To the large burners: Not able to eatback exercise calories

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spaboleo
spaboleo Posts: 172
in Food and Nutrition
And once again the topic's title got cut by the bad-bad board software:
"To the large burners: Not able to eatback exercise calories + feeling exhausted the day after huge burns? help! :)"



Hey all you large burners,

(and again this should not intimidate people with only little amounts of burned calories. But there are some people in this community that do sports very vigorously for years at itensity levels of semi-professionals. :smile:)

During the last two days I burned in sum over 5000kcal with doing sports for about 7hours in total.
2x P90x, spinning, road-cycling an snowboarding.


I tried to eat back my calories, but wasn't able to eat that much at all. I just wasn't hungry anymore...overeating would have led me in the hated food-coma I think.
This is why I deceeded my net-goal level each day for ~1700kcal. :ohwell:


On both following mornings I wasn't able to get up at the time I set my alarm and overslept.
Even though I am awake for 6 hours now I never felt wake at all :ohwell:


How to handle such situations?
Have you experienced similar reactions?

Thank you.

Replies

  • mkingraham
    mkingraham Posts: 445 Member
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    Have you tried getting in some liquid calories by either milk or real fruit juice?
  • ShrinkinMel
    ShrinkinMel Posts: 982 Member
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    If you aren't doing that consistently you'll probably be fine otherwise eat what you are hungry for when you are hungry.
  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
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    Have you tried getting in some liquid calories by either milk or real fruit juice?

    I agree. Juicing will be your best bet to get some added calories. You are oversleeping because your body is requiring the rest. Its telling you to slow down a bit and that you need some extra fuel.

    Do you have any real rest days to allow your body to rejuvenate?
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
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    It really is this simple --

    Listen to your body. Give it what it wants (rest, food, etc).
  • spaboleo
    spaboleo Posts: 172
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    Thank you all for your replys!!

    Have you tried getting in some liquid calories by either milk or real fruit juice?

    That is always a good advise! Thank you :smile:

    But actually yes :wink: ...just hadn't thought about doing it on purpose, hehe.
    I drank around 1l of a mix of buttermilk and fresh orange juice, spread to two portions each day.

    But I think I might be able to drink a little bit more!
    At the moment I drink a least 3 bottles (= 4.5l) water...mostly because my body is craving for it during and after the workouts. I think I'd be able to substitude some of that with fruitjuices.

    It really is this simple --

    Listen to your body. Give it what it wants (rest, food, etc).

    That's right.

    There are rest days. If I do weight exercise I usually rest the other day or at least try to put 30hours between the weight-workouts.
    Longer cardio-workouts are aswell always followed by a rest day.

    Every 7th day is only for stretching. So no workout at all :)
  • runnerdad
    runnerdad Posts: 2,081 Member
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    Actually, I would think about a protein shake, or something like Boost or Ensure if you need to make up that many calories. Fruit juices are high in simple sugars, so not necessarily the best way to make up a big calorie deficit. Making sure you are getting enough fats will also help you make up some of those calories.

    You can also carry some of those calories over. When I was on a heavy exercise level like that, I found it hard to eat all the calories on a heavy work-out day, and even harder to get by with just my baseline on rest days. So, if you are burning 2500-3000 on a hard day, maybe just stick to eating 2000, and making up the difference on your rest day.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    If you are exercising for such long periods of time dehydration is going to be an issue.

    Fruit juice is an option but I think you are better off with isotonic or in your particular situation hypertonic drinks to be sipped whilst exercising. You can either buy them pre made or make your own.

    Personally I don't give two hoots about the amount of calories burned per session but at one point athletic performance was important to me. Without a good high carb based fluid source it will be hard to maintain sufficient power for your workouts.
  • spaboleo
    spaboleo Posts: 172
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    [...]
    You can also carry some of those calories over. When I was on a heavy exercise level like that, I found it hard to eat all the calories on a heavy work-out day, and even harder to get by with just my baseline on rest days. So, if you are burning 2500-3000 on a hard day, maybe just stick to eating 2000, and making up the difference on your rest day.

    Yes, that's right :smile:
    I overdid it the last 1.5 years with exercising a lot on a regular basis, cutting back calories by eathing less and healthier and fasting 3 days a week.

    The problem: Back then I wasn't registered at MFP and had no idea how many calories I take in on that way.
    I did my post calculations shortly after I joined this community and was shocked! If I summed up all weeks calories and took a look at the daily average, it only was around 700kcal :ohwell:
    That explained a lot to me.

    Since then I am always trying to keep the bigger picture in mind. Limiting myself to the daily intake is a easy applicable tool, but missleads in some situations.

    I think eating back a little of the excess calories on resting days won't hurt :)

    Thank you!
    If you are exercising for such long periods of time dehydration is going to be an issue.

    Fruit juice is an option but I think you are better off with isotonic or in your particular situation hypertonic drinks to be sipped whilst exercising. You can either buy them pre made or make your own.

    Personally I don't give two hoots about the amount of calories burned per session but at one point athletic performance was important to me. Without a good high carb based fluid source it will be hard to maintain sufficient power for your workouts.

    Actually I was just happy that I finally started to live healthy and skip the processed foods and drinks or at least reduced them to an absolute minimum.
    But maybe such drinking powder wouldn't hurt :ohwell:

    I'll give it a try! :) Thank you
  • Nikki_Z
    Nikki_Z Posts: 28
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    When the spring/summer hits and du/tri/run/cycle race season is on, I burn big time. I've calculated estimates and sometimes they're in excess of 4500cal 5-6 days a week! On race days, we're talking 3500+ in around 2hrs (depending on the race!)! I always giggle when MFP tells me eating 3000kcal is way over my goal even though I tell it how much PA I've done that day!

    From your original post (and the ones after, I'd say it's a combination of food and your body needing rest. With all that exercise, the rest is as important if not more important than the actual workout.

    Besides all the liquid calories you can intake, you can also try liquid B12, and/or have your iron levels checked.

    The coolest thing I saw was a graph of the calorie output/input of the Tour de France riders. They're so closely matched it's insane. Most of what they intake is in liquid form while riding (and all that fantastic European food!).

    Intake as much as you can through liquid and get as much rest as you can!

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