confused please help me out

pinkfairybutton

OK so I have been using MFP to get down to the weight I want to be. I am now where I want to be more or less.
I am just a little confused on TDEE and what MFP tells you, I want to make sure im right so that I dont put weight on or starve myself.
My TDEE is 1885 calories so to stay the same this is what I need to eat. I understand this already has exercise in so I dont need to eat these calories back

MFP tells me to eat 1860 calories to stay the same and that is set at light active mode. I am getting confused as people keep telling me that the MFP goal does not include calories for exercise so I should track them and then eat them back. Which is where I am getting confused surely I dont need to eat them back. If the MFP number had gone back different to the TDEE number I could understand this but its not its about the same?
Help

Pirate_chick

you use either or. They are different formulas.

laurenawolf

Use the TDEE calculation, not MFP.

pinkfairybutton

They both come back at the same though which is why im confused when im being told to eat back for one and not the other

PayneAS

MFP calculates your TDEE and then subtracts an amount of calories based on your goal (500 if you choose 2 lbs a week?). If you exercise it adds more calories for you eat as it has already subtracted calories for you to lose weight. Thus you are supposed to eat your exercise calories back.

Basic TDEE calculations just give you the amount of calories you are supposed to eat if you are trying to maintain. If you do it correctly, this should already figure in your exercise calories. All you have to do is subtract 20% and eat that amount to lose weight.

If you are worried, you could do both set at sedentary and eat back your exercise calories (or half of them). I won't even touch on the starvation topic but if you eat at least your BMR you shouldn't worry.

PhotoGen

If you want to maintain your weight you'd have to eat what you spend or close to it (in theory). There is more to you than calories. There is also more to calories than that which you eat and burn. Just like you have have H2 on the left and O on the right when you bring them together you have water, same goes for the body. Chemical balances (or imbalances) change your weight as well. These are all just guides to help.

Frood42

No, MFP is a NEAT calculator, not a TDEE calculator.
MPF does not include exercise (only daily activity).

NEAT
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415

.

trogalicious

They're both pretty close, if you do it right.

TDEE calculators and MFP... they're all estimates.


Take the number that a TDEE calculator gives you, then do this:
Block off 6 weeks. log EXACTLY what you eat for those six weeks, weigh at the beginning, weight at the end. If you've lost, you're eating under your TDEE. If you haven't lost, congrats.. you found your TDEE, if you've gained... then you're above TDEE.

From there, look at how much you lost or gained and you have a rough estimate of how to shift your intake to balance it out.

Online calculators are great, but they're just estimates. They give you decent ideas for starting points. From there, it's on you to fine tune it.

pinkfairybutton

to loose the last couple of pounds if I do im not to bothered really MFP is set at lightly active and 1lb a week. This comes back at 1350.
TDEE says 1885 to maintain so to loose i thought id need to take off 500 which gives me 1385 which is why im confused as both figures are the same. So if I use MFP and then eat back my say 200 calories worth of exercise I have then eaten more than the TDEE which cant be right.

Also am i right to take of 500 from the TDEE i know that you need to have a deficit of 3500 a week to loose 1lb which is why i took 500 a day of from the TDEE but i see people saying only take 20% which takes it to 1508.

Gosh im making this confusing sorry

trogalicious

to loose the last couple of pounds if I do im not to bothered really MFP is set at lightly active and 1lb a week. This comes back at 1350.
TDEE says 1885 to maintain so to loose i thought id need to take off 500 which gives me 1385 which is why im confused as both figures are the same. So if I use MFP and then eat back my say 200 calories worth of exercise I have then eaten more than the TDEE which cant be right.

Also am i right to take of 500 from the TDEE i know that you need to have a deficit of 3500 a week to loose 1lb which is why i took 500 a day of from the TDEE but i see people saying only take 20% which takes it to 1508.

Gosh im making this confusing sorry

the 20% is a starting deficit that a lot of folks use, if you have a lot more to lose than what you have. Use tdee - 5% since it's just the last few pounds.

Frood42

to loose the last couple of pounds if I do im not to bothered really MFP is set at lightly active and 1lb a week. This comes back at 1350.
TDEE says 1885 to maintain so to loose i thought id need to take off 500 which gives me 1385 which is why im confused as both figures are the same. So if I use MFP and then eat back my say 200 calories worth of exercise I have then eaten more than the TDEE which cant be right.

Also am i right to take of 500 from the TDEE i know that you need to have a deficit of 3500 a week to loose 1lb which is why i took 500 a day of from the TDEE but i see people saying only take 20% which takes it to 1508.

Gosh im making this confusing sorry

Your NEAT and TDEE will give two different ways to get to the same number.

MFP is NEAT and does not include exercise.
TDEE is you Total Daily Expenditure and includes exercise.


