Always have extra calories to eat late at night

[spookisgirl]

HI,

I regularly train pretty intensely in the evenings (I am a competitive dancer), and I usually eat my last meal before my workouts. I usually average eating 16-1700 calories a day, but on the days I dance I find myself often more than 1000 calories 'under budget'. I really don't want to eat 1000 calories right before bed, and I am usually not hungry for them earlier in the day (nor do I want to guess how much I will burn as it varies)

I know the personalized program uses your usual activity levels to estimate how many you will need in a day, but because I train so hard on dance days, I usually have 2 days a week that are 'active rest' with some light walking with much less calories burned overall.

So, 2 questions:

Should I be concerned about always having so many 'leftover' calories to eat?

If I switch to personalized, will it account for my 'active rest days' (they are always the same days of the week), or am I likely to always be over on those days?

[WavyDavey]

Hi @spookisgirl,

It's a little difficult to answer, as you haven't mentioned what your weight management goal is. Are you trying to maintain, or lose, or gain weight?

1. I would be concerned, unless I'm trying to lose weight quickly.

2. Personalized only tracks within a day, so you'd have to make manual adjustments to the calories on rest days. One idea is to add all the calories burned for a week, and then divide by 7 equal days. Or just eat less on rest days.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Agreeing with @WavyDavey -- it would be helpful to know (1) your goals, and (2) where you are relative to those goals.

"Should I be concerned about always having so many 'leftover' calories to eat?"- Not unless it is causing you a problem, such as you are underweight, or you do not fully recover after your exercise.

[spookisgirl]

Sorry, yes I should have said.

I am looking to lose weight, 40-60 lbs.

I looked at the deficit for last week and it was almost 9000 calories overall.  I am losing about 1.5 lbs per week and I have it set to the 1000 calorie deficit.

[WavyDavey]

Well if there's no problem on the dance floor, I would say continue on the way you're going!

[spookisgirl]

I haven't noticed one, but I haven't been using fitbit as a means to track calories in for very long. I was using weight watchers before that, but the change in their program just didn't work for me.

I guess I am concerned that if I am constantly at such a deficit, my weight loss will slow? Is that likely?

[WavyDavey]

Slow and steady wins the race! A larger deficit should equal more weight loss. But since you have high levels of activity, I wouldn't venture too far into deficit, or it may trigger a metabolic slowdown. A -1000 deficit per day should equal about 2 pounds of weigh loss per week. I would think that should be sufficient.

[spookisgirl]

That is my concern -- following what the app and fitbit tells me, my deficit for a day is almost double the recommended 1000.

[Daves_Not_Here]

@spookisgirl -- this is really unscientific, based solely on my opinion and limited experience, but I think having a 2,000 calorie deficit a couple times a week is not a problem.  I think it helps make up for those days that you might indulge and have a 0 calorie deficit.

Two additional random thoughts -- (1) I think that if you have a 7,000 calorie deficit per week, varying your daily deficit works better than a flat 1,000 calories per day, and (2) people who do intermittent fasting get great results, do not experience metabolic slow-down, and run high (2,000 - 3,000) calorie deficits on their fasting days.

[GershonSurge · Accepted solution]

@spookisgirl,

You are in the great position of having most of your calorie burn at the end of the day. There are two simple ways you can handle this.

The first is setting your activity level to sedentary and following the "fuel gauge." Since you don't eat after supper, you will get a nice calorie deficit at the end of the day. There is an even simpler method.

Just look at the calories burned on your device during the day and eat to that number. You will be left with a deficit at the end of the day. Just don't eat below your BMR. This often results in lowering your BMR, which will make it more difficult to lose weight.

[spookisgirl]

Thanks, that makes sense, and I am an intermittent faster (which is part of the reason I have such a high deficit at the end of the day and don't eat after dinner).

How do I find out my BMR?

[GershonSurge]

BMR calculator

[spookisgirl]

Thanks!

According to this, I almost always eat under my BMR (1745).

[GershonSurge]

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@spookisgirl wrote:

Thanks!

According to this, I almost always eat under my BMR (1745).

This is when a person can get into nutritional problems. There just isn't enough food eaten to get all their nutrition needs. Eventually, they will be driven to binge eat. You can also get into the "starvation response" where a body learns to subsist on fewer calories, and it becomes harder to lose weight. A person can go there if they eat nutrient dense food-- a topic I'll avoid here. 

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[spookisgirl]

Well, hopefully it won't be too much of a problem for me. I average about 1600 calories in, and on rest days 1400 calories is considered about 300 over - and that is with some moderate walking.  I know when I worked with a nutritionist for a diet she had me eat about 1200 calories a day.

I have been trying to eat a little closer to what fitbit recommends, and my weight loss has slowed (even with a listed deficit of 1500 yesterday). I might just have to go with 'if it ain't broke...' and go from there.