The one off

jha1223

A thread I read tonight got me thinking ... and I know you smart folks have an answer. This spring I plan on running a few 5Ks. Now, it won't be every week or every other week, but .... what should I do for intake on those Saturdays when I exert myself beyond my normal intake? Use a HRM and just try and get close?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but seeing a post got me really thinking.

Sarauk2sf

For days when you have an unusually high burn you have three choices really:

1) up your weekly target for that week
2) add the calorie burn as an estimated number for that day and eat those calories back
3) not do anything as they are not regular

I would think #2 would be easiest but unless you have a super high burn that day, you can treat as a one off and not bother - it is personal preference and for me, would depend if I am hungry and/or wanted to have a higher eats day (you can roll it over to Sunday if you want as well).

With regard to the HRM, they are an estimate of your calories burnt, just like anything, so I would assume say 75% of them should be included in your intake. If you find you are losing slower of quicker than predicted over a couple of weeks, tweak your calories up or down as appropriate.

jha1223

Thanks Sara. My thoughts seem to fall in line with your thinking. My guess was to take what I am burning (HRM), from start to finish of the race, and then reduce by 15-20% and add that back in. The last thing I want to do is run a race and then not feed my body what it needs to repair the strain I've put on it. Great advice. Thank you.

mmddwechanged

When I run 5 km I don't change anything. If I record it on mfp it's just 35 minutes of jogging which is less than 300 calories. If I eat back half it's only 150.