Would love some input!

Pickles175

Okay, this is me. I'm 5' exactly. As of today I weigh 147.4lbs and I am 42 years old. My body fat percentage according to my Tanita scale is 36.5%. I still have a lot of fat around my tummy and back so I am not at a maintaining stage but at a deficit.

I work out 5 days a week. 2 days a week I do upper body kettlebell workout for nearly 30mins with a 5lb kettlebell, 2 days a week I do lower body kettlebell workout for 30 mins with an 8lb kettlebell and the other day I do a cardio aerobics dvd for 30 mins. I do not workout on weekends. My job is a desk job.

I have been using the tdee calculator from IIFYM instead of Scooby (why do you choose the Scooby calculator instead? ) . According to IIFYM my bmr is 1279 and my tdee is 1871. I have been doing tdee-20% so eating around 1500 calories a day and have my macros set as such.

Does this sound right for a person of my age, size and weight? At this time, kettlebells are as much strength training I can do (work out at home and can't afford more equipment at this time). Is this enough of a workout?

I am a great believer in trusting the process. Advice appreciated please.

Nayners21

Numbers sound decent for me. Have you tried the scooby calculator? I would try just to see if the numbers are somewhat the same. Good luck.

Pickles175

Scooby has my bmr as 1380 and my tdee as 2018, not sure why there is such a difference in calculators???

nicolejo143

If you go to http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ you will notice that there are four different research models for calculating your tdee to choose from. If you read below that, Scooby gives an explanation about all of them and talks about the accuracy. In the end they are all really just estimations though.

Jennbecca33

1500 sounds low to me with 5 days of exercise, even with a desk job. I do know that IIFYM does underestimate quite a bit. Heybales has some findings on this...maybe he'll see this post and chime in as his sources are always reliable. But from my personal experience, IIFYM did underestimate for me as well. I would for sure go with Scooby numbers as it is more accurate.

Also, EM2WL does not suggest anything more than a 15% deficit, so that will give you a few more calories as well. 20% is really too steep of a deficit. You have plenty of exercise. I've heard good things about kettlebells for strength.

heybales

Oh, my sources were just noticing that when people were losing or maintenance, so they had accurate food logging and weight loss amounts - they would comment how the iifym site always underestimated their TDEE for what was really happening.

I've only seen that result, or that someone tried to follow the iifym site for eating goal and had the same issue of little to no movement.
Then again, any TDEE table can be misused by being dishonest.
I can recall only 1 claim that the TDEE seemed to be accurate for the amount being lost.

That is strange the TDEE was that much lower though, 1279 compared to 1380 - unless BF% was used on one and not the other.

heybales

Just reminded myself why I don't like those calc's either.

The extreme claims to accuracy.

And yet it only asks for days of exercise a week.

As if 3 days 2 hrs heavy cardio would cause the same average TDEE as 3 days of 30 min of walking.

Falcon

Considering her age and height. 1500 to 1600 sounds about right. The BMR has her around 1279 and that seems too low. Considering the amount of exercise 1500 to 1600 is good to aim for. The more you burn the more you'll have to consume. Adjust accordingly day to day.

Pickles175

Thank you! I appreciate your replies.

Yes, I used my bfp for the one to get 1279. Of course who knows how accurate my bfp is using a 10 year old tanita scale...Lol

And i agree about the exercising days o f the week and working out, thats why i wondered about mine and if it was enough.

Will increase my calorie goal to somewhere in the middle of the results.

Jennbecca33

1600 is much better than 1500 as mentioned in first post - that's a difference of 700 cals weekly which can make a big difference. I just quickly put your numbers into Scooby using moderate activity level and came up with TDEE of 1940. 15% deficit puts you at 1649 daily for an average of .5 lbs loss per week. Of course it's an average. Your exercise at 2.5 hours weekly puts you just slightly below moderate activity level, but you have to remember that daily activity also counts. Even though you have a desk job during the day, I'm sure you move around once you are off work enough to push you well into the moderate activity level. Also, using the recommended 15% deficit gives you a few more calories!

Pickles175

Thanks! Was just about to go look up my tdee average via scooby. Lol

heybales

If you use that Most accurate link given above, you can choose Katch BMR method and enter your BF%, which will explain the BMR difference, but not likely the TDEE difference.

