Eating on no exercize days

If you use TDEE method, you have to manually adjust the calories MFP provides. MFP is usually wrong, or at least crazy low.

Right, you'd use the TDEE method then manually set MFP's calories and macros.

Yeah, macros are really important, too. MFP has protein and fat set super low for women, for some reason. 1 g per pound of lean body mass (or about 0.8 g per pound of body weight) of protein a day is a good place to start.

The recommendations for protein are actually .8g per KG of body weight, not pounds. Everyone assumes we need to eat crazy amounts of protein and we don't....obviously some people like to eat more and that's fine - not knocking - just clarifying

Your 0.8 to 1 KG is recommended protein at maintenance for an average person that is sedentary. If you exercise and/or are in a deficit you need more. some studies suggest as much as 1.6 grams per lb of lean bodymass while in a deficit in order to retain lean muscle. While in a deficit your body wants to shed muscle as it uses more calories, protein, along with a smaller deficit and resistance training will tell your body to keep the muscle, so less will be lost.

I use the TDEE method too. Before I used to do the whole 'eat back your exercise calories' thing and I hated it because I would have 1200-1400 calories to eat on those days and I would be starving. Not cool.

Exactly. I had never heard of "eating back" before MFP. imho, it can lead to an odd sense of things, and an odd relationship with food. I still wish we could turn it off.

I avoid rest days for this very reason. I either cross train or do a very easy workout. Not for everyone, I suppose...

If you use TDEE method, you have to manually adjust the calories MFP provides. MFP is usually wrong, or at least crazy low.

Right, you'd use the TDEE method then manually set MFP's calories and macros.

Yeah, macros are really important, too. MFP has protein and fat set super low for women, for some reason. 1 g per pound of lean body mass (or about 0.8 g per pound of body weight) of protein a day is a good place to start.

The recommendations for protein are actually .8g per KG of body weight, not pounds. Everyone assumes we need to eat crazy amounts of protein and we don't....obviously some people like to eat more and that's fine - not knocking - just clarifying

Your 0.8 to 1 KG is recommended protein at maintenance for an average person that is sedentary. If you exercise and/or are in a deficit you need more. some studies suggest as much as 1.6 grams per lb of lean bodymass while in a deficit in order to retain lean muscle. While in a deficit your body wants to shed muscle as it uses more calories, protein, along with a smaller deficit and resistance training will tell your body to keep the muscle, so less will be lost.

I've love to see those studies. From all the studies I've read, you need about half that if you're doing resistance training and less if you aren't. All the studies I've seen suggest no benefit beyond 0.85g / lb of lean body mass if you're lifting and around 0.65g / lb of lean body mass otherwise. It probably won't hurt you to go to 1.6 g / lb but that's way beyond what your body needs.

On rest days, I eat mostly nutrient dense low carb low glycemic index foods and lean proteins with no / low carbs after 4pm. I load up on raw whole foods (spinach, broccoli, sprouts, quinoa, etc.) plus protein (lean meat, fish, raw nuts) and eat every 2-3 hours, drink plenty of water (about a gallon a day) and I don't feel hungry or have cravings. By dropping the carbs and limiting sugar, it reduces the risk of calories being converted to fat.

None of that is necessary and the only risk of calories being converted to fat is being in a constant calorie surplus.

Examples of the sources I'm referring to:

http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22150425

saying page not found for me... but that said it looks like a bodybuilding web site, so I am assuming it was done in a caloric surplus, if that is the case I would agree you don't need more as you will not lose muscle in a surplus if working out.

A final objection that is often heard is that these values may be true during bulking or maintenance periods, but cutting requires more protein to maintain muscle mass. Walberg et al. (1988) studied cutting weightlifters and they still found 0.73g/lb was sufficient to maintain lean body mass.

A perhaps even more telling study is by Pikosky et al. in 2008. The researchers took a group of endurance trained subjects and had them consume either 0.41 or 0.82 g/lb of protein per day. They also added a thousand calories worth of training on top of their regular exercise. So these guys were literally running on a 1000 calorie deficit while drastically increasing their training volume. Talk about a catabolic state… Of course the nitrogen balance in the low protein group plummeted. However, the protein intake of 0.82 g/lb in the other group completely protected the subjects from muscle loss. Nitrogen balance, whole-body protein turnover and protein synthesis remained unchanged.

