Comment by softwaredoug
3 days ago
If you exercise a lot, be sure to fuel your workouts. Eat a healthy calories surplus so your body doesn’t go into panic mode and sacrifice muscle and bone tissue.
I’m in my 40s and have exercised my whole life. But still did intermittent fasting (skipped breakfast). I’m a standard deviation below average bone density and have lost some cartilage in my knee from underfueled long runs (I was diagnosed with RED-S). Now I work with a sports nutritionist, and do a mix of strength, running, cycling with good rest days.
I’ve learned I’d rather have a bit of a belly now but very strong than underfueled and lost muscle/bone mass
I took up climbing a couple of months ago and for the first few weeks felt really rough, it took me that long to realise there were days when between the actual climbing and walking to and from the gym I was burning an extra thousand calories. I’ve since started making an effort to track how much I’m eating and how much I’m burning and feel tons better, if slightly full on the days I get home and realise dinner should be as much as I’d eat in a typical day before I was exercising.