Yeah, it works as a general rule of thumb but there are nuances. Running 2km or 1 mile burns roughly 100 calories.
If you were burning 100 calories running per day, and consuming just as many calories each day as you were burning, the lack of running puts you at a 100 calorie daily surplus without a change in diet. That translates to an annual surplus of 36,500 calories, which will likely gain you about 10 pounds of body fat in that year.
Simple solution in that situation is to eat 100 fewer calories per day, if you can (or however much else you estimate you were burning). 100 calories is half a candy bar, half a bottle of soda, skipping sugar in your coffee/tea, etc. If the injury was specifically a leg injury, can also supplement with cardio exercises that only work the upper body and don’t require your legs, if desired.
When I was marathon training I found that eating enough calories was a matter of meal timing, simply because I didn’t have the stomach to be able to eat that much in a single sitting.
With training a total of 50 miles (80 km) per week at a body weight of 190 lbs (85 kg), that’s basically 6700 calories per week of direct energy expenditure, maybe another 1000 calories of excess post-exercise energy expenditure. That’s 7700 calories per week from running, which allows you to add a whole 1100 calories per day to your diet, plus the amount you’d normally need for day to day.
With intense exercise, there’s a lot of room to work with.
That’s one of the reasons I ended up eating like trash. Fatty foods are calories dense foods, and that made it easier to get enough calories in a single meal, rather than trying to eat enough food throughout the day that wasn’t as calorie dense.
I won’t pretend that was the only reason I ate like trash, but it was definitely a part of it
Yeah, it works as a general rule of thumb but there are nuances. Running 2km or 1 mile burns roughly 100 calories.
If you were burning 100 calories running per day, and consuming just as many calories each day as you were burning, the lack of running puts you at a 100 calorie daily surplus without a change in diet. That translates to an annual surplus of 36,500 calories, which will likely gain you about 10 pounds of body fat in that year.
Simple solution in that situation is to eat 100 fewer calories per day, if you can (or however much else you estimate you were burning). 100 calories is half a candy bar, half a bottle of soda, skipping sugar in your coffee/tea, etc. If the injury was specifically a leg injury, can also supplement with cardio exercises that only work the upper body and don’t require your legs, if desired.
When I was marathon training I found that eating enough calories was a matter of meal timing, simply because I didn’t have the stomach to be able to eat that much in a single sitting.
With training a total of 50 miles (80 km) per week at a body weight of 190 lbs (85 kg), that’s basically 6700 calories per week of direct energy expenditure, maybe another 1000 calories of excess post-exercise energy expenditure. That’s 7700 calories per week from running, which allows you to add a whole 1100 calories per day to your diet, plus the amount you’d normally need for day to day.
With intense exercise, there’s a lot of room to work with.
That’s one of the reasons I ended up eating like trash. Fatty foods are calories dense foods, and that made it easier to get enough calories in a single meal, rather than trying to eat enough food throughout the day that wasn’t as calorie dense.
I won’t pretend that was the only reason I ate like trash, but it was definitely a part of it