So I just got some stitches in from a nasty gash I received from backyard football over the long weekend, and I’m taking the week off from weight-lifting to let myself recover a bit. It’ll also be the first I’m taking off from weight-training since I started last summer.
I’ve been eating an excess of ~500 calories every day so far, with slow, but progressive gains in muscle and weight (I’ve gained about 6-8 lbs. since the start of September).
Now for this week off, should I continue this excess? Should I cut back a bit?
If I was injured and trying to recover fully and quickly, I would keep up a calorie excess for the week off. Worst case, youre going to add a bit of fat, why not use this as an overall recovery week for yourself? youre in a gaining phase after all.
[quote]scraz wrote:
So I just got some stitches in from a nasty gash I received from backyard football over the long weekend, and I’m taking the week off from weight-lifting to let myself recover a bit. It’ll also be the first I’m taking off from weight-training since I started last summer.
I’ve been eating an excess of ~500 calories every day so far, with slow, but progressive gains in muscle and weight (I’ve gained about 6-8 lbs. since the start of September).
Now for this week off, should I continue this excess? Should I cut back a bit?[/quote]
It would seem you’d want your activity to determine your caloric intake. If you’re not lifting, you’re not going to partition any excess calories into muscle as well. Gaining fat in this situation is not a worst case, it’s about the only case. While it’s only a pound, why gain any more fat than you have to?
[quote]atypicaluser wrote:
It would seem you’d want your activity to determine your caloric intake. If you’re not lifting, you’re not going to partition any excess calories into muscle as well. Gaining fat in this situation is not a worst case, it’s about the only case. While it’s only a pound, why gain any more fat than you have to?
[/quote]
Well the muscles do rebuild on the off days, but yeah, that makes sense, considering muscles don’t normally take a week to rebuild. I’ll cut back a bit and throw in a bit of walking a few times this week.
depends on what your bf% currently is, and preference. imo i have a very high metabolism so i would take every chance i get to stuff my face with more calories. and for me your situation would be a grand oportunity for me to put on an extra pound or so of fat.
If you’re going to take a week off, take a week off. Eat what you want, when you want, and don’t stress about it. You won’t screw anything up, and the benefits from not worrying about shit will outweigh anything that diet will do to you.
Yeah, I’d just chill unless you’re pretty fat. EVen then just lower the sugars a bit. So say if you only eat P+C after training then just replace that meal with a P+F meal. If you are already cycling carbs then just keep up the same protocol.
[quote]atypicaluser wrote:
It would seem you’d want your activity to determine your caloric intake. If you’re not lifting, you’re not going to partition any excess calories into muscle as well. Gaining fat in this situation is not a worst case, it’s about the only case. While it’s only a pound, why gain any more fat than you have to?
[/quote]
Hey this guy uses his noggin! Eating according to a calorie number regardless of activity during the day is very stupid in my opinion. Say you did legs today after you walked around campus/worked a fairly active job; Saturday you sit around and watch college football, do you need the same calories for both days?
People that cycle their calories and carbs/fats based on training days(whether by design or not) usually seem to end up happier with their progress.
Thanks for all your opinions guys. I won’t stress too much about the calories, as I’ve been clean for so long that it’s hard for me to really go overboard anyway. I’ll just walk a few times this week and just take it easy.