What do you do on your rest days?

HazelMcNutty
HazelMcNutty Posts: 85 Member
in Getting Started
So I'm on day four and today is my birthday. I was planning on making this a rest day. My recommended calories is 1280 a day (I'm 5'5 and about 155 lbs goal is to loose about 25 lbs). I'm finding it pretty easy so far to stay within my recommend calories because I can see if I'm over I just try and burn more afterwards. So my question is what do you do on your rest days? My breakfast alone was roughly 419 calories (a homemade muffin and a whole wheat bagel) which would leave me with 860 for lunch and supper. You can bet your *kitten* I'm having cake tonight so I know that I'll be over if I don't do something to burn some so I did a 15 minute countdown work out that kicks my *kitten*.
I think it would be really hard for me to eat that little calories on a day when I don't work out, but I know that my body needs rest as well. Do you eat over your calories on rest days (I do have a few extras netted from the last couple of days) or do you try to stay on in? I feel like If I do I'll be hungry.

Replies

  • wanttolose40lbs
    wanttolose40lbs Posts: 239 Member
    A walk is a nice rest day activity. Or just be over for the day and try to make up for it by working out harder for the rest of the week
    or eating at a slight deficit
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Keep in mind first of all that you aren't going to magically stop losing or gain weight or whatever just because you went over on a rest day...the human body just doesn't work like that. The truth is that these numbers in these calculators provide for reasonable guidelines..they really shouldn't be looked at as hard and true gospel. In reality, nobody has an exact calorie requirement of exactly XXXX calories per day and thus needs exactly XXXX calories per day lose exactly 1 Lb per week or whatever...it just doesn't work that way. To boot, your calorie goal already includes a substantial deficit from your theoretical maintenance number...so even if you go over, you're likely still in a deficit...at the most, I was around maintenance at least once per week while I was losing and it didn't stop me from dropping 40 lbs pretty easily.

    In RE to the actual question, my rest days are usually on Sundays....I usually start off the day with a 3ish mile walk with my dog. From there, I usually have some chores that need doing outside...mowing the lawn, pulling some weeds, etc. Then there's family time...Sunday afternoons are usually the day we take the kids to the pool or the zoo or the aquarium or a museum or out on the nature trail or something. Basically, I'm generally active...I'm just resting from vigorous effort.
  • NoxDineen
    NoxDineen Posts: 497 Member
    I take my dog for a nice long walk on the offleash trails near our home, and maybe do some yoga. Sex is a great rest day "exercise." ;)

    Initially I had a really hard time actually taking rest days, I felt like I had to always be working out to lose body fat, but after reading a bit about how important recovery time is for actual muscle repair and growth I started forcing myself to take them.
  • HazelMcNutty
    HazelMcNutty Posts: 85 Member
    Thanks everyone!
    I know that I'm not exactly precise on my intake or my loss but at least I'm trying. I failed hard at trying to do the same exercise every day (I get bored so fast) so I've just started to try and watch the calories and just do something/anything to burn as well. These last four days I've been way more active than my previous attempts.
    I also feel like I should always be working for it, even though I know that rest is so important, but I like the idea of just taking the dog or kids for a walk and playing at the park. I guess I forget how active a stay at home Mom can be :)

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