Is my real TDEE now almost 1000 less than calculated?

zyxst

This is a really stupid question, but I have to ask it and hope I don't get pooped on: why are you eating as much protein as you weigh? I get eating enough protein to maintain muscle (that's 1g/1 pound of LBM, right?) and eating more protein to deal with bulking up, but why eat 235 g of it when you weight 237#?

DeguelloTex

zyxst wrote: »

This is a really stupid question, but I have to ask it and hope I don't get pooped on: why are you eating as much protein as you weigh? I get eating enough protein to maintain muscle (that's 1g/1 pound of LBM, right?) and eating more protein to deal with bulking up, but why eat 235 g of it when you weight 237#?

I could eat less of it. Figuring about 22% body fat I have about 185 pounds of lean body mass. That frees up a little less than 200 calories.

It's partly a function of 240 being about my target weight after recomposition -- I don't really mind how much I weigh at the moment, I just want it to be more muscle and less fat -- partly because it is more satiating to me than an equal caloric amount of carbs or even fat and partly because 235-240 is a reasonable body weight for me.

The amount isn't set in stone or anything, it's kind of an amalgam of different suggested levels. I wouldn't be steadfastly opposed to changing it.

MelodyandBarbells

DeguelloTex wrote: »

JaneiR36 wrote: »

A 6'9" man nets 600 calories for a year - weird stuff is going to happen.

The site recommends no less than 1500 calories for any man. You're super tall and were overweight, yet you ate just 100 cals more than that. Is the weird stuff that your weight loss gets masked for a duration? Maybe, maybe not. Seems easy enough for you to find out. *shrug*

Well, the only weird thing so far is that for the last six weeks I've lost a lot more slowly than I expected. Yeah, it's kind of annoying, but all in all, it's gone really well. Last week was at least within sight of "normal," so maybe it just took me a lot longer to run into one of those plateaus/lulls that people post about.

How about this: when I graph my average weight by day over the time in question, I show a downward trend every day except Tuesday, which (relatively) spikes.

Is is possible that after taking the weekend off, when I lift on Mondays it does something to make my body replenish/retain something and that this skews my numbers higher the next day, so the rest of the week is spent "artificially" higher than it would be otherwise? Maybe at this point, even with 50 pounds of fat still on me, I've reached the point where this previously hidden occurrence is no longer hidden?

I don't know if that makes any physiological sense, but it sounds superficially like there might be something there.

I guess! From what I followed it seemed there could be something there

I realized maybe what I wasn't asking properly was whether you had attempted to eat what would be a calculated TDEE for someone your size, maybe under estimating the exercise just a little bit. It seems that number would be more like 2800 or more, not approximately half of it. If you did this for one week and your TDEE was truly a bit lower, worst case you gain maybe five pounds? If, on the other hand, eating like a very short woman is indeed stressing your body to the nines, you may find yourself resuming weight loss at expected levels

RoxieDawn

JaneiR36 wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

JaneiR36 wrote: »

A 6'9" man nets 600 calories for a year - weird stuff is going to happen.

The site recommends no less than 1500 calories for any man. You're super tall and were overweight, yet you ate just 100 cals more than that. Is the weird stuff that your weight loss gets masked for a duration? Maybe, maybe not. Seems easy enough for you to find out. *shrug*

Well, the only weird thing so far is that for the last six weeks I've lost a lot more slowly than I expected. Yeah, it's kind of annoying, but all in all, it's gone really well. Last week was at least within sight of "normal," so maybe it just took me a lot longer to run into one of those plateaus/lulls that people post about.

How about this: when I graph my average weight by day over the time in question, I show a downward trend every day except Tuesday, which (relatively) spikes.

Is is possible that after taking the weekend off, when I lift on Mondays it does something to make my body replenish/retain something and that this skews my numbers higher the next day, so the rest of the week is spent "artificially" higher than it would be otherwise? Maybe at this point, even with 50 pounds of fat still on me, I've reached the point where this previously hidden occurrence is no longer hidden?

