If you’re exercising for less than 60 minutes per day you should be able to buffer the energy expenditure with your fat reserves and get even more burning underway. Ideally time your exercise routine to finish just before a meal or snack so you can combine a protein intake with your normal daily eating whilst on the 28 day shred.

If you’re working out for nearer to 90 mins or longer it becomes more difficult to buffer that energy expenditure, and if you don’t refuel some of the energy burned you’re likely to crash and develop cravings as your body tries to force your brain into taking action and eating whatever it can find. For long endurance sessions it’s always best discussing your unique circumstances and goals with me beforehand, however I’d normally suggest refuelling a portion of the calories back ideally during the session so your performance is still optimal.

I tend to use an RPE scale of effort=calories. So if you know you burned 1000 calories (or expect to burn that amount), eat back a percentage of them based on an effort scale of 1-10.

An example would be, if you felt it was easy and a 3/10 effort overall each back 30% of the calories of the workout. If you found it pretty tough and an 8/10 RPE, eat back 80% of the calories. It’s not an exact rule and quite subjective, but you’ll be getting the burn from your other daily activities so it’s important to think of exercise calories as “cherry on the cake” work – if you need the calories back then take them guilt-free!