Maintenance and Exercise?

jmv7117

I'm a 5'1", 54 year old female. My current stats are: 112 lb, BF% 21.6%. Different calculators are giving me different stats. Scooby's - moderate activity, BMR 1169, TDEE 1812; GymGoal - moderate exercise 3 - 5 days/wk, BMR 1232, TDEE 1910; IIFYM - exercise 5 days/wk, BMR 1232, TDEE 1802; MFP - moderate activity, 1670 calories per day. Both GymGoal and IIFYM factor in BF% so I think are more accurate but there is still a 100 calorie difference in the TDEE. I am considering going with the IIFYM value for TDEE as soon as I decide to go into maintenance.

My questions:
1. Do I use that as a base then eat back any exercise calories?
3. Would it be better to calculate for less exercise, say 4 days/wk then eat back any exercise calories if I go over that number of days in exercise? So, if I do six days worth of exercises and it is set to 4 then I would eat back the exercise calories on 2 days.

butlersoft

try a few weeks on 1600 and eat back exercise calories as before....

monitor weight. If it still goes down, eat a few more :-)

Frood42

First you need to learn the difference between what NEAT and TDEE are.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415

MFP is a NEAT calculator (in that it doesn't include sport exercise, only daily activity).

If you want to go down the TDEE route, you would enter in your TDEE as a Custom Goal, and then add your Exercise as 1 calorie.

If you want to go down the MFP route, you set to Maintenance, set you daily activity level, add your exercise normally, and eat back your exercise calories (depending on accuracy of burn estimation).

Both will probably have a small period of trial and error while you make sure that the calories given are correct for maintenance.
.

sijomial

Nice summing up from Frood42....

Both methods work but I wouldn't advise people to start mixing them up.
I follow the MFP (NEAT) method as my calorie burns vary a lot and I have some big burns from cycling so fuelling on the day is necessary.

To me the attraction of the TDEE method would be the simplicity of having a set daily goal.

The 100 cal difference you are getting from different calculations is pretty insignificant, whatever number you try there is a very good chance you will have to adjust based on results anyway.

jmv7117

Thanks so much!

nxd10

I you are logging your exercise on MFP or using a fitbit, set yourself as sedentary and add extra calories to that.

As others have said, if you are losing at that level, up your calories. If you're gaining, lower them.

mynamealex

try a few weeks on 1600 and eat back exercise calories as before....

monitor weight. If it still goes down, eat a few more :-)

thats a good 1

i'll try it too, see how my body reacts