Falcon

There's no way that's right. 2700 cals a day? I would've thought 1800 cals a day would be more accurate....

Jennbecca33

Link to Scooby:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

heybales

2700 cal's?

5 x 30 min = 150 min or 2:30 hr
So indeed Lightly Active for just the exercise, but I didn't catch what the daily activity is outside exercise to see what that level is by itself.
Then you gotta smack the 2 levels together.

Falcon

Imperial Metric
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 2829 1.4 lbs 0.6 kg per week
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 3394 5.4 lbs 2.5 kg per month
Daily calories based on goal in step 6 2715 70.6 lbs 32.1 kg per year

Step 1: Enter Your Gender female
Step 2: Enter Your Weight
Pounds: 280
Kilograms: 127.3
Stones: 20
Step 3: Enter Your Height
Centimeters: 14.5
Inches: 5.7
Step 4: Enter Your Age 35
Step 5: Enter Activity Level desk job/little exercise

Step 6: Select Your Goal
ALL BELOW QUESTIONS ARE OPTIONAL – jump to your results!

Step 7: Enter Meals Per Day 3
Step 8: Enter Research Model
Step 8a: Enter Your Bodyfat 43%
Step 9: Enter Calibration Factor calories/day 1800
Step 10: Enter Macro Ratios auto-set

not sure if the calibration is right, not sure how to calculate it so this is a rough estimate

heybales

Sorry, thought you were talking about pickles.

Use the spreadsheet on my profile page.
Stay on the Simple Setup and Progress tabs only for now.
After looking at sample data in yellow cells, delete it all, and enter your own stats that you happen to have.
Be honest in Activity Calc as to what you plan to do. really no exercise?

And yes, TDEE is high if BMR is high, if you move around the average amount.

And that other site, no you don't use calibration factor if you don't know what it is, because you don't since you've never used this before.

The Progress tab has an easier one to use on far right after a month of stats.

Falcon

It says about 2202 with light exercise.
Looks like MFP is definitely off by five hundred cals a day.

That seems a little more with what I had in mind.

beastmode_kitty

I use that spreadsheet myself and when i input my numbers it said I should be eating 1500 calories on workout days?? That seems way too low

mymodernbabylon

I had the same preciouskitten which is why I went to the Scooby Workshop and that worked for me. Different worksheets work for different people. BUT you also have to think about what deficit you are entering - it shouldn't be more than 15%. I'm eating 2100 calories at a 10% deficit.

heybales

preciouskitten wrote: »

I use that spreadsheet myself and when i input my numbers it said I should be eating 1500 calories on workout days?? That seems way too low

That's based on max fat loss and no muscle mass loss based on studies - not for performance improvements. Depends on where you are at for goals.

Just used the best estimated TDEE given and take off 15%.

And that's to be eaten every day, TDEG, not on workout days only.

heybales

Keep in mind MFP includes no exercise in the daily burn or the eating goal.
When it's added when it's actually done, then daily burn and eating goal both correctly go up.
If used correctly they usually are close in the end for a weekly average.

But, they still start with Mifflin BMR, and if it's inflated over Katch - well, inflated daily burn and eating goal, exercise or not.

beastmode_kitty

Well i for sure dont want muscle loss but i was eating at 1500 calories while lifting heavy and i didnt like how it made me feel. Ever since i went higher ive felt a lot better and have powered thru my workouts

weemsdm

Nayners21 wrote: »

Numbers sound decent for me. Have you tried the scooby calculator? I would try just to see if the numbers are somewhat the same. Good luck.

Pickles175

I've taken the week to digest the info and really get it into my head. I think for me the hard part mentally is that I have been losing a 1lb a week so far and to go down to less feels like a step back. However, I can appreciate that my body needs fuel and I would rather lose fat than water and muscle every week. So after my weigh in this Friday I will input my weight and do tdee - 15%. As long as I see results in my measurements I wont be so panicked about the scale.

beastmode_kitty

I had a hard time literally ingesting the fact I had to eat 2000 calories a day. But I'm glad I started to as i'm LOVING the results

mymodernbabylon

preciouskitten wrote: »

I had a hard time literally ingesting the fact I had to eat 2000 calories a day. But I'm glad I started to as i'm LOVING the results

YAY!!!