Leftover Calories

SillySkittles

I went to a Zumba class this evening and only had dinner left to eat after the class. I thought I was already pretty bad today by eating two slices of papa john's pizza, but since I did the workout, I have 952 calories left that the plan is suggesting I eat.

Is not eating these leftover calories really going to slow down my weight loss or hinder me a lot??? I doubt I have anything healthy that I could eat that would make it up to 952 calories, plus I'd really rather not eat it so close to bed time. All the other days, I have gone over on at least one goal or more, but today, even with the calorie deficit, I don't feel hungry at all.

ivykivy

As long as you've eaten close to your BMR you should be fine. Have some nuts and chocolate milk.

click

if you aren't hungry, there is no need to eat. take it as a bonus day. some days you'll be hungrier and you'll go over, just make sure it isn't happening a lot and you aren't forcing yourself to leave a deficit. make sure you drink enough water on those days, too, when you don't eat all your calories.

azwildcatfan94

I think part of it has to do with how much weight you have to lose. If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, it shouldn't be an issue. But, less than that and you risk going into starvation mode. Of course, one day at lower calories isn't the same as doing it longer term.

MacMadame

Some days I burn 1200 calories with exercise and others I don't burn any. There is no way I can eat an extra 1200 calories on those days I exercise like that. Besides, a lot of time, I'm only slightly more hungry on those days but the next day -- when I might not exercise at all -- I'm hungrier too. This makes sense because your body re-balances your energy stores overnight and many times what you do calorie-wise takes two days to show up in your body.

So I do everything on a 3-4 day running average.

I also don't eat all my exercise calories for one big reason:

Most people under-estimate their food intake and over-estimate their exercise. If you eat every single exercise calorie, you risk not having a calorie deficit because of this. Eating only part of your exercise calories gives you a cushion.