TDEE & Calories When Your Activity Levels Vary

aimforhealthy

I apologize in advance for being wordy.

I'm 5'7", in my late 30s, and currently 157 lbs, down just over 40 lbs from February. My goal weight is 135-140, so I still have about 20ish lbs to go. It's not a lot, and I'm in my late 30s, so I'm aware that it's going to come off slowly, but I'm getting stuck on figuring out your calories when your activity levels vary.

Typically, best case scenario, I exercise 4-6 days a week - run 3-4 times a week for about 45 minutes, walk the other days, do some planks, yoga and body-weight exercises a few times a week, too. So when I calculate my TDEE, I put it in for moderate activity levels. This gives me about 2050- 2150 calories for maintenance, and at a 20% reduction for weight loss, my daily calorie intake should be in the 1550-1650 levels. However, there are some weeks here and there, usually the last week of the month, where I work A LOT (I am a freelance writer so it's just sitting at my computer), like 60-70 hours, and those weeks I basically don't have the time or energy to exercise.(I'm working on it, but it doesn't always work out.)

In the meantime, should I be reducing my calories during that time? Using sedentary or lightly active gives me around a 1750 calories daily for maintenance and about 1350-1450 for weight loss. I measure everything I can with a digital scale and log everything, but I've noticed that during those weeks, when I stick to the 1650 calorie range, I just maintain. No loss and no gain, so I'm obviously eating at maintenance then. It's not a huge deal, but I'd like to keep making steady progress week by week, not just maintain.

So anyone have any insight? Is consistency better for your metabolism and long-term weight loss, or do you adjust your calorie goals and macros for brief variations in your activity levels? I hope this makes sense, and thanks in advance for anyone who replies!

annekka

I tend to be more active during the week but virtually sedentary on the weekends. I don't change for the weekends, I just try to eat accordingly.

If you have a full week where you know you're going to be almost sedentary I would adjust your calories for that week to reflect it. Either that or figure out what your sedentary calories would be and only eat up to that amount leaving yourself a deficit.

That being said, I don't know whether it's better to do keep at normal or what. I'm sure somebody here may have a more scientific answer. I just know what I'd do in your situation.

aimforhealthy

I tend to be more active during the week but virtually sedentary on the weekends. I don't change for the weekends, I just try to eat accordingly.

If you have a full week where you know you're going to be almost sedentary I would adjust your calories for that week to reflect it. Either that or figure out what your sedentary calories would be and only eat up to that amount leaving yourself a deficit.

That being said, I don't know whether it's better to do keep at normal or what. I'm sure somebody here may have a more scientific answer. I just know what I'd do in your situation.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I'm honestly just looking to hear what other people do and their rationales for it, too.

alienrite

I set my activity level at sedentary and use my activity to build up my calories. Encourages me to do something every day because eating a sedentary levels is just sad. I followed this consistently and lost fat like clockwork and learned to love working out or just being active.

endoftheside

For me, this kind of thing is why I don't use TDEE-% as a steady intake goal. I don't want to have to rely on getting X amount of exercise to break even because sometimes life doesn't work like that. If you like having a steady intake in general, maybe you could have two different TDEEs you bounce between depending on whether you expect a "normal" or "reduced activity" week.