet. While I don’t agree with that diet, I do like the mindset. What do you think would happen to a caveman if he took a rest day? He would likely be eaten. To that end I use strict isolation in my workout plans. I strength train every day and I probably only miss on average of two days a month of cardio. I’ve been doing that for years and haven’t found any downside. If you have access to a pool, swimming laps is a very good way to break up your cardio routine. If not mixing running or elliptical with some other type of aerobic activity will work.
All that said look at the big picture. If you still want your rest day and you go over your calorie limit on those days it’s not the end of the world. Just be sure that you are more than making up for it on the days when you work out. You won’t want to take in so few calories that your metabolism shuts down on you. I’ve dieted too heavily, down to around 800 calories a day and my metabolism shut down to the point where my body hair fell out. You will still lose weight like that but it’s not healthy and may not even be the fastest way to reach you weight loss goal.
Good luck…

greenspan4

what i tend to do is on rest day eating 200 calories below matinence. if you do this then you are still in a calorie defficet so you will lose weight. now if you are allowed those many calories and are always hungry here are my 3 tips. eat a lot of veggies/fiber because a huge volume of veggies is a lot more filling and less calories then like a burger. tip 2 eat your calories,do not drink them. tip 3 eat a lot of complex carbs,lean proteins . protein is the hardest thing for your body to break down in the body. so if you eat a lot more of these then it will raise your metablosim and increase weight loss. eat complex carbs such as whole grains,potatoes and things like that. it will take less of these types of carbs to fill you up then simple carbohydrates.

rileysowner

My calorie goal is set to 1270, and there's no way I could eat that little so I usually eat back my exercise calories. But on rest days, I don't work out, so I usually go over my calorie goal. I want to make sure I'm sufficiently replenishing my body, but not messing up all the work I did over the week.

What do you guys do about calorie goals on rest days?

If your weight loss goal is 2 pounds per week, try setting it at one. If your activity level is set at sedentary and you do more than just sit around playing video games all day, move it up to the next activity level and try that for 2 or 3 weeks. It is likely you are not truly sedentary as most people are not.

cingle87

Like alot of people have suggested on here, if you struggle with you calorie goal on rest day you might be better served to use the TDEE method and average you burn across the week giving you the same goal every day.