If you have a huuuuge amount of calories left at the end of

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hellomeghan
hellomeghan Posts: 37
in Food and Nutrition
Do you try to eat some of them, even if you aren't hungry?
My first thought was no....of course not.
But here's the thing.....some days, I'll wake up kind of late, I'll go the gym and earn another 300-400 calories, and I'll end up with around 700-800 left by the end of the day or more. I thought a large calorie deficit would be good, but I don't want my body to go into starvation mode because that would be completely counterproductive. Any thoughts?

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  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Plan ahead... If you know you'll be going to the gym, then eat a bit more at breakfast and lunch so you don't end up with so much left at the end of the day.
    I don't think it's critical to eat every calorie every day, but having such a huge deficit on a regular basis doesn't seem like a good thing to me.
  • Lukazetta
    Lukazetta Posts: 427 Member
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    You're right...Starvation mode makes your body panic and actually store more fat.

    My tip: have small portioned meals throughout the day to boost your metabolism and it's true when people say breakfast is the most important (especially in your case since you workout right after).

    Good luck!
  • lady_in_weighting
    lady_in_weighting Posts: 196 Member
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    i have quite a big calorie deficit on my gym days too. if you exercise in the morning then you need to have a good carb fueled breakfast followed by a hit of protein to make sure that all the weight training your doing to isnt going to waste, if you are weight training that is [:
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
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    I sometimes have a pretty large deficit on some days too, but no I do not force myself to eat anything back on the days I burn a lot if I am NOT hungry. I don't even force myself to eat anything back on days when I don't burn as much. I eat when I am hungry and don't eat when I am either full or not hungry. I never plan on leaving myself with a large deficit and low net, sometimes it just happens. So before the anorexic comments or "enjoy starving yourself" people show up, not everyone is eating that way on purpose. I am sure some use this site to do that, but I don't. :smile:


    I try to plan ahead in a sense when I know I will have a pretty big burn and eat more filling foods and lots of protein too.
  • hellomeghan
    hellomeghan Posts: 37
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    Thanks guys! I'll start doing that. I'm just so afraid that I'm going to get back into my old habit of eating when food sounds good instead of eating when I'm physically hungry....that's what got me so overweight in the first place!

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