Second week in...calories and TDEE

jillybean_75

Hi all,

I just started SL last week, so I am on week 2. I am loving lifting much more than running every day, but I still throw in a kickboxing class, elliptical, or a run a couple times a week.

I have a question, though. I bought a BodyMedia Fit, and I have had it about a month now. I am going to say my average TDEE is 2500 a day. Sometimes I am up to 3000 or more, and rarely is it below 2500. Yesterday recorded at 2848. I have a ways to go as far as food logging and keeping my weekends in check. Weekends are so hard for me. But I am trying to eat around 1600 calories...and on the weekends I go up further (sometimes WAY further)...again, still a work in progress here.

I am looking for fat loss. I have about 60 lbs I want to lose to start with. I am 5'4" 216, age 37. Do I trust the BodyMedia Fit and believe I am burning that many? It seems like a lot to me. I know I have to focus on my calories and logging, believe me, I know. But I guess I am asking what range should I be eating in? I know TDEE - 20% is about 2000, but that seems to not be much of a deficit. I would love to lose 1.5 to 2 lbs a week (750 - 1000 calorie deficit a day). If you go over a certain deficit, do you eat your calories back based on what the BMF tells you that your TDEE for the day is?

I set my MFP goals to maintain, put myself as Sendentary (desk job), and I let the BodyMedia fit do it's calorie adjustment to my daily amount just so I can see the calorie deficit a bit better (just put this setting in yesterday).

jstout365

I have a BMF and when I was wearing it, I would say it was pretty good. Some activities are more difficult for it to register a proper burn for, but the activities you have should be fine. I would trust that it is giving you some good data. I think it has been tested and given a 95% accuracy rate which isn't bad at all.

The only issue you may face with eating 1600 is that as you get to the heavier weights for your lifts, you may find you are not able to recover as well as you can from the cardio activities. I am 5'2" and my TDEE is around 2100-2200 most days (based on the BMF readings and some TDEE calculators). I am at maintenance and eating between 1900-2100 (or more), depending on what I do at the gym. When I was losing primarily body fat, I was eating close to 1800 calories and losing the BF.

Before really messing around with what you think your deficit is, I would suggest being very accurate with your food logging for a few weeks to see what you actually are averaging. My guess is that you are over an average of 1600 calories a day if you are eating well over that on the weekends and are not the best at logging during the week. If you find that you are eating over 1600, are happy with the loss you have seen, and are feeling good with regard to recovery after your workouts, then stay at the level you are actually at. Logging and weighing what you eat is the only way you will know how much you are actually eating.

tameko2

I haven't used a BMF since they had the integration, BUT in general it is more than fine for most people if they eat higher some days and lower others.

By which i mean - its totally ok if you do 2k days on average during the week (even though your BMF says 2500) and then you eat 3500 on Sat/Sunday. The weekly average still works out to a deficit (right?) and it gives you some flexibility in the way you enjoy your weekends.

auddii

I haven't used a BMF since they had the integration, BUT in general it is more than fine for most people if they eat higher some days and lower others.

By which i mean - its totally ok if you do 2k days on average during the week (even though your BMF says 2500) and then you eat 3500 on Sat/Sunday. The weekly average still works out to a deficit (right?) and it gives you some flexibility in the way you enjoy your weekends.

I'm with Tameko in that I've never tried one, but I've heard they're a relatively good guess. Like Jstout said, they actually are known for underestimating burns for some activities (like bike rides because your arms don't move much with the activity; some people move theirs to their calf when bike riding). I would treat it as a guideline and work your way from there.

By now, I'd think you'd have a good idea of why some days you burn much more than others (say going for a run verses lifting). On those days you could eat more, and try to just eat 500 calories below your daily calorie goal (about 20%). You will lose "slower", but it really isn't that bad. I find that I can still lose pretty fast (although not consistently fast) even though the calculators tell me I should be losing a pound a week.

I'm probably not quite as active as you, and my goal is around 1800 calories. Lately, I really haven't cared about my goal as much, so as long as I'm between TDEE (2400) and 1800, then I'm doing good. Some days I go way over, so I try to aim closer to 1800 for the rest of the week. It'll be a little bit of trial and error and what works for you.

I would suggest raising your calories slowly, maybe 100 per week until you get to around 2000. Stay there a month and see how you feel. If you want to lose a little faster and you don't mind sacrificing strength gains, then maybe drop it to 1800 for a month and see. I do think that 1600 might just be a little too low.