Should your diet differ on training days versus rest days?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2014-04-13

The answer is no. On both training days and rest days, you need to consume the same amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and calories in general. Now let's go through everything step by step.

Many people truly believe that they need to eat differently. They justify this by saying that on rest days, less energy is expended over the course of the day than on training days. If less energy is expended, then one should eat less; otherwise, the excess will be stored as fat. This belief is especially common among those who want to lose weight.

The logic here is quite understandable, and it seems correct. But it's not that simple. The catch is that:

After physical activity, the body requires many times more time for complete recovery than the time spent on the activity itself.

This means that after an hour of training, it may take you several days for complete recovery of muscle structure and glycogen, as well as your musculoskeletal system. And for all of that, you need proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. You can read more about this in the article: What does muscle recovery consist of?.

As a rule, an average woman weighing 50-60 kg expends about 1500-1800 kcal per day. A man weighing 70-80 kg expends 2000-2500 kcal. An average workout in the gym lasting one and a half hours usually burns 300-400 kcal. However, the surplus of those same 300-400 kcal is needed in the following 1-3 days for the recovery of your body (mainly muscles). This is true regardless of whether you are losing weight or gaining weight. In essence, the body expends the same amount of energy on training days and rest days. So, everything is quite simple.

In general, the time frame for complete recovery can vary greatly. From one day to two weeks (during particularly hardcore training). And if we take into account that most people have a break of 1-3 days between workouts, then your body is almost always in the recovery stage. Of course, if you decide to take a break from training for a week or longer, you will then need to reassess your nutrition (ideally).

Even if you are losing weight, reducing calories on rest days will lead to:

1. Decreased metabolism.

2. Decreased recovery speed.

Agree that if you cannot recover in time, you will simply overtrain, and sooner or later you will have to reduce the quantity and quality of your workouts, no matter how much you resist. A decrease in metabolism will significantly slow down fat breakdown as well. Therefore, instead of losing weight faster, you will face a plateau, apathy, and a lack of desire to train.

What about sports nutrition?

Everything mentioned above regarding regular nutrition also applies to sports nutrition. Any sports nutrition should be taken every day in the same dosages. Many will disagree with me (especially regarding BCAAs, L-carnitine, or creatine), but this is my position. Since any sports nutrition is just a concentrate of certain dietary elements found in regular food. Therefore, the principle of consumption should be the same as with regular nutrition. But this is just my opinion.