EricTheBiking wrote:
I've tried both, actually, although multiples in a day make me really REALLY careful about feeding and hydration -- but even if I'm doing one session a day, after a few days of being sloppy about initial recovery, I seem to dig a hole for myself, and pretty soon I don't even feel like moving. But if I'm careful about those 20 minutes, even if it's 150-200 calories, I am peppy all the time. Given that this tracks with the "conventional wisdom", I feel safe in assuming I am nowhere near alone in this experience.
If I am doing easy workouts once a day, I can be a lot more laissez faire about it, so I think you're right that over a day it's no biggie. (But as in the other posts, a lot of the debate was about a 3-hour session, which I'd never do without eating immediately after, even if I wanted to lose a ton of weight).
-E
This fits with my experience, too. I do two-a-days almost every day, and 3-a-days (typically morning swim lunch run, evening bike) 2 times a week. I'm almost NEVER more than 12 hours away from the next session. So, (re)fueling is always important to me. I can get away with just using larger regular meals for the morning swims, and z2 runs. But, for hard bike workouts like FTP intervals, or long Upper Steady efforts, and my long ride and run...its key for me to ensure I'm fueled (and refueled) before and after these. Otherwise, I just see a descending staircase of incomplete recovery between workouts. The legs get heavier, and heavier and the power/pace numbers for those workouts where they are key don't come up to par.
Sometimes I can time these before/after the next meal...which is fine. But, if not then I will ensure I eat something before/after as needed.
Now that I'm down to race-weight (150 lbs), I never intentionally fast for weight management. I prefer to finish my workouts balanced on calories....and eat regular means (adjusted slightly to gain/lose as desired). If I need to lose a pound or two (after holidays or whatever), I never create a deficit larger than 500 cal/day (1 lb / week). I find even that to clearly compromises my ability to repeat day-after-day.