non-exercise days

palomalou2

Do those of you who are doing great eat less on your non-exercise days to keep the same deficit? I have been exercising 5-6 days a week of an hour on the elliptical. Depending on the machine I hit 450-500 calories per my heart rate monitor. My goal has been 1200 net calories. When I miss a day of exercise I've been eating about 1500 calories anyway (of healthy food). It's okay to me if I lose really slowly because I'm at a weight that could be a happy goal anyway. What have you done?

jmsspr93

I've been aiming 700 net at around 1200 intake and 500 on the bike. I didn't have time one day so I just ate less throughout the day had a bigger meal at tea time so I didn't feel so empty. Not something I will do regularly even though I technically had the same deficit as usual.

leggup

If I'm not working out on a particular day, I just try to keep off my butt as much as possible, do some housework, stand while taking phone calls, etc. No, that won't offset 300 calories. My net goal is 1450, though, so I don't have a hard time staying under that on exercise-less days.

Sunitagt

I calculate my average daily energy expenditure for the week (total for each day added together divided by 7) and eat the same average deficit each day based on that amount. Sounds complicated, but it's not. Just figure out your TDEE (which would include the exercise) and eat 500 calories or so less than that each day. I think what you're doing is about the same, so I wouldn't worry too much about the details. Going over a couple days when you have a large deficit is not going to hurt things at all.

LessthanKris

I usually try to save calories for my rest day so I can eat a little above 1200 net on that day. I focus on a the weekly intake, not so much the daily.