TDEE .... I'm confused!!

acollis1
acollis1 Posts: 167 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I decided to give the TDEE thing a try but I am a little confused on how to approach it! I do circuit training 6 days/week, usually between 30-60 minutes depending on the day. At work on an average day I get about 5000 steps on my pedometer (not very much in my opinion). So I used this calculator which was suggested on one of these forums...
http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

I did it 2 ways....1) no exercise/ desk job which told me to lose I should eat 1277 calories per day. 2) exercise 6 days/weeks told me to eat 1500/day to lose. HERE's my question... IF I use the 1500/day do I still eat back what I burn during exercise ( I use a HRM) , or is my exercise already included?? OR should I just use the 1200/day and eat back my exercise calories??? I just want to make sure I do it right so I don't start gaining!! Thanks :)

Replies

  • MrsSausage58
    MrsSausage58 Posts: 143 Member
    Hey! If you use the 1500 then that should be your daily net calories as it already includes the exercise. If you go with 1277 per day, eat back the calories you log for exercise.

    Mine is set at 1300 (sedentary) and I eat back at least some of my exercise calories.

    Good luck!
  • daniellemm1
    daniellemm1 Posts: 465 Member
    Sausage is exactly right. Keep in mind that if you use method two (including your exercise) you need to be consistent with what you said your exercise routine is or your numbers will not be right. So if you said that you exercise six days a week and one week you won't be able to do all six days you will have to go in and adjust for that or you will be eating too many calories for the exercise you are doing. Best of luck to you.
  • FerretBuellerr
    FerretBuellerr Posts: 468 Member
    If you use the number that already took into consideration the number of workouts you have per week, then you do not eat back your exercise calories, since exercise was already included in the calculation.

    If you use the sedentary number, then you may still eat back the exercise calories.

    Note: Make sure you are using the TDEE number they give you and subtracting 15-20% of that number to ensure a calorie deficit. Also, it's been said a number of times on the forums that the cals burned that MFP calculates for you are often off (way higher than they should be) so if you take a method where you eat back your cals, keep that in mind (eat maybe 100 less than it suggests)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Hey! If you use the 1500 then that should be your daily net calories as it already includes the exercise. If you go with 1277 per day, eat back the calories you log for exercise.

    Agreed.

    However, for the sake of accuracy... if you are using TDEE, factor in exercise. TDEE is called TOTAL daily energy expenditure for a reason... because it includes EVERYTHING. Saying you are using TDEE but not factoring in exercise is misleading, as it's not really TDEE... it's actually they way most people use MFP.

Categories