Help understanding TDEE and calorie deficit

kozmicad

I've been struggling to understand how to calculate my TDEE and the calorie deficit I need to create in order to lose weight.

My stats:
36, male
194 cm tall (6'5")
135.5 kg (weighed on Monday Feb. 28th)

I haven't logged food for about six months on MFP but am planning to do so throughout Lent. I use an Apple Watch to track my movement and activity.

On a typical day I will eat a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast, a sandwich or bagel with ham and cheese for lunch, and then dinner.

I work afternoons. In the morning, I try to move around the house. I get to about 2,000 steps before I go to work at 1.30 pm. I have a ten-minute walk to the subway, a 30-minute commute (I rarely sit) that involves a transfer and climbing seven flights of stairs, and a ten minute walk to my campus, with three flights of stairs out of subway station. I teach, so I stand and walk around my classroom for four hours before doing the same commute back home. There are no elevators in my building and I'm on the six floor, and I go up and down the stairs twice (I get coffee between classes) and one flight twice when I need the bathroom.

I'm out of the house from 1.30 pm until 8 pm. I eat lunch at 12. I have dinner after 8 pm. I don't snack between those times because I don't have much time and I don't want to eat in front of students.

My Apple Watch logs me at around 11,000 steps a day on average - around 80,000 steps a week (I've had it since November and I've completed the three activity rings every days since I had it). My walking triggers the exercise ring (I usually log around 90 mins a day) and I have the movement ring set to 550 calories a day, and I almost always double that. On the weekends, I make sure to hit 10,000 steps a day. I don't have a car so I walk everywhere and take public transport.

I'm lax with weighing and measuring food. When I log on MFP I tend to overestimate to be safe i.e. i had three scoops of meat sauce for dinner tonight so I logged it as a cup.

I logged my food last summer and I was eating around 2000-2300 calories a day, plus getting 10,000 steps in. MFP usually tells me I have about 1,000 calories left to consume once my movements have been added up. My target is 2700 calories a day because I said I want to create a deficit of 500 a day. I haven't seen any signs of weight loss, but then I haven't been careful with my eating - that I plane to change for Lent.

I get confused about knowing how many calories to eat. If I should eat 2700 a day to lose but my Watch says I burn over 1,000, should I up my intake to 3,700? Then I get confused about how I can add that amount into what I eat every day. I'm not really a "foodie" person, so I'm not very creative with my cooking. Also, I'm living in a big Asian city where big supermarkets don't always carry the things that recipes call for or it's not eaay to get certain things like turkey, plus it's a pain to do a big shop without a car when the supermarket is a 7 km subway journey away, so I tend to do one big shop every couple of months where I fill my freezer and try to cook with what I have in there (things bagels for lunch, chicken breast and ground beef).

Sorry if I rambled, but I hope I make sense. Given my situation and my activity levels, how should I calculate the calories I need to eat and the deficit I need to create? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

quiksylver296

What does MFP tell you to eat for calories? Eat that. Eat back some of your exercise calories, but not necessarily all.

annacole94

If your activity is fairly consistent day-to-day, you could just set your MFP activity level to "lightly active" or "active" and then don't bother with connecting the Apple Watch (still use it, to make sure you're hitting your activity goals). Then you'll have a daily goal that doesn't change, and it will be easier to plan. Set your target loss to 1 or 1.5 lb/week, set your activity level, and eat the calories it gives you.

You don't need to eat anything specific, and timing doesn't matter. Just stick to the calorie goal daily.

kozmicad

So if my goal is 2700 (excluding the 500 deficit) and I'm using around 1000 calories a day, I'm down to 1,700 and I should eat back up to 2700?

hookandy

This is how I worked out my figures. I sit at a desk and don't do a great deal until I get home, I have a fitbit and it is linked to MFP with neg adjustments on.

So I put my stats into MFP with activity as sedenatary, I set my goal as lose 1lb a week.

My current weight and height gives me a little over 2090 a day (500 deficit). I log all my exercise on Fitbit and let it sync to MFP

I then eat 50% of my exercise calories back (To counter errors in logging food and/or exercise)

I have been tracking my net calorie intake each week and have done a bit of maths to check what my logging of exercise and food thinks I should have lost compared to real figures. In the 8 weeks I have been tracking my tracking suggests I should have lost 16lb and in reality I have lost 17lb, so the numbers work.

kozmicad

Thanks for that, Hookandy. I couldn't work out if I should be eating back or not... I'm guessing that the principle is if the goal is 2700 and I eat over that I should exercise down or cut down to the goal or eat up to the goal if I am under it.

I'm planning to start meal prepping during Lent so knowing that will help me to think about the meals I need.