Worried about the quarantine lbs?
I’ve been getting this question from my clients- “I’m working out at home, should I decrease my calories?
Not necessarily⤵️
You need to realize your lift at the gym does not burn a lot of calories🏋️♂️Females 200-300 calories, a bit more for your hardest lifts, males could be burning 500, or more if you’re bigger.
Now you’re working out at home, but even with body weight and bands your pushing to an RPE 8-9.5, so you still are burning 100-200 calories as a female, and again a bit more for males. So that’s maybe 100-200 calories less than your normal session.
You also need to keep in mind your body maintains weight within a 5-10% range of calories.
If you were eating 2100 calories, and now you’re burning ~150 calories less a day, that’s still within your 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞.
Your exercise activity makes up a very small piece of your metabolic rate. A larger piece is your NEAT or non exercises activity thermogenic- Science for calories burned during daily living.
If you find your step count/overall activity has decreased since being home, I’d recommend finding ways to ⬆️increase movement to make up for that drop in NEAT and activity.
I rather, if possible, my clients use their time to create a higher energy flux with more movement (walks, cleaning, walking during phone meetings etc) or light cardio ➡️rather than decreasing calories and keeping movement low.
This will lead to less metabolic “consequences,” decrease the likelihood of overeating, set us up to be in a better spot after this, and potentially improve affect.
Yes, every situation is different, for some we may decrease calories slightly, but the initial step is to maintain and focus on daily movement.
You’re still alive, moving and thinking (hopefully). You still need calories to fuel that!