Maintenance Calories

Kizzelly

Hi, I am trying to calculate the correct level of maintenance calories but confused about which activity level I should choose in the app settings. I do have a sedentary job sitting for up to 8 hours a day however I train in the gym 4 days a week, get 8-10k steps a day and do ballet once a week so should I click moderately active or still low activity? Getting this right makes a big difference in the amount of calories I need and I want to make sure I am eating enough to help build muscle. Thanks ☺️

DoctorMOHSEN

founding maintenance calories can be tricky it is trial and error thing. you can calculate your TDEE choose moderate activity level and you will have lets say 2200 cal for example. you should track those calories over couple weeks and see, if your weight is going up means you are eating in surplus and if you are losing it is deficit.

this website was helpful for me, give it a try
https://tdeecalculator.net/

Lietchi

The activity level setting is meant to reflect only daily activity, not including exercise. That means your job, but also other activities from your day to day life: chores, waking to and from work, etc.

On top of that, you log your exercise which will give you extra calories.

If those 8-10k steps a day are part of your day to day life, I would choose active as your activity level.

sijomial

You aren't understanding how the activity setting works on MyFitnessPal as your gym and ballet exercise have nothing whatsoever to do with that setting.
Here's the Help text on how your goal setup works - https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

That's different to a TDEE calculator of the type that @DoctorMOHSEN that links to where it has a combined activity AND exercise setting to give a same every day calorie goal unlike MFP's variable daily goal in line with each day's exercise.

Your 8-10k steps though easily put you in Active band (or higher), assuming those steps aren't accululated during your exercise.

AnnPT77

If you have many weeks of logging data to use (calorie intake + bodyweight) you can get a better maintenance estimate using your own data.

This thread discusses several methods for estimating maintenance calories:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level/p1

It's true that the basic MFP method is to set activity level based on daily life before intentional exercise, then estimate and eat back exercise calories when we exercise. That works great for me, because my exercise is variable and somewhat unpredictable.

However, it does result in a different calorie intake on different days.

If someone wants to eat the same number of calories every day, then yes, a TDEE calculator (which averages in planned exercise) is a better way to go.

Personally, I think this TDEE calculator is better than the one linked above:

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

. . . because it has more activity levels, and they have better descriptions - ones that mention both daily life activity (occupation) and exercise. It also lets you compare results from multiple research-based estimating formulas, rather than just one. The downside is that the user interface is a little more busy, so it takes more careful reading.

Still better yet, IMO, for a TDEE estimate, is this very good spreadsheet from MFP user heybales, which separates out some of the components of activity for separate estimation (so is a bit more nuanced), and also uses research-based formulas. It's here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

It's important to recognize that any of these are *estimates*, and that test-driving an estimate for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles for women of that age) is the way to validate them. There's individual variation. The formulas will be close for many people, a little bit off (high or low) for a few people, and surprisingly far off for a very rare few people (possibly for non-obvious reasons). That's the nature of statistical estimates, pretty much.

Fflpnari

How much are you eating now? still losing? how much are you losing a week?

russellholtslander1

I agree with the doctor dude.. select moderately active.. the worst that could happen, is you eat a few too many calories, and in a few weeks, you will see some weight gain, if you are eating too much.

If that happens, simply cut 100 calories off your total, and see what happens.

I'm always amazed at people who are so detailed. They turn this into a huge chore, which is so complicated. They are everywhere, but most people aren't at a healthy weight in America.

I've been dieting for years, and lost 90 lbs.. so obviously NOT an expert.. BUT, I am losing weight steadily, and I don't sit around factoring daily calories by how much exercise I do. Why not? because the little exercise we do at the gym, isn't enough to make a huge difference.. diet is the cause of most weight loss. By micromanaging every detail, living life has become a math problem, and a chore, and maybe this helps them explain why they aren't successful, without admitting that is usually due to a lack of consistency.

