TDEE and Exercise

MTDDS18

So, I've been trying to eat at TDEE - 20%. Which various calculators puts me at between 1600-1900 calories.

My question is when it comes to the "how often do you exercise" portion. I selected the 3-5 days/week, but it doesn't take in to account what type of exercise.

Running 7 miles 5 days/week would be vastly different than lifting 5 days/week. Does it matter what exercise you are doing, or just that you are doing some sort of exercise the amount of days you selected?

TeaBea

TDEE uses averages. So no it doesn't matter. Your other option is to use a heart rate monitor for running (but it's useless for strength training).

MFP uses estimates too....often generous ones. Use 1 method for awhile and tweak it as needed.

cwolfman13

It's all an estimate...these calculators are a good starting point and that's about it...nobody has a TDEE of exactly XXXX based on some very vague activity level descriptor. You select the one that seems to most reasonably apply to you...you watch the trends over the coming weeks...you adjust as per your actual results and data...your own data is going to be more reliable than any of these calculators...people put way too much stock into what these calculators spit out...they aren't gospel...not even close.

also, with TDEE, it's all about averages over time, not the day to day...so some days you may be in a bigger deficit than other days...some days you will be in a smaller deficit...some days you may be in a surplus...but it's all about where you are at over time...at the end of the week, if you're in a deficit, you're in a deficit...it matters not that Tuesday you were in a surplus...big picture.

MTDDS18

TeaBea wrote: »

TDEE uses averages. So no it doesn't matter. Your other option is to use a heart rate monitor for running (but it's useless for strength training).

MFP uses estimates too....often generous ones. Use 1 method for awhile and tweak it as needed.

I mean, I have a HRM and use it. But since you don't eat back your calories I just track it for information purposes and because I like data.

A lot of the workouts I do are HIIT style, and I've heard that HRMs aren't particularly accurate for anything other than steady state.

jemhh

When I first used TDEE I based my estimate on hours. I added up the number of minutes I spent exercising per week, divided by 60, and then used that as the times per week. So 40 minutes of walking/running 3x/wk plus 45 minutes of lifting 3x/wk would be 255 minutes total. Divided by 60 it's 4.25 hours so I would pick 3-5 times per week.

That method was close enough to work for me and I have had success using TDEE-20% based on it.

WBB55

The calculators are putting your TDEE at 2000-2375. Eating 1600-1900 should result in weightloss no matter which one you choose. After 4-6 weeks, take stock and do the math. How much did you eat and how much did you lose. From that data, you can calculate your ACTUAL TDEE and stop using estimates and instead use data.

nordlead2005

Your first TDEE estimate should be off of a website. After you do it once, there is no point in using a website again unless you stop tracking weight and calorie intake.

If it is way off because you do 5x 1hr workouts every week vs 3x 30min workouts every week who cares. You'll have it corrected in a short amount of time.

All future TDEE estimates should be based off weight loss and calorie intake over some time period (say 4 weeks). You should then recalculate TDEE every couple weeks or so until you figure out where it generally stays.

If you significantly change the type, intensity, or amount of exercise you do, you will have to recalculate TDEE, again, don't use the website, use actual results. Also, if you lose 10lb you should recalculate TDEE since your BMR will have dropped and you have less weight to move around during exercise.

dubird

What I did is start from sedentary and work from there. Basically, counted everything I did with my HRM and adjusted my calories manually. I don't exercise much, but there was a transition period with my FitBit and I ended up having to set my calories manually. I would imagine that since MFP and other online calculators use averages, you're probably not going to get an exact number. Might not even be close. So starting at the base and calculating your normal burn for a day might work better for you.

lemurcat12

When I started the TDEE method I had a number based on MFP results already and just checked the calculators to see how they compared, but having done that my approach is that I applied some common sense to adjust my estimates. I decided that days per week meant about an hour of active cardio, and so counted lifting, but less, reduced non-intense biking somewhat (for example, if I bike 2 hours to work and back I'd count that as one day's session), and counted stuff like pilates and yoga not at all (I would have counted them if it was an issue of completely sedentary vs. not).

But however you do it, the key is pick a sensible-seeming number, use it, adjust based on results.

For the starting number, though, I think worrying about the differences between different types of activities matters more if you do similar things. If you only lift or only walk (for say an hour) and do it 5-6 days/week, you might want to start by counting it as 3. If you workout 6 days a week but only for 30 mins, call it 3. If you only run, but do it for 2 hours 3 days/week, that's probably 5 or 6. But if you do a mix of running, lifting, yoga, etc., and do it for different times, just count the days and it should average.