Also, the supposed difference in nitrogen sparing effects of carbs and fat are negligible (McCargar et al. 1989; Millward, 1989). Neither actually spares protein though. Only protein spares protein. I think the protein sparing idea came from a wrong interpretation of the nitrogen balance literature showing more lean mass is lost in more severe caloric deficits. A simple explanation for that finding is that the more total mass you lose, the more lean mass you lose. No surprises there.

As such, there is simply no empirically substantiated reason to think we need more than 0.82g/lb of protein per day when cutting. If anything, you could reason the body should be able to use more protein during bulking periods, because more muscle is being built and a lot of other nutrients are ingested that may enable more protein to be used.

The only people that may actually need more protein than 0.82g/lb are people with unusually high levels of anabolic hormones. Androgen or growth hormone users definitely fall into this category, but I don’t exclude the possibility that some adolescents do too. If you reach peak testosterone production while still growing (in height), your unusually high levels of growth hormone and testosterone might increase your protein requirements. Or not. There’s no research to support it. Those rare individuals with amazing bodybuilding genetics could also qualify, but unless your father happens to be a silverback gorilla, you are most likely just like other humans in this regard.

References

Effect of protein intake on strength, body composition and endocrine changes in strength/power athletes. Hoffman JR, Ratamess NA, Kang J, Falvo MJ, Faigenbaum AD. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2006 Dec 13;3:12-8.

Macronutrient content of a hypoenergy diet affects nitrogen retention and muscle function in weight lifters. Walberg JL, Leidy MK, Sturgill DJ, Hinkle DE, Ritchey SJ, Sebolt DR. Int J Sports Med. 1988 Aug;9(4):261-6.

Protein requirements and muscle mass/strength changes during intensive training in novice bodybuilders. Lemon PW, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA. J Appl Physiol. 1992 Aug;73(2):767-75.

Influence of protein intake and training status on nitrogen balance and lean body mass. Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA. J Appl Physiol. 1988 Jan;64(1):187-93.

Dietary protein for athletes: From requirements to optimum adaptation. Phillips SM, Van Loon LJ. J Sports Sci. 2011;29 Suppl 1:S29-38.

Protein and amino acid metabolism during and after exercise and the effects of nutrition. Rennie MJ, Tipton KD. Annu Rev Nutr. 2000;20:457-83.

Hartman, J. W., Moore, D. R., & Phillips, S. M. (2006). Resistance training reduces whole-body protein turnover and improves net protein retention in untrained young males. Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, 31, 557–564.

Moore, D. R., Del Bel, N. C., Nizi, K. I., Hartman, J. W., Tang, J. E., Armstrong, D. et al. (2007). Resistance training reduces fasted- and fed-state leucine turnover and increases dietary nitrogen retention in previously untrained young men. Journal of Nutrition, 137, 985–991.

Effects of exercise on dietary protein requirements. Lemon PW. Int J Sport Nutr. 1998 Dec;8(4):426-47.

Effects of high-calorie supplements on body composition and muscular strength following resistance training. Rozenek R, Ward P, Long S, Garhammer J. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2002 Sep;42(3):340-7.

Increased protein maintains nitrogen balance during exercise-induced energy deficit. Pikosky MA, Smith TJ, Grediagin A, Castaneda-Sceppa C, Byerley L, Glickman EL, Young AJ. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Mar;40(3):505-12.

Dietary carbohydrate-to-fat ratio: influence on whole-body nitrogen retention, substrate utilization, and hormone response in healthy male subjects. McCargar LJ, Clandinin MT, Belcastro AN, Walker K. Am J Clin Nutr. 1989 Jun;49(6):1169-78.

Macronutrient Intakes as Determinants of Dietary Protein and Amino Acid Adequacy. Millward, DJ. J. Nutr. June 1, 2004 vol. 134 no. 6 1588S-1596S.