Calorie questions!

benefiting

Okay, I think I understand but I just want to double check.

Apparently my BMR is 1554 calories. Including my exercising and wanting to lose weight I'm mean't to be eating 1918 calories roughly. If I burnt 800 calories that would make it 1118 calories which would make it under my BMR that day. Would I have to eat back those calories? Would I eat them until I get to 1554 or the whole 1918 again?

Or should I just use the 1554 calories as my set limit and eat them all back to net to 1554 calories (I think it's the MFP way, right?)

Just incase,
Weight: 160.4 lb
Goal weight: 143.3 lb
Height: 5"5
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Weight goal started: 11/1/14
Weight goal end: 2/5/14
Exercise: 4-5 days a week doing Body Balance classes x2 (Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates in one), C25K x3, weights x1

Thanks for your help guys!

benefiting

Bump. No one?

Whambam087

Are you doing the myfitness pal method or the tdee method? Tdee takes exercise into account so you don't need to eat exercise calories back if you're doing that, my fitness pal doesn't factor exercise into your daily calorie intake so you would eat exercise calories back

toddis

When you calculate TDEE did you set it to include your exercise? If you did then you wouldn't eat it back.

There are two threads you may want to look at, I don't have them on hand. One is called something... sexy pants.
And the other is called ... In place of a roadmap ...or something...search for those if you don't get an answer.

benefiting

I'm trying to figure out which is better.

My issue is if I was using the TDEE way I'd eat the 1918 calories but if I did a high calorie workout and burnt 800 calories that would bring my calories for the day to 1118 calories which is below the recommend minimum a woman should eat AND my BMR.

So that's why I think I should at least back the calories to the BMR goal at least.

toddis

I think the general advice for eating back calories, is just to eat some of them back.

Remember you are looking at a calorie deficit over time. You may do 800 Monday and 300
Tuesday but your setting assumes 500...or something to that effect.

Phrick

I plugged your numbers into Scoobys, which is one of the more conservative TDEE estimation calculators, and it looks like you're accidentally cheating yourself out of over 100 calories. According to Scooby's, your stats plus an exercise modifier of "very active" (which I would put you as based on daily life activity plus 4-5 exercise classes, plus lifting, plus 3 sessions of C25K in a week) your TDEE comes up as 2407. With only 17lb to lose you should be aiming for around 1 lb of weight loss per week or ideally even less, so I put in a 15% deficit as your target, and it came up with 2046 calories to eat to lose 0.7 pounds a week. Not as fast as you necessarily desire but safer than a more aggressive target, more sustainable, and most importantly you can kill yourself at the gym for 800 calorie burns and still not end up below 1200. "NO Eating below BMR" is not set in stone like so many believe. It's not the greatest for a lot of people and so it gets used as a blanket statement when it doesn't always apply; do a search here there are a ton of threads with really great info about it.

Ophidion

If you choose to use MFP's default setting rather than a TDEE method, it's important to set realistic weight loss targets based on your current bodyweight. I think .5 to 1% bodyweight per week is a good general recommendation for most people. Very obese people may go a bit faster. Be aware of the exercise calorie model that MFP uses if you choose to use MFP's default method. Exercise expenditures are often over-stated so you may wish to eat back a set percentage of those calories, such as 50% for starters.

See here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

The above link is not going to be accurate for everyone. Please treat it as a starting point and general information.

ETA: Sourced from ETP Group-http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

benefiting

I plugged your numbers into Scoobys, which is one of the more conservative TDEE estimation calculators, and it looks like you're accidentally cheating yourself out of over 100 calories. According to Scooby's, your stats plus an exercise modifier of "very active" (which I would put you as based on daily life activity plus 4-5 exercise classes, plus lifting, plus 3 sessions of C25K in a week) your TDEE comes up as 2407. With only 17lb to lose you should be aiming for around 1 lb of weight loss per week or ideally even less, so I put in a 15% deficit as your target, and it came up with 2046 calories to eat to lose 0.7 pounds a week. Not as fast as you necessarily desire but safer than a more aggressive target, more sustainable, and most importantly you can kill yourself at the gym for 800 calorie burns and still not end up below 1200. "NO Eating below BMR" is not set in stone like so many believe. It's not the greatest for a lot of people and so it gets used as a blanket statement when it doesn't always apply; do a search here there are a ton of threads with really great info about it.

I'm only doing 2 classes not 4 and I classed myself as moderate on the activity scale, just so you know. That's probably why I got a lower TDEE. I'm aiming to lose 1lb a week so what would be my TDEE for that?

Also, would I have to lower that number on my 2-3 rest days or not?

Whambam087

I'm trying to figure out which is better.

My issue is if I was using the TDEE way I'd eat the 1918 calories but if I did a high calorie workout and burnt 800 calories that would bring my calories for the day to 1118 calories which is below the recommend minimum a woman should eat AND my BMR.

So that's why I think I should at least back the calories to the BMR goal at least.

TDEE takes into account the amount of calories you burn through exercise when it determines how much you should eat per day to lose weight so if you ate those calories back you would get rid of your deficiet. My fitness pal just wants to know how active you are in your daily activities when you aren't exercising. It expects you to eat any exercise calories back because it doesn't account for those. So TDEE gives you a consistent calorie target, but with my fitness pal you would eat more on exercise days and less on days you didn't. Whichever method you choose is personal preference...do you like eating the same amount of calories day in and day out or do you like to mix it up?

benefiting

I'm trying to figure out which is better.

