A potentially silly question (as I'm terrible at math)

theknitpicker

This may be a really silly question, but I'm getting really confused about setting the right TDEE/activity goals, and being small, with very little wiggle-room numbers-wise, it'd be great to have someone else try and sense-check my thinking...

I work a desk job, so by default, I've set my MFP goals to "sedentary", and then in general, try to eat back my exercise calories, as that's how MFP have noted that they've set up their algorithm. I usually work out 3-5 times per week, for at least 45 mins.

Doing a bit more personal analysis, I've calculated my BMR, TDEE, all those fun numbers.

But my confusion comes in with exercise levels. For many TDEE calculators, "sedentary" is noted as desk job, where light activity is 1-3 work outs a week, moderate is 3-5, etc.

So there's a pretty big jump between TDEE activity numbers results. So for me, my BMR is about 1350 cal. A sedentary TDEE puts me at about 1470 cal, and a light activity one at about 1680 cal. So when I'm trying to calculate the appropriate deficit and goals, there's quite a big difference.

The actual question then.
Is is best to
- Use the sedentary TDEE figures, and eat back the calories on a per-workout basis
- Use an activity based TDEE number, and eat back the per-workout calories
- Use an activity based TDEE number, and don't eat back any exercise calories

I may be being really thick here, but my Thursday brain can't figure it out.

Thanks, and please be nice to me

mom23mangos

Pick one and try it. If you gain, reduce the calories you are eating. If you lose too fast, add some back in. That way you can dial in your real TDEE whichever method you use.

bribucks

For me, I think the most accurate is to calculate my TDEE for sedentary (desk job) and aim to “net” that amount. I calculate my exercise manually and eat back those calories, because let’s be honest ... even though sure, I usually exercise 1-3 times per week, that calorie burn can vary DRASTICALLY if I go 1 vs 3 days and depending on what exercises I do.

bribucks

BTW with option #2 - calculate activity TDEE AND eat back exercise calories - you are doubling up. Option #1 or #3 are your only real options, and I prefer #1. I find it to be more accurate, plus you get to eat “extra” calories when you workout, versus a flat rate each day.

Using the activity level TDEE is really only helpful for people who have more active jobs (retail worker, or construction worker, etc). In which case, I would STILL tell that person to calculate TDEE based on their daily job/life, and calculate workouts separately. I wish those TDEE calculators didn’t even mention workouts, honestly.

theknitpicker

@brianneangell08 @mom23mangos amazing! Thank you! I figured 1&3 seemed the right ways, but I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around it right I’m going to stick with 1 for now, as it’s been working fine, but I just wanted to make sure I doing any major brain farts and messing myself up

❤️

namasara

Yep, I'm an option #1 girl! Sometime I try to say that whatever I burn is what I get for dessert that day. Meaning if I burn 144cal in a workout, that's my budget for dessert. If I don't burn, I don't get dessert. Lol - silly, but it works for me!

neraulia

I think this is a really good question. Personally I have a desk job and I don't do heavy workouts because they aggravate my hip and back. Also it stresses me out if my calorie goal varies a lot from day to day. So currently I'm at 1500/day because it feels like enough food and it gives me a slow loss. I can plan ahead to eat that amount. If I happen to get more activity in a particular week, lucky me gets a slightly faster loss.

At some point if I don't want to lose anymore, I may have to get more careful about eating back calories from activity. But it's sort of hard to imagine worrying about being too slim, because that has never happened to me in 40 years, haha.

ssurvivor

It's not a silly question! There's so much information out there, it can get really confusing. To simplify matters, I do the following:

(1) Ignore online calculators (including MFP's result).

(2) Calculate my sedentary TDEE by hand (simple calculator): weight (lbs.) x 13.
For example, I weigh 172 lbs so my TDEE is 172 x 13= 2236 calories

(3) Add my body weight for every 15 minutes of activity.
So if I work (exercise) for 45 minutes, I add 3 x 172 = 516 calories for a grand total of 2752 calories.

