Calorie intake confusion-help please!

kwedman488

Alright so I'm working on eating the correct amount of calories in my second month of insanity because I wasn't eating nearly enough last month-probably why I haven't seen any results. My TDEE - 20% is about 1800 calories, but I don't like using that method on MFP because I like to log my exercise (it motivates me a lot to see what I've done that day) and it would mess up my net calories and such. So instead for my calorie goal I put my BMR of about 1318 (I rounded it to 1350 just to make it even) and then I log my exercise and eat accordingly. This is where my confusion sets in: should I be aiming to eat my TDEE - 20% (1800) or should I be eating almost all of the calories MFP tells me to eat and leave 500 cals left over as a deficit? I feel like the numbers don't really match up, to where I'm eating more if I go by MFP than by the straight up TDEE - 20% (1800 cal) goal. Is it possible that I miscalculated/under calculated my TDEE? I used "very active" because I work two jobs that require me to be on my feet the whole time plus I run a 5k every morning 6 days a week (and step or Zumba on my days off). Insanity said in the calculations that when doing insanity to use either moderately active or very active so I picked the latter since I obviously don't sit around with the rest of my day. Any insight would be great, I want to eat at the best level/intake possible to maintain muscle I gain from insanity and lose the fat I have.

TavistockToad

you need to choose one method and stick to it....

use MFP, set your calorie goal to lose 1lb per week, and log and eat back all exercise cals.

Work out your TDEE, take off 20% and dont eat exercise cals.

it really is that simple....

caly_man

The first point to make is that using MFP method already creates a deficit for you so you don’t have to leave any leftover calories on your own, you can leave zero calories left every day and the deficit is already built-in

next

Your believed TDEE = 2250

TDEE – 10% = 2025
TDEE – 20% = 1800

You only have 3 lbs to go and you are working out soooo much, that I would recommend just eating at a slight deficit to get to goal weight (either 5% or 10% below maintenance)

If you want to track exercise calories using MFP, change goals to losing ½ lbs per week and eat back exercise calories, but keep in mind with this method you might end up over shooting your food intake since exercise calories are kinda difficult to track properly.

I believe you are working out so diligent, that you would still lose weight even if you ate 2250 cals every day