What to do on big Calorie burn days.

pearceda

Good Evening fellow fitness pals,
I am just looking for advice on what to do days where you burn a lot of Calories. I know the goal is to eat back calories, but not sure I can do that on a day like today. My usual day is 1730 net calories and I usually eat 1900-2200 and exercise 300-500. However this evening i did a 10K cross country run and according to my HMR I burned 1222 calories. I have consumed about 2100 but showing about a 800 deficit for today. I just can't imagine eating another 800 calories tonight. Is it OK to run a deficit occasionally?

USMCConditioning

I would say, the deficit is OK as long as you aren't in starvation mode.

Littlerunner0514

I agree. It is ok if you are not doing it all the time and you have consumed over 1200 (for women) - 1500 (for men) roughly...If you are consuming less than that your body will go into starvation land and that is when it is not okay..When I say consume, I mean after the amount of calories you exercise :-)

PS congrats on the 10K I am doing one on Sunday!

LorinaLynn

Once in a while, perfectly fine. Every day for months on end... not fine.

I'm usually hungrier the day AFTER a big calorie burn like that, so you can always think of the leftover calories from today as wiggle room for tomorrow.

Pebble321

Sure, if its a one off or every now and again, it's not going to be a problem. I tend to look at how the cals balance out over the week rather than every single day.
You might find you are hungry tomorrow though, so its fine to eat some of those cals tomorrow if you need them.
I often end up with a bit of a deficit on long run days - though usually I do my long runs on the weekend so it balances out nicely if we are going out to eat!

Another good idea is that if you know its going to be a long run day, eat a larger breakfast or lunch (as long as you can cope with this before you run.

AmyRhubarb

Every so often that happens to me - if I'm not hungry, I see no reason to stuff myself. Although I do try to net at least a minimum of 1200, but I rarely have a problem with that. My daily goal is 1710, and I generally burn anywhere from 300 - 600 calories a day through exercise. Sometimes I eat them all back, sometimes I don't, just depends on whether or not I'm still hungry.

Nice job on the 10k - I've just recently made it to 5k myself. Working on getting more comfortable with that distance & improving speed, but may have a 10k goal one of these days.

beckyinma

Once in a while, perfectly fine. Every day for months on end... not fine.

I'm usually hungrier the day AFTER a big calorie burn like that, so you can always think of the leftover calories from today as wiggle room for tomorrow.

This.

ddiestler

I agree..Once in a while ok..but, not all the time.

hesn92

I would use those extra calories tomorrow and the next day and the next day lol.