Is TDEE better than eating at MFP's calculation?

Rachifloon
Rachifloon Posts: 129 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Keeping it short, MFP has given me 1200 baseline calories and I eat back 50% of my calories when I work Mon-Fri, putting me at about 1500 net calories. Because I walk to work and am a cleaner, I don't get that moving around benefit on Saturday and Sunday and find it very hard to stay under/meet 1200 on those days. (I don't count the 25 minutes, 6 day a week pilates workouts I do)

After using a TDEE calculator it says with all my information and activity levels, I should be eating 1680 calories a day. This seems a bit much to me but what do I know? My weight loss has been a lot slower lately so do I try and go down the TDEE route and see how I fair, or just stay with MFP's way?

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    TDEE-20% = 1lb a week

    Do you have MFP set to 1lb a week? Do you have you activity level set to modoerately active?

    If not you are comparing apples to oranges.

    When I first joined and I set it to 1lb a week and sedentary it gave me 1380...with exercise calories I was usually around 1600...

    1600 for me = TDEE-20%
  • Nice2BFitAgain
    Nice2BFitAgain Posts: 319 Member
    They usually come up pretty close to the same # ; MFP calories + (some) calories burned and TDEE. Did you set up MFP correctly? Realistically, you have 15 pounds to lose. MFP should be set to lightly active and to lose .5 pounds per week. Typically, the closer you get to your goal weight the slower the weight loss is.

    Be sure to measure and weigh you food correctly, you have less room for error when you have less weight to lose.

    Good luck reaching your goal!
  • Rachifloon
    Rachifloon Posts: 129 Member
    Ah... Yes. My weight loss was still set to 2lbs and my activity level was sedentary. -_- Forgot to slow down my weekly loss now that I'm close. I've now changed that to 1lb per week and lightly active and gone up to 1540 base calories.

    (Is 1540 too much or sounds about right? While 1lb per week I know is realistic with what I have left to lose, does 35 minutes of walking and 3 hours of cleaning 5 days a week, plus 6 25 minutes of pilate workouts a week count as being lightly active? Just want to make sure I don't overestimate.)
  • Nice2BFitAgain
    Nice2BFitAgain Posts: 319 Member
    Sounds much more reasonable. I wouldn't count your regular walk to work and the cleaning for calories burned because you do those all the time. Track calories burned from your pilates workouts and eat back 1/2 of those calories. I think you could get away with not eating them back but listen to your body, if you are excessively tired or starving eat a healthy snack w/protein to save it off.
  • Rachifloon
    Rachifloon Posts: 129 Member
    Sounds much more reasonable. I wouldn't count your regular walk to work and the cleaning for calories burned because you do those all the time. Track calories burned from your pilates workouts and eat back 1/2 of those calories. I think you could get away with not eating them back but listen to your body, if you are excessively tired or starving eat a healthy snack w/protein to save it off.

    Thanks for the advice. c: Will play around a bit with what you mentioned and see what works.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    A properly set MFP + exercise calories goal should be about the same as a properly set TDEE - % calorie goal.

    Keep in mind that with only 15 more pounds to lose, you should set yourself to half a pound a week on MFP, or TDEE - 15% or 10%. Not 20%.

    You need to track your calories accurately because your calorie deficit is smaller as you get closer to goal weight.

    If you do the TDEE - % method, then you eat the same amount every day, you don't "eat back" exercise calories, they are included. I log my exercise as "1 calorie" so it doesn't change my food diary goal. This takes the guess work out of trying to accurately track calories burned like you have to do with the MFP method.

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