My advice is more simple.. use the scale, let it guide you over the course of weeks.. see how what you eat affects you.. if you come up with 2200 calories, and live the same in the next few weeks, and maintain, then 2200 is you maintenance level.. if you gain weight, cut calories, if you lose, and do not want to.. add calories.. just do so in small increments.

It's crazy that when people are asked.. why am I fat? the answer is too many calories. Guess what? Correct. It's that simple.. and the reverse is simple as well.. eat less. Just keep living your life the way you want, and adjust calories to fit.

Yes, it isn't simple to DO, but it doesn't help make it any easier, by making it more complicated.. figure out how many calories you need to maintain, and if you then want to lose.. go ahead and subtract 500, so in theory you lose 1 lb. a week. See if you lose. Teak it until you get a number which gets you the result you like.. ONE number, which averaged out over 4 weeks, gives you the weight loss desired.. or if you are AT maintenance.. just stay at whatever keeps your weight steady.

Then the struggle is with consistency. It shouldn't be a struggle to figure out maintenance calories. Jut trial and error, and unless you are doing huge variations in exercise, in a random pattern, do not worry about calculating every day.

If you do 4 workouts a week, every week, at about the same intensity, this will be included in the process, and accounted for.

Good Luck. Trust the results to guide you.

cwolfman13

Kizzelly wrote: »

Hi, I am trying to calculate the correct level of maintenance calories but confused about which activity level I should choose in the app settings. I do have a sedentary job sitting for up to 8 hours a day however I train in the gym 4 days a week, get 8-10k steps a day and do ballet once a week so should I click moderately active or still low activity? Getting this right makes a big difference in the amount of calories I need and I want to make sure I am eating enough to help build muscle. Thanks ☺️

Using MFP as designed, your activity level is just your day to day humdrum. Exercise is logged after the fact and you get additional calories for that additional activity/exercise. This is called the NEAT method.

I personally use the TDEE method as my exercise is fairly consistent day to day and week to week. With TDEE you include all activity upfront in your activity level and thus have a higher calorie target from the go that doesn't really change day to day because you aren't logging exercise. Going this route I would use an actual TDEE calculator and just customize your calorie and macro targets on MFP as a TDEE calculator uses a different multiplier than MFP...like moderately active on MFP is going to use a multiplier that assumes a moderate amount of low level activity like being on your feet a lot throughout the day whereas a moderately active on a TDEE calculator is going to use a multiplier assuming a moderate amount of moderate to more strenuous activity (ie deliberate exercise).

wunderkindking

By all means start with a calculator, but you definitely need to experiment and use your own data.

MFP calculates my sedentary maintenance calories at around 1500. A month where I did pretty much nothing because of a badly sprained ankle and I was trying to eat maintenance showed me my actual maintenance calories was, at least at that point, more like 1800.

Historically, to be honest, that fits. I seem to be about 250-300 calories more than MFP estimates. This is highly convenient for me, but there are also some people who are somewhat lower than estimates. Lots of people are off one way or the other in smaller amounts.

The calculators work on statistical averages. That means they're pretty close for most people but to get it really dialed in you need to just... try and see what happens. I know regain can be scary but it's not a big thing. You watch for a month or two, see what your weight does, and then adjust. Worst case you need to lose or gain a couple of pounds.

westrich20940

As others have stated here...MFP does not want your intentional workouts figured into you 'activity level'. So choose what is appropriate based on your lifestyle WITHOUT your workouts. However, then it's a bit important to log your workouts to add those calories back into your goal if you are maintaining.

You can use a TDEE calculator and include your workout activity in your 'activity level' and figure that, but it's still trial and error. Choose one and eat that for a few weeks and then see where you are.

I am constantly tinkering with my calorie goal and I seem to be anywhere from 1500-1700 per day to maintain (I manually set this as my calorie goal and then add in my running calories so there are often days I eat over 2000 calories). But, I have a quite wide range of weight fluctuation that I'm OK with so I'd go from like 116-125ish and call it all good. So obviously at some point I ate more than my maintenance for a bit.