FREE FUEL GAP CHECK · NO SIGN-UP
How many calories should you eat after a hard training day?
Short answer: compare yesterday's total burn from your watch with what you ate. If the difference is under 150 kcal, eat as planned. If it's bigger, add back about 60% of it today, mostly as carbohydrate, at most 800 kcal, and keep protein the same.
Only 60%, because a watch's calorie burn is an estimate. Check your own numbers below: it takes 20 seconds and nothing is saved.
Your fuel gap
EVERY MORNING, WITHOUT TYPING
Get this every morning from your watch — free
Connect your watch and Plait reads yesterday's burn for you. Free gives you a weekly meal plan at your average burn, and the gap on days 300 kcal or more away from it.
Plait Pro does the rest on its own: today's meals adjust every morning with this rule. See what Pro includes
- Pro Monthly$5.99/month
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Questions
How many calories should I eat after a Garmin or WHOOP workout?
Compare yesterday's total burn from your watch with what you ate. If the difference is under 150 kcal, eat as planned. If it is bigger, add back about 60% of it today, mostly as carbohydrate, at most 800 kcal, and keep protein the same. 60% and not all of it, because a watch's calorie burn is an estimate.
Why only 60% of the gap?
Wrist devices estimate energy expenditure, and the estimate can be off by 20% or more. Adding back part of the difference moves you in the right direction without chasing the error. It is the same rule Plait Pro applies to your meals every morning.
Should I use active calories or total calories?
Total calories for the whole day: active plus resting energy. Garmin shows it as total calories, WHOOP as calories for the day, and Apple Health as Active Energy plus Resting Energy. Use a finished day, not today's running total.
Does protein change after a hard day?
No. The extra food is mostly carbohydrate, with a little fat. Protein stays at your daily target, which Plait sets from your body weight and goal.
I eat less than I burn on purpose. What should I enter?
Choose my plan and enter the burn your plan is built for (your maintenance), not your reduced target. Plait Pro keeps your goal's deficit and adjusts around it.
How the check works
The gap is yesterday's burn minus what you ate (or your plan's calories). Today's change is 60% of it, rounded to 10 kcal, nothing under 150 kcal and at most 800 kcal either way: the rule Plait Pro applies to your meals each morning, where it compares with the burn your saved plan is built for. Extra energy goes about three quarters to carbohydrate and a quarter to fat; a smaller day trims carbohydrate first. Food amounts use USDA values: cooked white rice, a 120 g banana, a 35 g slice of whole-wheat bread and almonds.
Your numbers stay in this page: nothing is sent or saved. A share link keeps them after the # in the address, which browsers do not send to a server. This is general guidance for healthy adults, not medical advice.
Sources: Shcherbina et al., 2017: accuracy of wrist-worn devices for heart rate and energy expenditure · USDA FoodData Central · How Plait uses wearable calories