Eating back your exercise cals... When you've met dietary li

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sugarbone
sugarbone Posts: 454 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
On days I do cardio, I have no problem sourcing a couple hundred calories to eat back and keep at my 1200 budget. However, if I was already at or close to my fat/sugar/carbs limits (I don't care about overstepping protein) then how should I go about doing this? Should I just ignore the numbers and eat back exercise cals as long as it's a healthy food, or only eat back what fits in my nutrient budget?

This becomes a problem especially when I exercise 500+ cals - it's really hard to find 500 cals of food without a little fat or sugar, for me (suggest foods if ya got em) since I can burn all the cals, but not fat or sugar etc.

What do you think?

Replies

  • hush7hush
    hush7hush Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Try something like a protein shake if you want to eat them back?
  • russelljclarke
    russelljclarke Posts: 836 Member
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    Egg whites?
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    egg whites have very little calories.

    if you must eat them back or want to eat them...remember to becareful you are not over eating and under estimating your workouts.

    peanut butter, avocados, beans, nuts are all high in calories relative to their size/portions.
  • sugarbone
    sugarbone Posts: 454 Member
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    Those are both good suggestions! I guess what I meant was high cal high protein foods. Unfortunately all the foods low in fat and sugar, like egg whites and veggies, aren't very calorie dense and I'll have to load up on them haha. I was anorexic when I was younger so eating large portions is challenging and I have to tell myself this food will not make me fat haha.
  • sugarbone
    sugarbone Posts: 454 Member
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    egg whites have very little calories.

    if you must eat them back or want to eat them...remember to becareful you are not over eating and under estimating your workouts.

    peanut butter, avocados, beans, nuts are all high in calories relative to their size/portions.

    Thanks. Yeah, I always estimate cals eaten and burnt so that the margin of error is negative calories. I'd happily eat pb and avocado by the spoonful, but they're pretty high in fat (admittedly, pretty good fats). That's my dilemma, going over fat trying to recover some exercise cals with calorie dense foods like that
  • Licacorona
    Licacorona Posts: 118 Member
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    I had the same concern today. I needed to eat up a lot of calories but I had already exceeded my protein, carbs, and fiber so I had no idea what to eat. Plus, I was feeling pretty full. Let me know if you find an answer. :)
  • hush7hush
    hush7hush Posts: 2,273 Member
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    What are your macros set to?
  • sugarbone
    sugarbone Posts: 454 Member
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    What are your macros set to?

    55% carbs, 20% protein, 25% fat

    I upped the protein by 5% of what MFP originally recommended
  • hush7hush
    hush7hush Posts: 2,273 Member
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    What are your macros set to?

    55% carbs, 20% protein, 25% fat

    I upped the protein by 5% of what MFP originally recommended

    Hmm.

    I don't know if this is info that you want, but a lot of celebrities/trainers/etc say that the best setting is 40/30/30. That's what I aim for, and I think it's pretty commonly excepted as the optimum "fat-burning" set. Again, that's just what I do, not saying you need to change it. [:
  • sugarbone
    sugarbone Posts: 454 Member
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    What are your macros set to?

    55% carbs, 20% protein, 25% fat

    I upped the protein by 5% of what MFP originally recommended

    Hmm.

    I don't know if this is info that you want, but a lot of celebrities/trainers/etc say that the best setting is 40/30/30. That's what I aim for, and I think it's pretty commonly excepted as the optimum "fat-burning" set. Again, that's just what I do, not saying you need to change it. [:

    I didn't know that! I wasn't sure what the ratios should be at all so I just tweaked protein because 15 seemed low. I literally never ever hit my carb limit either so it shouldn't be a problem. Thank you :-)

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