how much?

spiralated

Hey Everyone,

I recently and auditioned for a spot on a drum corps colorguard! whooo! The only problem is, I'm unsure how to figure out how much I should eat now.

During the week I work a desk job in NYC. So its largely sedentary except for the walks between buildings (about four short blocks), up and down stairs, to the train station etc. During the week I will rehearse twice a week for an hour and a three hour rehearsal on Friday nights. On the weekends I average 16 hours of rehearsal (think high impact dance while juggling a 6 ft pole).

I feel understand the eat back your exercise calories etc. but my questions is, would this effect the calories I'm supposed to consume on "off" days? I want to make sure I am getting the right nutrition for muscle repair, etc.

Currently at 150lbs 5' 2" female set to 1200 calories a day (which to be honest, I overshot completely last week).

THANKS!

Colleen118

Is there any way for you to grab a less expensive heart rate monitor? I only say that because I don't know how invasive this rehearsal is. Will you be in fact burning a significant amount of extra calories or is it a matter of adding in more "lighter" activity? For me I base possible adjustment on the change coming. If the change will cost me a lot of energy, then I will increase my intake to compensate and make sure there won't be a fatigue issue, otherwise, adding light activity will burn extra calories but it may just be an added benefit to your current rountine if there is no real cardio or weight bearing involved.

spiralated

On a weekend rehearsal day I will probably burn about 2,777 calories on top of being alive. On a weekday practice/workout session, I'll burn roughly 350. On the rest days, I don't intend on doing too much activity because I need a break or my elbows and knees (or hamstrings) really start screaming.

I can't wear a HRM during rehearsal or anything that straps to the arm/wrist/hands.

Your logic seems sound with the increase intake to compensate because I've been struggling with fatigue heavily post-last rehearsal weekend.

BarbieAS

Could you get something like a Fitbit (which is a souped-up pedometer)? I did color guard in high school and college, and depending what sorts of events/venues your team will be performing at, am I right in thinking that your increased activity will be about 60-70% stepping/dancing and maybe 30-40% flag movements? Maybe if you could account for the additional steps, you could eat back those calories (as well as get a more accurate gauge of your activity level on rest days) and then consider anything additional you burn from flag moves just a bonus? A Fitbit will take into consideration how many steps you take (and the speed at which you take them and how long per day you spend moving vs. sedentary), as well as all of your other stats, and calculate a TDEE for you (that varies from day to day based on your actual activity) and credits you with exercise calories as needed if you burn over and above your MFP settings (or can give you negative calories if you burn less than your settings). You can even link it directly to MFP to translate the exercise calories over. If you get the Fitbit Zip or Fitbit One, you can clip it to your bra or waistband and not worry about anything on your arms. Remember that a Fitbit is still just an estimate, it's just (hopefully) a more accurate estimate than guessing which one of 4 or 5 narrow activity levels you fall into.

BarbieAS

Or, (alternatively or in addition to my previous suggestion, since I realized I didn't quite read your question right ), you can definitely take a weekly approach to your calories. If you don't want to try to squeeze in an extra 2,500 calories on an already busy day, but you still feel like you overall need more food, then you can definitely spread your extra calories earned over several days or even the whole week, if overall you stay balanced and meeting your weekly net calorie goals.

spiralated

Thanks!

corgarian

Get a HRM for while you are doing the colorguard stuff to find out calories burned.
set your daily activity level to lightly active/sedetairy, to reflect your work days, and on the days you arent practicing/performing just eat the calories recommended.