Extra calories for excercise

Hi all,

I've always had a regular workout program and lost 45 lbs prior to surgery.  I'm 7 weeks out and back in full swing. Most days I burn about 1000 calories doing cardio classes, running, biking. I'm doing my first 5K in a few weeks and a sprint triathlon later in the summer.

My question is how many extra calories I should supplement. My NUT says don't do it since it's going to lead to eating between meals etc. However,  there is something strange about only eating 1000 calories per day when I've burned 1200 in a couple of hours.

I've started to add a protein shake, half before my workout and half after. I can eat about 1000-1200 calories most days without a problem, however, could add to this with shakes and protein bars. The reason I added was my general lack of energy and falling asleep in the afternoon.

I'm just wondering about carbs, proteing ration and any other tips.

Any advice from the fitness buffs would be much appreciated.

The worrying about snacking is silly IMO. If you are going to be an athlete, you will have to eat more than 3 meals a day once you get to goal so starting out that way isn't a bad thing. I think the 3 meals a day advice is one-size-fits-all advice and, for some people, it's not applicable.

OTOH, I don't think everyone absolutely must eat as many calories as they burn in exercise. Or even half of them. When you are still early out and still have quite a bit to lose, you are getting your fuel from your fat stores, so most people have plenty of fuel without eating more.

The real issue is energy. Do you have enough to do your daily activities? If not, eat more protein.

At least, whenever I talk to my surgeon about this, he tells me to up my protein. Now that I'm close to maintenance, he has me on 1 g per lb of body weight just like body builders and athletes do. It's helped a lot with both feeling hungry and with feeling draggy after the really strenuous workouts.

Adding more protein will add more calories, of course. But it seems to work better for energy than just adding random calories. And you don't have to add tons. I added an extra 100 when I went from 100 g to 120 g of protein. I also added in an extra 100 when I went from 80 to 100. Which happened right around the time I increased my triathlon training and was starting to get draggy again.

Then, what carbs I do eat, I eat after I workout (along with protein) to replace my glycogen stores. A protein shake before and after can work well for this. Or I have some cheese sticks or yogurt after a workout and a hard boiled egg before.

Keep in mind that you could have a lack of energy because you are still recovering from surgery and, as your weight goes down, you won't burn as much doing your exercise. So you do need to be careful about this and not add in tons of calories.

That's my 2 cents anyway.