Figuring it out

Ok, a little more obsessive reading last night led me to a new conclusion. I looked over that woman's blog more carefully and noticed she ate the same every day regardless of workout She didn't factor in her workout. That means on the days she did workout she was at a deficit of probably a few hundred calories, and the rest days she was actually eating 2100. The other thing I realized is that she was doing something called reverse dieting. That means she slowly (very slowly like 20 calories a month) a dded calories back into her diet to give her body time to adjust so in the end she was eating close to 2400 a day and still seeing results.

So then I looked up eating back workout calories, and I found another helpful blog and the woman made some pretty valid arguments for not eating back your calorie, the most important being that when you count workout calories they can be very inaccurate. The machines at the gym tend to over count the calories burned, and when you log workouts in programs like Myfitnesspal you really have no idea how accurate the number is. If two people weighing 150lbs  both did the same workout they could burn  a different amount of calories used on how fit they each are. The more fit you are the less you tend to burn in a workout. But how do you really know how fit you are? How can you be accurate? I am wondering if part of my problem has been overestimating and eating back more than I burned.

With all of that new knowledge I have decided to stick with my idea of eating more, but I want to be consistent. I will eat the same amount every day regardless of my workout. I set my calories on Myfitnesspal to maintain. I had it set that way over the holidays too and I did maintain so I know my body works with that amount. My set amount is 2185. So each day I will eat that consistently even if I don't work out. I am not going to attempt the reverse dieting for now, I don't know if it is something I need to do.

**Today's workout:  cardio 30 minute run 10 minute mile