measuring calorie intake - cardio?

freehblee90

do i aim to be caloric deficit by subtracting cardio/work out from total input? (ex. tdee= 2100, eat 2300, work out to lose 5-600 kcal) or do i ignore the calorie spend from cardio/work out and strictly aim to eat less than tdee?

SusanMFindlay

I think you may have some terms mixed up. TDEE includes exercise calories (and therefore includes cardio). So, if you're using a TDEE calculator to tell you how many calories to eat, don't eat extra for the cardio; it's already included.

If you're using MFP's recommended calories and are not including your cardio in your activity level, then you should log the exercise and eat back at least some of the exercise calories. (Technically, you should eat back all the exercise calories you actually burn - but MFP and most cardio machines overestimate the calories burnt by cardio, so many people eat back 50-75% of what MFP or the machines say they burn.)