TDEE Calculations. Lifting and zero cardio

arditarose

I know they are just estimates and it takes some data tracking and what not to really figure out your maintenance calories. I was just curious what other lifters who do little to zero cardio input into TDEE calculators, or hearing a little bit about the process of figuring out your real maintenance calories. I'm hesitant to say I get "x" amount of moderate exercise, only basing it off of my 4 days of heavy lifting. I'm kind of leaning toward what MFP gives me for being lightly active using the NEAT method, as I've never counted calories burned from lifting anyway.

tomatoey

Not a heavy lifter, but - the activity level descriptors go by METS (obviously all estimations). Moderate = something like 3-6 METS . "Weight lifting (free, nautilus or universal-type), light or moderate effort, light workout, general" is about 3 according to this and "resistance training (weight lifting - free weight, nautilus or universal-type), power lifting or body building, vigorous effort (Taylor Code 210) " gets 6. So maybe you could see how you go with moderate, and then try lightly active if you're not getting results you want.

ndj1979

I lift four days a week and then have one cardio/core day and sometimes I do a light workout on the weekends …I think I went with active which is four to six times a week of activity ….but I can't recall because I have my numbers pretty much pegged to I know where I gain, lose, and maintain …

but if you are lifting four days a week I believe that would put you in the "active" category for TDEE calculators…or it may be lightly active….

arditarose

ndj1979 wrote: »

I lift four days a week and then have one cardio/core day and sometimes I do a light workout on the weekends …I think I went with active which is four to six times a week of activity ….but I can't recall because I have my numbers pretty much pegged to I know where I gain, lose, and maintain …

but if you are lifting four days a week I believe that would put you in the "active" category for TDEE calculators…or it may be lightly active….

@sijomial gave me the great idea of calculating the calories of 4 hours of lifting with MFP, then setting a calculator to sedentary, and adding a 7th of the weight lifting calories. That basically gave me exactly what MFP gives me to maintain at lightly active, without added exercise. Seems legit.

Anyway I was using scooby's calculator and the options are more like "3-5 hours a week of moderate exercise". I used that and like the number it gives me, but based unfortunately based on my data it seems like too much.

bulk_n_cut

i lift 3x a week, no cardio...i just put "sedentary" lifestyle and multiply weight in lbs by 10.5 to get how many calories i should eat. lol
no clue whether im doing it the proper way but i get the end results so meh

CrabNebula

It also makes a difference what else you are doing in the day, what kind of job you have, and what do you do with your time when you are at home and not working out.

arditarose

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

i lift 3x a week, no cardio...i just put "sedentary" lifestyle and multiply weight in lbs by 10.5 to get how many calories i should eat. lol
no clue whether im doing it the proper way but i get the end results so meh

10.5 x your body weight? Interesting. I have read that perhaps men should multiply by 16 to find maintenance calories.

arditarose

CrabNebula wrote: »

It also makes a difference what else you are doing in the day, what kind of job you have, and what do you do with your time when you are at home and not working out.

Right. I have a lightly active lifestyle. New Yorker, so I walk a bit, and I work with kids during the day.

bulk_n_cut

arditarose wrote: »

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

i lift 3x a week, no cardio...i just put "sedentary" lifestyle and multiply weight in lbs by 10.5 to get how many calories i should eat. lol
no clue whether im doing it the proper way but i get the end results so meh

10.5 x your body weight? Interesting. I have read that perhaps men should multiply by 16 to find maintenance calories.

well im cutting right now so im using 10.5, to maintain i'd use about 11.5....but 16??? oh man i wish. i barely do 15x even when bulking

arditarose

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

i lift 3x a week, no cardio...i just put "sedentary" lifestyle and multiply weight in lbs by 10.5 to get how many calories i should eat. lol
no clue whether im doing it the proper way but i get the end results so meh

10.5 x your body weight? Interesting. I have read that perhaps men should multiply by 16 to find maintenance calories.

well im cutting right now so im using 10.5, to maintain i'd use about 11.5....but 16??? oh man i wish. i barely do 15x even when bulking

Oh gotcha. I don't know much about doing it that way. I just saw that's what Lyle McDonald suggests. He suggests 14 for women I think, which matches up with a lot of the other calculations I'm coming across.

bulk_n_cut

arditarose wrote: »

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

bulk_n_cut wrote: »

i lift 3x a week, no cardio...i just put "sedentary" lifestyle and multiply weight in lbs by 10.5 to get how many calories i should eat. lol
no clue whether im doing it the proper way but i get the end results so meh

10.5 x your body weight? Interesting. I have read that perhaps men should multiply by 16 to find maintenance calories.

well im cutting right now so im using 10.5, to maintain i'd use about 11.5....but 16??? oh man i wish. i barely do 15x even when bulking

Oh gotcha. I don't know much about doing it that way. I just saw that's what Lyle McDonald suggests. He suggests 14 for women I think, which matches up with a lot of the other calculations I'm coming across.

true true. i guess the best way would be to try out one of those estimates for some months, see weight changes over period of time, add in mirror tings, and just trial and error it till it stabilizes at a desired weight range

MacMadame

I went with whatever level got me the daily calories that I knew I would maintain on. Right now it's on "lightly active" to give me about 1500 calories a day and then I add my exercise calories on top as that method works best for me.