Should you eat less on rest days?
You hear it all the time, and maybe you’ve even said it yourself: “I didn’t workout today, so I’m not going to eat as much.”
So here’s a friendly reminder: If you are an active individual, recreational crossfitter, weekend warrior, or competitive athlete - ESPECIALLY this last one one - you don’t need to be eating any less on rest days vs. training days.
Rest days are for rest and recovery. (It’s in the name!) You can’t expect your body to recover and adapt fully from previous days of work if you don’t allow it to recover - which includes giving it what it needs. Although you may not be burning as many calories on rest days, your body is using that extra fuel to repair muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves; and to bring down cortisol levels.
You may notice on rest days you feel hungrier or sleep better at night - if you didn’t slash calories, that is. When you’re working out, your body is in flight or fight mode; which causes stress levels to rise. When stress is high, hunger signals tend to not be as high. However, on rest days, stress lowers and your body goes into “rest and digest” mode – allowing for your body to relax. This is where hunger cues are regulated, and so you may feel hungrier. And if you’re regularly a lot hungrier on rest days, that might be a sign that you’re not eating enough on your training days.
You’re also likely to get better sleep the nights of your rest days (as opposed to training days). This is because cortisol levels are lower from your body’s “rest and digest” mode. Especially if you’re not working with a coach who’s telling you how much to eat on a daily basis, eating the same amount on rest days can help make up for unintentionally not eating enough on training days – leading, again, to better sleep.
And we haven’t even mentioned perhaps the most important part – that for many of us, the act of restricting intake on purpose because you’ve “done less” can lead to other, unhealthy mindsets around food.
So, do you need to eat less on rest days? The answer, for most of us, is a resounding “no.”
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