I don't know if that makes any physiological sense, but it sounds superficially like there might be something there.

I guess! From what I followed it seemed there could be something there

I realized maybe what I wasn't asking properly was whether you had attempted to eat what would be a calculated TDEE for someone your size, maybe under estimating the exercise just a little bit. It seems that number would be more like 2800 or more, not approximately half of it. If you did this for one week and your TDEE was truly a bit lower, worst case you gain maybe five pounds? If, on the other hand, eating like a very short woman is indeed stressing your body to the nines, you may find yourself resuming weight loss at expected levels

Your suggestion is good and has been put out there many times in different ways and if OP was willing to do that, this thread would not exist or the discussion would have ended with a happy medium..

The question, was is my TDEE really 1000 calories less than calculated? And then the question was, why he losing weight at a slower rate than the math says he should? Keep in mind the is losing weight (he lost some on his last weigh in to put him at 100 pounds due to rounding).. So he is losing just not according to the the devices that are capturing and spitting out his "data".. basically mathematically..

OP did respond and state he going to keep doing what he doing and talk to his doctor. But until then he will keep the deficit and continue with his methods.

The only reason I mentioned that the data was wrong in one of my posts was to put out there an example where he is using MapMyFitness to record his "cardio" and that data from that gadget was incorrect (it did not matter if he was using the burn for calorie adjustments or not). It was suggested that some over estimation could be part of the issue at hand.

To note: he did admit yesterday that he eats out of the house, meals that are something other than the "MWF" meals he put in the thread. So how do we know exactly if the calories from those meals are precise calorie counts or calorie counts from other meals at home (other than MWF)? We can't.

A math equation cannot address a persons metabolic issues, stress levels, hormonal fluctuations, water retention and yes possibly a stall.. OP is not in a stall, he walks 40+ miles a week and lifts weights and no exercise is included in the "math"..

So it is basically back down to analysis of data we cannot see. This is till a complicated case in which a resolution cannot be reached other than to heed the suggestions and experiment them on his own..

DeguelloTex

JaneiR36 wrote: »

I realized maybe what I wasn't asking properly was whether you had attempted to eat what would be a calculated TDEE for someone your size, maybe under estimating the exercise just a little bit. It seems that number would be more like 2800 or more, not approximately half of it.

Yes, it does seem like that. Which is why I asked the question. It was/is kind of freaky. I'm not going to lie, I've been looking forward to being able to eat more now that grilling season is upon us.

At this point, it seems like all I can really do is triple check the way I am weighing and recording what I'm eating, especially the chicken, and see whether this slowdown persists or doesn't.

I'm more hopeful now that it won't persist: my average weight last week was 1.40 pounds less than the week before, a solid improvement over the last five weeks. Right now, this week's average is 1.76 pounds less than last week, even with my usual Tuesday increase included. If the rest of the week trends down as has been the case recently, my weekly average will probably be two pounds or more lower than last week. That would be much more reasonable.

G8rRay

So, OP, how's it going now (~1 month after the last post)? Also, do you have a graph of your weight for last 90 days or 180 days?

PAV8888

ETA: nevermind. Just realised the op was not from today....

DeguelloTex

G8rRay wrote: »

So, OP, how's it going now (~1 month after the last post)? Also, do you have a graph of your weight for last 90 days or 180 days?

It appears to be due to a different brand of chicken. A more expensive brand -- less added liquid -- was on sale so I bought a lot of it. The difference between raw and cooked weights is much smaller than the brand I was using so I was getting a lot more calories out of the new chicken. That is, there was more chicken left after cooking than there was with the older chicken.

I don't have a graph of my weight. I've started going by a weekly average of daily weights rather than looking at day-to-day changes as I'm bumping up calories a bit at a time to get to maintenance.

However, the average numbers for the weeks since then look like this:
4/05: 240.80
4/12: 238.63
4/19: 234.69
4/26: 232.51
5/03: 231.71