We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

exercise cals, HR monitors, fitbit, bodyfat, oh my!

thrillho3
thrillho3 Posts: 50 Member
edited February 4 in Fitness and Exercise
I have a few questions.

I'm following the TDEE - 20% method to lose weight. I calculated my TDEE from various websites (I put "lightly active" as I bike about 40 min 4x/wk and play tennis on the weekends) and used an average from my FitBit (consistently gives me around 2100 cals/day). So, I'm eating 1600 cals/day to be on the "safe" side.

People on MFP tell me that since I'm following this method, I shouldn't eat back my exercise calories, because it was already calculated in the "light activity" portion.

First of all, if I shouldn't eat them back, what's the point of logging them into MFP? It winds up just confusing me.

Second of all, do I need a HR monitor to accurately calculate my exercise calories? MFP says in 20 min of biking I burn 190 cals, but people have said that's a huge overestimate, and it's more like 120 cals. I'm 5'5", 207, female, 30yrs old, and according to various sites, my body fat is like 44% (almost half my body is fat? Christ). I don't know if this matters into the calculation or not, but the way I am built is pretty muscular as-is (especially my legs), so perhaps I'm not *quite* half fat?? :embarassed:

Any help/advice appreciated, thanks :flowerforyou:

9936702213_36d38b1bb6.jpg
This discussion has been closed.