TDEE - basic question

jarbatz

If I use this method to calculate my calories and choose 1-3 hours/week of light exercise, do I eat those calories back or just let them go since they are already factored in? Thanks!

Sued0nim

jarbatz wrote: »

If I use this method to calculate my calories and choose 1-3 hours/week of light exercise, do I eat those calories back or just let them go since they are already factored in? Thanks!

they aren't factored in, they're your goal to hit

Your activity level should be based on how you live without purposeful exercise .. so for a desk job you're sedentary .. if you're a teacher, lightly active

then when you do purposeful exercise - eg go workout, go for a long walk, you log it, halve the calories from the MFP database and you eat those too

jarbatz

Thanks! So if I burn 300 calories via purposeful exercise, I should eat back 150 of those?

jemhh

rabbitjb wrote: »

jarbatz wrote: »

If I use this method to calculate my calories and choose 1-3 hours/week of light exercise, do I eat those calories back or just let them go since they are already factored in? Thanks!

they aren't factored in, they're your goal to hit

Your activity level should be based on how you live without purposeful exercise .. so for a desk job you're sedentary .. if you're a teacher, lightly active

then when you do purposeful exercise - eg go workout, go for a long walk, you log it, halve the calories from the MFP database and you eat those too

This is incorrect.

If you are using the TDEE method, your exercise calories are already included and you do not add them back in. Simply put,

TDEE = BMR + NEAT + Exercise

TDEE - total daily energy expenditure
BMR - basal metabolic rate (how many calories it takes you to simply exist, lying around doing nothing)
NEAT - non-exercise activity thermogenesis (how many calories you spend doing non-exercise activities like washing dishes, walking to the mailbox, typing on your computer, etc.)
Exercise - number of calories you spend doing exercise

If you are "using the TDEE method" you generally find your TDEE and then reduce it by a percentage or certain number of calories in order to create a caloric deficit of your choosing.

This is different from the MFP goal that you get, which is just BMR+NEAT, less the daily caloric deficit needed to meet your weekly weight loss goal. Using that method (the MFP method) you would add back exercise calories and eat them (or at least some of them.)

Sued0nim

Sorry I totally missed the title and thought she was asking how MFP worked in relation to TDEE

OP ignore me, I was answering from MFP perspective...Jem gave you the TDEE response

jarbatz

Thank you both! So theoretically, if I choose "1-3 hours/wk light exercise and I don't actually do 1-3 hrs/wk of light exercise I'd be consuming too many calories.