Non-exercise day food question

victoria_1024

I work out 5 days a week. I always take off Tuesdays and Thursdays because I work long days and have 3 kids and I figure a couple off days are probably important. Currently I eat back my exercise calories on all the days I work out and I feel full and happy all day long. But on my non-exercise days, I am starving all day long. I HATE being hungry! Should I be eating more on those days even though I'm not burning anything off with exercise? I am doing great right now with my weight loss and I don't want to slow it down too much....

kayla_who

What is your net calorie goal? How much are you losing each week?

Maybe try the TDEE-% method? That way you have a higher set calorie limit everyday and just don't eat back your exercise calories?

Kotuliak

One possible strategy is to under-eat by 100 or 200 calories a day on the workout days and eat them on the rest days. As long as it averages out it works out well for a lot of people.

steve0820

I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in less cals on rest days. Simply because, if my body is repairing itself on rest days, why should I deprive it of what it needs, when it needs it the most? This is especially true if you're on a bulk, if you're trying to lose weight, then I stick to maintenance, or slightly above.

AJ_G

TDEE

victoria_1024

Thanks! I did look into TDEE and it gave me slightly more calories than what I'm eating now, so I wasn't sure. Currently MFP tells me to eat 1200 (but there's no way I can do that). I eat an extra 200 every day because I breastfeed so 1400, and then eat back exercise calories. So typically I eat 1600-1700 a day when I exercise, and 1400 if I don't. Using the TDEE method it says I should eat 1900 a day. I'm losing an average of 2 lbs a week (some weeks I lose nothing, other weeks I lose 4). I could probably eat more and still lose, just because I've been losing so quickly.

I've thought about maybe switching to TDEE just because I work out pretty consistently, and now I've been more active with spring and getting outside with the kids.