Excess Calories Carried Over

Options
staci119
staci119 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am a distance runner trying to find the balance of enough food to sustain energy for running and life but not so much as to add extra padding. I struggle with eating too much and then not enough. For example, I run 4 days a week, last week was 6miles Monday, 7 miles Tuesday, 3 miles Thursday and 11 miles Friday. I take off or very mild cross training the other days. On friday I burned 1100 calories on my run. I dont like to eat that much in 1 day so I've been trying to spread it out over the weekend when I don't do set exercises besides running around with my son and husband. Is there a way to carry over your unused exercise calories to the next day in this program and have it show up in the total? Especially because that way it can also carry over the percentage of protein, fat and carbs I'm trying to keep to? We are talking about like 400-600 calories...I don't NOT want to eat them because I need to keep my energy level up since I'm in training but I just don't like eating them all in 1 day.

Replies

  • lutzsher
    lutzsher Posts: 1,153 Member
    Options
    Nope, everything resets overnight and cannot be carried over . . . including you (ha ha)!
  • myfitz4life
    myfitz4life Posts: 46 Member
    Options
    Just a side thought: Make sure you have your activity level set to "very active" since you run so much!
  • ChessRonin
    ChessRonin Posts: 160 Member
    Options
    Just so that you know, I don't think it helps you to eat the calories that your body burns on Friday, two days later on Sunday. Your body needed the calories on Friday, and if you didn't give them to it, and you don't have adequate fat stores, it's going to enter catabolism and break down muscle tissue for fuel. After that happens, eating more calories than you expend on Sunday is probably just going to result in fat being created on Sunday.

    So it seems like you'll be losing muscle on Friday and adding fat on Sunday; bad policy.

    Instead of trying to carry over, be sure to give your body the fuel it needs WHEN it needs it. It doesn't matter if you don't like eating 1100 calories in a day; if you need it, find calorie dense and appropriate foods and eat them when you need them.

Categories