Calorie Question

KatyAverill
KatyAverill Posts: 166 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I used TDEE -20% to set my calorie goal to 1597.
I have a fitbit that is connected to my MFP account to track calories out.
My question is, should I try to eat my exercise calories back in order to net 1597, or should I not worry about eating them back unless my net is under 1200?

Replies

  • wannakimmy
    wannakimmy Posts: 488 Member
    From what I understand, when you use the TDEE method, you do not eat back your exercise calories... Correct me if I am wrong someone...
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    You should calculate your TDEE with all of your exercise taken into account.

    If you do it that way, you don't eat back any exercise calories because your daily calorie goal already factors in all of your activity. But if you've calculated your TDEE before added exercise, then I suppose you'll want to eat them back.
  • KatyAverill
    KatyAverill Posts: 166 Member
    Hmm...I used the "light activity" option since my exercise varies pretty greatly-I always manage to get in my 10,000 steps though. This is confusing.

    If I went with the recommendation that MFP gave me (1200), would I eat the exercise calories back then and just try to net 1200?
  • KatyAverill
    KatyAverill Posts: 166 Member
    Bumping for help
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    With the TDEE method you do not eat back exercise calories, as they are already built into your goal.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    Which is why it's important to be as accurate and honest as possible about you activity level so you aren't under/overeating.
  • BeardedMike
    BeardedMike Posts: 52 Member
    With my activity level set to 'sedentary' I have always eaten back my calories and consistently lost weight
  • sbarella
    sbarella Posts: 713 Member
    I used TDEE -20% to set my calorie goal to 1597.
    I have a fitbit that is connected to my MFP account to track calories out.
    My question is, should I try to eat my exercise calories back in order to net 1597, or should I not worry about eating them back unless my net is under 1200?
    As someone said, you don't eat your exercise calories with the TDEE method.
    BUT if you have a Fitbit and your activity is mostly step-based, Fitbit will be more accurate than a random equation in calculating your TDEE (it is for me). I think it's also more accurate than MFP in estimating calories burned during non step based activities so I manually log them on my FitBit, not on MFP.
    I suggest that you eat at 1597 for a couple weeks while still taking a look at your "calories out" on the Fitbit dashboard. You may discover that you are more (or less) active than you thought.

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