(4) If I want to lose one pound a week, I need to save 3500 calories each week. Since there are seven days in a week, that means I need to subtract 500 calories from my grand total.
In my case, my food budget would be 2236 - 500 = 1736 calories when I don't do any activities and
2752 - 500 - 2252 calories when I work for 45 minutes.



Note: the actual formula is a bit more complex, but these calculations are very close approximations.

Zodikosis

So, I've actually found that my Fitbit's estimation of my TDEE is dead-on. There have been complaints online of it being really, really off for some people, but I think that may only be the case for very overweight/more athletic than average people. For people who find comfort in the hard numbers, it's fantastic. Here's my personal bit of data to throw in:



** The ones where it's listed as 1700 are write-ins from me, not actual Fitbit calories. You have to wear your Fitbit practically all day for it to be accurate, so I blotted out the days where I didn't wear it/wore it for less than half the day. For the record, I pretty much wear mine all the time except for when I'm showering. I also weigh everything I eat and record EVERYTHING, include the 2 pecans I snacked on that my coworker gave me, the single Lifesaver I ate this morning, etc. Your numbers will be as accurate as your methods are.

jesspen91

Zodikosis wrote: »

So, I've actually found that my Fitbit's estimation of my TDEE is dead-on. There have been complaints online of it being really, really off for some people, but I think that may only be the case for very overweight/more athletic than average people. For people who find comfort in the hard numbers, it's fantastic. Here's my personal bit of data to throw in:



** The ones where it's listed as 1700 are write-ins from me, not actual Fitbit calories. You have to wear your Fitbit practically all day for it to be accurate, so I blotted out the days where I didn't wear it/wore it for less than half the day. For the record, I pretty much wear mine all the time except for when I'm showering. I also weigh everything I eat and record EVERYTHING, include the 2 pecans I snacked on that my coworker gave me, the single Lifesaver I ate this morning, etc. Your numbers will be as accurate as your methods are.

I think the people who complain about Fitbit (or other activity watches) calculations haven't had them for that long. They need a bit of time to get baseline stats to make predictions for so you should expect a bit of uncertainty in the first few weeks.

rianneonamission

@Zodikosis, I am with you on the Fitbit estimates. I have set MFP to sedentary with a base calorie amount in line with my BMR (another desk jobber here) and a 0.5lb/week weight loss rate. My Fitbit syncs with MFP and adjusts my calories accordingly (including negative adjustments) and that seems to be pretty reliable. That way I have the option to eat back some exercise calories should I want them.

@theknitpicker, do you log your exercise using the MFP exercise database? If so, I think it overestimates the calories burned, so do be mindful of that. I would also recommend that you keep track of your calories on a weekly basis on a spread sheet. So if your average target is 1700 calories/day but on one of the 7 days you eat 2200 (office cake), you can easily adjust 5 days to 1600 to make up for a bad day.

theknitpicker

@rianneonamission Not really, I don't trust MFPs estimates as they always seem huge, and because I'm so short they're not really designed for my anyways. I use some conservative general numbers for my strength training days based on my PT's recommendations (for a 45 resistance/circuits session +10 minute elliptical or stair hell machine warmup I go with 150, and then scale that up or down if I change the duration of workout), and then cut the spin numbers by half-1/4 depending on the effort I've put in in class, and only do a 1/3 of the ones from the elliptical/treadmill. I tend to keep what Strava says for a run/walk because those are based off my actual height and stride figures, and running isn't part of my main routine anyway.

I've got a spreadsheet tracking training, measurements, and weight already, but it might be worth exporting MFP data for cals too, but I'm fairly on it on the manual adjustments anyways. Thanks

Starflight00

So great to hear many use spreadsheets to track!!! I thought I was a freak... (I made one tracking sports (distance, average HR), weight (including fat %) and meals (cals and macros intake) and I make charts / data mining to help me understand what and why has been going on).

@Zodikosis , your deficit vs actual loss calculations are awesome, I'm going to incorporate those in my sheet.

As for your question, @theknitpicker , I'm type 0 (sedentary TDEE and in 90% of the cases I don't eat exercise cals back)