HAAALP - how many calories should I be eating

JoshPrideaux

Gday!
I have just started an F45 6 week and am a little confused on how much I should be eating. The goal is to gain lean muscle whilst losing overall bf%. My body composition scan indicates that I should be eating 2334 calories to get into optimal body composition stats....my Total energy expenditure is 2554 calories. So my question is this....on days where I work out twice and burn over 1000 calories, do I eat my TEE calories?

harper16

MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. If you think you might be overestimating your calories, you can always eat back 50-75% and adjust.

sijomial

Beware that the way exercise energy expenditure is accounted for varies between different calculators.
Most have you predict your exercise in advance and you have a same every day calories allowance which includes an average of your predicted exercise burns. That is probably what the 2,554 represents.
MyFitnessPal calculates your needs for a day with no exercise and when you do exercise that gets estimates and added to that day's allowance to give a variable daily calorie allowance from which you select a rate of weight loss (probably half a pound a week to get a comparison with your numbers).

Both methods work, MFP method can be more accurate as at least you know the type and duration of exercise actually done and also suits people better with an erratic exercise schedule or extreme extreme exercise duration. Both are also likely to need some adjustment based on actual results over an extended period of time. Although they are calculations both methods include a lot of estimates.

Very hard for someone to come in and estimate better than yourself as you know your activity and exercise routines better than anyone else. I'm a very similar size to you (184cm, 76kg) and 2334cals would be a massive calorie deficit for me which would make any chance of gaining muscle extraordinarily small.

PS - workouts and their calorie burns are very varied. What exercise are you doing/what duration/how estimated?
If both sessions are strength training you aren't burning 1,000 cals, if both are cardio your estimate could be low....