Question on how to (not if I should) eat exercise calories..

Pangea250

I've been here at MFP for 3 weeks, but I think I'll be "new" for a long time. I'm unsure about so many things.

I'd like to know how other people handle eating exercise calories. For me, a single mom with 2 kids, a full time job and heavy volunteer activities, it's very hard for me to gauge exactly how much I will be able to exercise in a day. I also dislike exercising in general. I know that it would be great if I could exercise in the morning each day, but that simply isn't feasible. The bottom line is that I don't until the end of the day what my exercise calories. I don't want to eat junk just for the sake of eating the exercise calories.

How do you handle eating those exercise calories at the end of the day when you've eaten all your daily food that you planned? Is there a better way for me to handle this?

Newfiedan

after a few weeks go back and look over the trend that you are setting, most of us will set a habit of roughly how many cals we burn in any given week, event though it may seem more random, but in your case if your stuck just plan the day out and eat more on workout days and leave yourself a buffer of a few hundred cals so that gives you some wiggle room when you workout at the end of the day. I am the sole provider for my family money wise and when I get home I also help out around the house, and I workout later in the night as well but on workout days I spread out my cals so that at the end of the day I am not having 700 or more cals to eat. If you do not have one already a heart rate monitor will provide a best guess as to cals burnt during workouts. My go to snacks in case of having a huge deficit are a good protein/fruit smoothie and nuts (almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds)

atsteele

I dont know how single moms EVER exercise so God bless you!! But honestly I actually like to exercise at night. I think that it gives a nice little bump in my metabolism and digestion that I need later in the day. (I must be getting old. hehe) I would plan out a schedule on your calendar of say, cardio three to four times per week, better yet, six days per week and then give yourself one rest day. If you miss a day once per week, it's STILL great!

And I actually try not to eat all the calories that I burn with exercise. I attempt to leave 100 to 300 calories deficit... some days that works, other days, I eat over my fair share. It balances out in the end because Ive lost the weight that I wanted to lose already and have been maintaining for weeks now.

And I recommend eating nutritious foods like low fat cheese or fruits/veggies as your snacks later in the day. I get into trouble (gain weight) every time that I eat junk food at night.

ladyhawk00

It's really just planning. I'm SO not a schedule person, so I know it can be difficult. Generally if I know I'll work out that day, I increase cals throughout the day, based on my average burn. I'll usually leave a buffer of 100-200. That way if I don't work out for some reason, I'm not usually over, or not by much. And if I decide I want a snack later, I have room for that, too.

And some things to increase cals a bit with an evening snack -

Milk, Peanut butter, Nuts, cottage cheese, fruit, yogurt.

robin52077

Just eat a healthy snack BEFORE working out, then burn it off, you don't HAVE to "earn" them first, THEN eat them, you can eat them first, even if you go "over", because after you record your burn you'll be back on track.

amuhlou

I really only use mine as a buffer because you never know if something will come up to hinder your workout plans. I never count on having them until I physically have finished the workout.. which is usually not until 6-7pm.

Once I get my workout logged for the day I see where I'm at. I mostly use my exercise calories as a way to have an evening snack without worrying.