Starving on Rest Days

peanut7butter
peanut7butter Posts: 45
in Food and Nutrition
(I am trying to maintain my wight, not lose or gain)
MFP says I should eat 1660 calories a day, but since I exercise 6 days a week, it tells me I can eat 2,100. But usually I am not that hungry, and only eat around 1800-1900 calories. The problem is, on my one rest day a week, I am just as hungry as the other days but only allowed to eat 1660 calories!
What should I do? Am I doing something wrong?

Replies

  • SilverOnTheTree
    SilverOnTheTree Posts: 102 Member
    The answer to this is very straightforward: 1) nothing special and 2) no, you're doing nothing wrong.

    If we consider your calorie intake over the week, you're under by ~250 calories for 6 days, and over by ~200 calories for 1 day. In a seven day period, then, you're under by about 1500 calories! Gosh!

    Are you still losing weight? If not, then there's no problem. Eat your normal amount on your rest day too. :)

    Oh - there's a feature in "Reports" if you click "Nutrition" and then select a number of days. You can view a handy chart of your net calorie intake over a longer period of time. This is useful for revealing long-term upward or downward trends in your eating.
  • peanut7butter
    peanut7butter Posts: 45
    Thanks, this helps a lot! I am not still losing weight, because i am not really trying to. I am just using MFP to watch myself and see what I can do better.
  • curvyvegan
    curvyvegan Posts: 80 Member
    You could try my method: I just upped my activity level to "very active" and then I don't ever track my exercise. This way I get more calories every day regardless of which days I work out, and I never have to worry about whether I'm tracking my exercise calories correctly. And I like eating roughly the same amount of food every day.
  • senyosmom
    senyosmom Posts: 613 Member
    eat more protein than usual on your erst days so you feel full longer.
  • knittingbandmom
    knittingbandmom Posts: 190 Member
    I have the same problem as you but I'm not at my goal yet so I am trying to lose. I agree with Silver about averaging it all out. It is really hard once you rev up your metabolism and are used to eating a certain amount to go less on days off isn't it? If I planned it out better I could do it but since my one non-workout day a week normally on a weekend and I tend to eat out then anyway I'm almost always over on that day. I am losing. It's all good and welcome to MFP by the way.
  • e2track
    e2track Posts: 12 Member
    Well, it only makes sense that your body is used to a specific amount of calories a day. Eating 200 calories over on your 1 rest day a week should not make you gain weight. I think over all, it will balance out.
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
    I can't tolerate starving on rest days either. That's why I custom set my calorie goal to be a cut from my TDEE (since I'm still losing). My goal is 2100 every day. I don't eat exercise calories (they're already accounted for in my TDEE). I don't starve on rest days, though I typically eat a little less since I'm not ravenous if I don't exercise. I meet my goals. Works beautifully :)

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