My issue is if I was using the TDEE way I'd eat the 1918 calories but if I did a high calorie workout and burnt 800 calories that would bring my calories for the day to 1118 calories which is below the recommend minimum a woman should eat AND my BMR.

So that's why I think I should at least back the calories to the BMR goal at least.

TDEE takes into account the amount of calories you burn through exercise when it determines how much you should eat per day to lose weight so if you ate those calories back you would get rid of your deficiet. My fitness pal just wants to know how active you are in your daily activities when you aren't exercising. It expects you to eat any exercise calories back because it doesn't account for those. So TDEE gives you a consistent calorie target, but with my fitness pal you would eat more on exercise days and less on days you didn't. Whichever method you choose is personal preference...do you like eating the same amount of calories day in and day out or do you like to mix it up?

Looks like TDEE it is. I would rather a constant number than one that goes up and down all the time/chance I'd even more than I need to be.

As I mentioned before would I lower the number on my rest days though or continue with the 1918 calories?

Phrick

I plugged your numbers into Scoobys, which is one of the more conservative TDEE estimation calculators, and it looks like you're accidentally cheating yourself out of over 100 calories. According to Scooby's, your stats plus an exercise modifier of "very active" (which I would put you as based on daily life activity plus 4-5 exercise classes, plus lifting, plus 3 sessions of C25K in a week) your TDEE comes up as 2407. With only 17lb to lose you should be aiming for around 1 lb of weight loss per week or ideally even less, so I put in a 15% deficit as your target, and it came up with 2046 calories to eat to lose 0.7 pounds a week. Not as fast as you necessarily desire but safer than a more aggressive target, more sustainable, and most importantly you can kill yourself at the gym for 800 calorie burns and still not end up below 1200. "NO Eating below BMR" is not set in stone like so many believe. It's not the greatest for a lot of people and so it gets used as a blanket statement when it doesn't always apply; do a search here there are a ton of threads with really great info about it.

I'm only doing 2 classes not 4 and I classed myself as moderate on the activity scale, just so you know. That's probably why I got a lower TDEE. I'm aiming to lose 1lb a week so what would be my TDEE for that?

Also, would I have to lower that number on my 2-3 rest days or not?

Gotcha, I missed the "x2" part in the first sentence. Your TDEE that you got is probably more accurate then.

That said, Whambam is right - TDEE takes all your calories and averages them through the week so you eat the same calories day in and day out regardless of how much exercise you do within your modifier. Obviously if you don't input the right activity level, you're going to get an incorrect calorie goal. You have to be able to look at the total picture, which some people have a hard time with, saying things like "but I have a desk job, I only work out 6 days a week for an hour the rest of the time I'm sitting so I must be sedentary," which is wrong. but I digress. MFP on the other hand varies your calorie intake based on daily exercise stats. I personally find it less stressful to have a single number to aim for rather than switching it up all the time so I use TDEE-20% (as I still have 60lbs to lose).

benefiting

I plugged your numbers into Scoobys, which is one of the more conservative TDEE estimation calculators, and it looks like you're accidentally cheating yourself out of over 100 calories. According to Scooby's, your stats plus an exercise modifier of "very active" (which I would put you as based on daily life activity plus 4-5 exercise classes, plus lifting, plus 3 sessions of C25K in a week) your TDEE comes up as 2407. With only 17lb to lose you should be aiming for around 1 lb of weight loss per week or ideally even less, so I put in a 15% deficit as your target, and it came up with 2046 calories to eat to lose 0.7 pounds a week. Not as fast as you necessarily desire but safer than a more aggressive target, more sustainable, and most importantly you can kill yourself at the gym for 800 calorie burns and still not end up below 1200. "NO Eating below BMR" is not set in stone like so many believe. It's not the greatest for a lot of people and so it gets used as a blanket statement when it doesn't always apply; do a search here there are a ton of threads with really great info about it.

I'm only doing 2 classes not 4 and I classed myself as moderate on the activity scale, just so you know. That's probably why I got a lower TDEE. I'm aiming to lose 1lb a week so what would be my TDEE for that?

Also, would I have to lower that number on my 2-3 rest days or not?

Gotcha, I missed the "x2" part in the first sentence. Your TDEE that you got is probably more accurate then.

That said, Whambam is right - TDEE takes all your calories and averages them through the week so you eat the same calories day in and day out regardless of how much exercise you do. MFP on the other hand varies your calorie intake based on daily exercise stats. I personally find it less stressful to have a single number to aim for rather than switching it up all the time so I use TDEE-20% (as I still have 60lbs to lose).

Thank you so much for all your help. The confusion I had is now gone!

chani8

Just fyi, it's hard to be accurate on how many calories one burns doing exercise, often resulting in over-estimating and eating back too much.

benefiting

Just fyi, it's hard to be accurate on how many calories one burns doing exercise, often resulting in over-estimating and eating back too much.

I use a HRM to track what I burn. It's going to be accurate than MFP exercise section.