If exercising a lot, how do you get the calories in?

Izzyrb1234

Hi, I'm new here and in a big learning curve. It's summer so I have a lot of time to be outdoors. This morning I worked out, then went for a bike ride and tonight will play tennis. I have not had dinner yet, but with the exercise logged in, it says I have :
Remaining calories: 1840
Carbs: 225
Fat:66
Protein: 66
Sugar: 22

How can I hope to take in 1840 calories ? I was going to make a shake when I come home after tennis, but that will come no where near the suggested amount. So the question is, how do you get enough calories in with a lot of exercise, and.".,without going over sugar?

Many thanks!
Cal

pastryari

Eat foods that are more calorie dense.

ksmilgirl2010

I would try increasing your protiens, i'm not good at cutting sugar- mine is always way over right now

Izzyrb1234

Oh, thanks....just googled calorie dense.....rice, beans...will continue to look into it...tnx again..

Izzyrb1234

I agree ...sugars are hard to keep out!

rose313

Peanut butter, avocado, eggs, nuts. The ones that are high in fat are high in good fats.

JesterMFP

Peanut butter, avocado, eggs, nuts. The ones that are high in fat are high in good fats.

^ This. Also, full-fat versions of things you might usually have low-fat or fat-free.

If you're going to be this active on a regular basis, you could always cut out the "workout" on days that you have other activities like bike riding and tennis.

steph1278

If you are basing your calorie burns solely off of MFP, be aware that they tend to run high. Unless you are using a HRM to determine your burn, I wouldn't eat all of them back.

Brandicaloriecountess

Eat foods that are more calorie dense.

^^^^

DonniesGirl69

don't over complicate.......eat when you're hungry, eat nutritious foods
The world won't end if you don't eat back ALL of your exercise calories.
Just my take....

michelle4271

make sure that you have your "activity level" set correctly also

postrockandcats

make sure that you have your "activity level" set correctly also

This!!

If this is a fairly normal day for you, OP, you might want to bump up your activity level!

As for foods, complex carbs, protiens, fruit. Nuts are great! There's lots of ways to eat more.

yvonnej1

I just wanted to add that as well as the calorie dense foods, try to plan your foods so that you spread the calories over the day and have more for breakfast and lunch on the days that are active so that you don't end up with a big surplus at the end of the day (says the person who ended up with 1300 calories left before dinner because I failed to plan properly today...lol)

rblakeman

Why do you need to eat that many calories? I am not in the camp of eating back exercise calories...the point of cardio, for me, is largely to burn extra calories...why would I eat them back? Today I have eaten 615 calories thus far...but then I hit the gym and burned 635 (per HR monitor). So it's 4:00pm and MFP says I'm supposed to eat 1200 calories for the end of the day. How does that make sense? Not to mention, after I have a snack and dinner (which together will not be nearly 1200 calories), I am always stuffed...so I stop eating. Eat when you are hungry and as long as you don't eat too many calories, don't worry about it.

jen10st

i don't tend to think of it as having to eat them all back and only eat if i'm hungry which i tend to be after a workout. keep up the good work exercising aswell