Eating back exercise cals

betaleonis

Just curious, from what I have seen it is important to eat back your exercise calories - but I find myself having trouble doing this! I'm currently on 1200 cal per day, but it is difficult for me to get up to even around 1000 per day. Before joining MFP I was averaging about 600 cal a day -- Any advice on eating ex cals or healthy foods to up my cal intake? Thanks!

FatKidAtHeart88

Protein Shakes are what I like to have after a workout. I usually mix them with light chocolate soy milk from silk. I feel like I am having something I shouldn't when I make one of those

jonski1968

Yepp i`m the same...i regulary earn another 900 calories, which i just can`t eat...

Anomalia

Protein shakes, nuts, avocados, etc. I used to have a very hard time eating because I was used to being on such a low calorie diet. I drank ensure between meals a lot to get my calories up, now I'm good to go, 1500 calories a day is easy.

Shweedog

Eat more calorie dense food. Avacados are great for this. Also, adding olive oil to dressings ups your caloric intake quickly too. Peanut butter is good for you with a high caloric content. Eat a couple tablespoons alone or with apples.

Chloe_Chaos_

peanut butter
avocados
protein powders

bedoozled

Hmm - sounds like your weight loss problem is more an issue of under, rather than over eating! Your body probably goes into starvation mode and stores/hoards fats it doesn't need. I'd agree with the others here - if you're not hungry, and eating more quantity food doesn't sound good, then it'll be about the quality (the calorie quality!). Some high-cal foods I can think of off the top of my head are:
Any and all nuts or seeds (and nut butters)
Avocados
Bananas
Oats
Dried fruit
Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, etc.)
Eggs
Some fish (fattier ones, like salmon or tuna)
Choosing certain meats over others (ie. beef, pork or lamb over chicken or turkey)
Healthy carbs (whole grain pastas or breads, quinoa and brown rice, etc.)
Beans
Healthy fats (olive oil, sunflower oil, etc.)
Protein bars

Hope that helps as a starting out point! In terms of how you eat, does it tend to be single larger meals, or snacking throughout the day? You should try both, and see which one works best for reaching your goal in a healthy way

betaleonis

Thanks for all the advice:) Bedoozled - yep I eat 3 regular meals a day with a snack in between if I get hungry. Its not so bad but when I exercise I lose the cals from what I've eaten:) I'll have to adjust I suppose! Thanks again --

bedoozled

Thanks for all the advice:) Bedoozled - yep I eat 3 regular meals a day with a snack in between if I get hungry. Its not so bad but when I exercise I lose the cals from what I've eaten:) I'll have to adjust I suppose! Thanks again --

That tends to be how I eat too - one thing you might want to try (although I'm no expert, but from what I've seen around here it may work) is maybe not exercising in any real way (walking or stretching might be fine) until you reach the weight you want to maintain, and then add in weight lifting sorts of exercise at that point to tone? Haha still, I'd rather have my problem be trying to eat more than less (it's certainly not mine!)