Life Is More Than Training
Now, before we get into the nutty gritty/educational part of this topic, let’s get one thing straight: your life is made up of SO much more than just training/exercise. Work, relationships, rest, and even the unexpected curveballs life throws at us—these all take priority at times, and THAT’S OKAY!
Sometimes, it’s not even a choice. Your body might force you to slow down with sickness or exhaustion, and that’s its way of saying, “Hey, I need a break!” But again, this is OKAY!
Learning how to acknowledge and honour how your body feels us is a forever evolving skill, but one worth practicing.
Now Let’s Talk About Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
To better understand why missing a session here and there won’t derail your progress, let’s talk about Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Your TDEE estimates how many calories your body burns daily by accounting for four major contributing factors.
Your daily expenditure is broken up into:
1. NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis):
Number of calories burned outside of “formal” exercise.
This accounts for approximately 15% of your daily calories burned and includes everything outside of formal exercise—standing, walking, climbing stairs, and even fidgeting. These small movements add up more than you might think.
2. BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate):
Number of calories burned at rest.
Your BMR is the energy your body uses to keep you alive at rest—breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining organ function. It accounts for about 75% of your daily calorie burn. Translation? Missing one workout won’t wreck your progress because the majority of your calorie burn happens just by existing.
3. EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis):
Amount of calories burned through exercise.
This is the energy burned during structured exercise and typically accounts for less than 10% of your daily calorie burn. Of course, this varies based on training type, intensity, and duration, but in the grand scheme, it’s a smaller piece of the puzzle.
4. TEF (Thermic Effect of Food):
Amount of energy expenditure above the BMR due to the cost of processing food for use of storage.
This is the energy your body uses to digest, absorb, and process food—around 10% of your daily calorie burn.
The Problem With Forcing Training
Pushing through a workout when your body is screaming for rest can do more harm than good. Ignoring fatigue and masking it with two heaping scoops of pre-workout might feel productive in the moment, but it can lead to:
Low-quality training sessions,
increased risk of injury,
longer recovery times,
plateaus or even regression in performance.
Remember, rest isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a critical part of your progress. Strength and growth happen during recovery, not while you’re grinding through a workout on an empty tank.
Your progress isn’t defined by one session. Missing a workout won’t undo all the hard work you’ve put in.
Prioritise quality over quantity. Forcing subpar sessions can lead to a cycle of fatigue and frustration.
Understand your body’s signals. Tiredness, soreness, or mental burnout are cues to step back and recover.
Learning to balance effort with recovery will help you stay consistent and injury-free in the long term. If this post has sparked some perspective shifts for you, I hope you take it as a reminder to treat yourself with kindness and understanding.
Rest up, recover well, and crush it when you’re ready, sis!