When to eat back early morning exercise calories?

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dninpineda
dninpineda Posts: 3
in Introduce Yourself
I'm not sure if this has been covered here before, I couldn't find anything specifically about morning workouts (pre eating day calories).

I eat 1,200 calories a day, I work out 3x a week at 5am every other week day. The days I workout MFP tells me to eat about 1,700 calories, thing is I'm working out at 5am before I have eaten those calories, I'm wondering if I should eat 1700 the previous day of workout say Tuesday because I will be working out and burning those calories Wednesday early morning?

Reason I ask is because I was eating 1,200 cal everyday even on workout days and was losing more weight. For the past week I started to eat 1,700 cal on the days I workout and haven't lost any weight in the past week, I actually GAINED a pound. I also started eating a lot more protein daily so I'm wondering if that has to do with the weight gain since I'm building muscle (we do a lot of strength training in boot camp).

Thoughts?...

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    eat them whenever it fits your schedule, but eat them. 1200 is barely enough for most people when doing no workouts what so ever. If you want to eat the same amount everyday, maybe up your cals to 1500 and eat 1500 all 7 days, instead of more on workout days and less on rest days.

    And no you didn't gain muscle. a lb of muscle would take a couple weeks to build in a caloric surplus. What you are probably seeding is increase in water weight due to the exercise. your muscles store water to protect them and aid in recovery.
  • SweeDecadence92
    SweeDecadence92 Posts: 218 Member
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    Just eat them back throughout the day, after your workout.
  • links_slayer
    links_slayer Posts: 1,151 Member
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    approximately 3.25 to 4 hours after the exercise was completed will give optimum results.

    read it in an online article. must be true. yeah science!
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    When ever your hungry.

    Or..
    Just eat them back throughout the day, after your workout.
  • dninpineda
    dninpineda Posts: 3
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    Thanks guys!

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