Examples ONLY:

TDEE (exercise included): 2000
1lb per week: -500
Target: 1500
Exercise calories are not eaten back, enter exercise calories in as 1 calories if you want to track via MFP, enter TDEE as a Custom Calorie Goal


MFP NEAT
Sedentary NEAT (no exercise included): 1700
1lb per week: -500
NET Target: 1200

Exercise: -300
NET: 900
Deficit: 800

Eat exercise cals: +300
NET: 1200
Deficit: 500

1200 (NET) + 500 (deficit) + 300 (exercise) = 2000 (your TDEE)


So NEAT and TDEE will come to the same, but get there different ways.

Can get confusing.
.

WinoGelato

Let me see if I understand what you are saying. You are trying to figure out your TDEE, you plugged your numbers into a calculator and it came back 1885, is that right? You put your stats in MFP as Lightly Active, and maintain my current weight, and it said 1850?

Then I think those numbers are correct. The 1850is MFP's estimate of your TDEE, which is very close to the 1885 you calculated elsewhere.

What you are asking is if you should eat back calories? If you are doing the TDEE method, and you really are maintaining at ~1850, then no - don't eat any more than that. If you exercise, eat 1850, and lose, then yes, eat a little more if your goal is to maintain. If you are gaining at 1850, eat a little less.... but give anything you do several weeks of consistency before making a change. In maintenance I believe you will see some weight fluctuations and many recommend to have a maintenance "range" of 3-5 lbs you are happy with.

pinkfairybutton

Yes that is eactly right. Which is why I was getting confused seen as MFP and the TDEE calculator come out pretty much the same. I couldnt understand why I was being told to eat back calories from the MFP and not on the TDEE with them both being the same to start of with as that would make one really wrong

WinoGelato

Yes that is eactly right. Which is why I was getting confused seen as MFP and the TDEE calculator come out pretty much the same. I couldnt understand why I was being told to eat back calories from the MFP and not on the TDEE with them both being the same to start of with as that would make one really wrong

Keep in mind that both the calculators, and the activity estimates on MFP are just that, estimates. When you said Lightly Active, was that because of your job, your non-exercise activity, or did it include your true "exercise"? Same with how you filled out the TDEE calculator?

I use a FitBit, and that too is still just an estimate, although I feel it is more accurate than a bunch of numbes I guess at to plug into the spreadsheet. At the end of the day (really the end of the week) it comes down to - keeping things consistent, seeing if you gain or lose while factoring in normal fluctuations, and then making adjustments from there, but don't adjust too hastily.

I hit my goal about 6 weeks ago, went a pound below goal, and didn't really change my calorie goal in MFP yet, but I've been a lot more relaxed about going over it on a daily/weekly basis. I've fluctuated about 3-4 lbs up, then back down, then back up within the last 6 weeks. I'm still trying to figure out what my numbers should be for maintenance, but also trying not to sweat it too much since I think monitoring it closely will enable me to correct anything before it gets too out of hand.

pinkfairybutton

IM never to sure which activity to select so play it safe. I work as a nanny so look after children although we do a lot of stationary activities such as arts and crafts, construction etc so class my job as lightly active as teacher falls into this category. I then generally get chance to do exercise three or four times a week. Swimming for 60min either once or twice, insanity work out dvd once or twice depending whether I have been able to go swimming twice or not , and then 20 minutes run once a week. Would this be lightly active?

WinoGelato

IM never to sure which activity to select so play it safe. I work as a nanny so look after children although we do a lot of stationary activities such as arts and crafts, construction etc so class my job as lightly active as teacher falls into this category. I then generally get chance to do exercise three or four times a week. Swimming for 60min either once or twice, insanity work out dvd once or twice depending whether I have been able to go swimming twice or not , and then 20 minutes run once a week. Would this be lightly active?

I'm certainly no expert - but I think what you have described for nanny work is lightly active for your JOB, and then exercise on top of that I would track and eat back at least some of the calories.

Again, this is just my situation - but I have a desk job and so at first with MFP I had myself set as Sedentary. I have two small children though, and had no idea how "active" I was because of that, until I got my FitBit. When I got my FitBit and started seeing that I average >10K steps/day without even really "exercising", just getting kids up and fed and off to school and then me to work and then household activities in the evening - I changed my setting to "lightly active". Now FitBit thinks my maintenance level is about 1900 calories, and the FitBit says I average about 2100 calories/day burned, which is my actual TDEE. So the difference between those two numbers, is about what I would burn from any exercise or just elevated activity for the day. Therefore I do eat those calories back, when MFP gives me a calorie adjustment from the FitBit activity synch.

Hope that helps.

sijomial

Why on earth are you faffing around comparing different estimates from different methods of calculating calories at this stage?

All you are going to get is a bunch of different estimates which may or may not be the right numbers for you!
In the end if you are losing a pound a week then you will need to add in approx. 500 calories a day to what you are currently eating.
Keep it simple and adjust amounts depending on actual results.

If you have been doing TDEE carry on, if you have been doing the MFP NEAT method then carry on.